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Water:
Toxic Mixing Zones - Pollution Prevention and Reduction

Our Position: support
Bill Number: SB 737
Sponsor: Senators Vicki Walker (D-Eugene) and Gary George (R-McMinnville)
Legislative Session: 2007

This bill passed with strong majorities in both Houses in the final days of the Legislature. It was amended to focus on identifying the worst toxics entering Oregons' waterways and requiring the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to develop a strategy for pollution prevention and reduction to be used by major dischargers in the development of pollution reduction plans. Though not a phaseout of 'toxic mixing zones' as originally written, SB 737 will move Oregon forward in preventing and reducing the discharge of the most dangerous toxic chemicals into Oregon's waterways. The bill marks the first major toxics reduction legislation passed in Oregon in decades.

Status

An amended version of SB 737 passed out of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee in late April. It then stalled in the Ways and Means committee. With further minor amendments it went to the Senate floor where it passed 20-6, and to the House where it passed 51 - 8. It was signed into law by Governor Kulongoski on Thursday, June 28.

Contact

Please contact Ivan Maluski at 503-238-0442, x304 or ivan.maluski@sierraclub.org for more information

Background

It is a major goal of Oregon's environmental community to protect public health, fish and ecosystems by beginning the phase-out of toxic mixing zones from Oregon's rivers and streams, improving the public's right to know about the location and the chemicals present in these mixing zones, and increasing the funding for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to better address excessive pollution of toxic chemicals in our rivers. Toxic mixing zones are areas in rivers where toxic chemicals are allowed to be discharged directly into water at toxic concentrations and at levels that exceed water quality standards. They are associated with 'point sources' of pollution such as effluent pipes from factories or municipal sewage facilities.

SB 737 will move Oregon forward on identifying the sources of toxic chemicals in Oregon's rivers, and will result in the development of priority list of persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals entering Oregon's waterways that should be prevented, reduced, or eliminated from use.

Using current water quality testing data, this bill requires the identification of major sources of toxic pollution; strategies or technological applications that could be implemented to prevent or reduce this pollution; and will require the development and implementation of 'pollution reduction plans' for a major source of toxic pollution in Oregon: municipal sewage and wastewater systems, as well as industrial sources that use these municipal systems to discharge their waste. SB 737 will provide Oregon with the tools to develop a strategy for preventing and reducing toxics discharges into Oregon's rivers and streams from a broad range of sources.

Coupled with the increased budget for the Department of Environmental Quality to monitor toxics in the Willamette River basin passed by the Legislature this year, SB 737 will finally move Oregon forward on preventing and reducing toxic pollution in our rivers, streams and the Pacific Ocean.