Category Archives: public health

EPA’s soot decision is bad for your health

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the agency’s plan to preserve their weak standards on how much “soot” – or fine particulate matter – can be released into our air. This is a public health failure and the result of ignoring scientific evidence that a stronger standard is needed to prevent more disease and death.

DEQ experts to share environmental knowledge and experience

More than a dozen experts with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are preparing to participate in 13 of 32 sessions on environmental protection, compliance, new technologies, sustainable business practices and trending policy issues Dec. 8-9 during the Business and Environment Conference sponsored by DEQ, Washington Department of Ecology and the Northwest Environmental Business Council.Continue reading “DEQ experts to share environmental knowledge and experience”

Restoring beauty and justice for the Klamath River

DEQ Director Richard Whitman recently stumbled on a 1958 KGW-TV documentary Crisis in the Klamath Basin. According to the Oregon Historical Society, the piece broke important new ground for television and the young producer, Tom McCall, who later would serve eight years as Oregon governor. McCall’s first documentary followed shortly after Congress voted to begin terminating treaty tribes, and previewed the disestablishment of the Klamath reservation of over a million acres.

Breakthroughs in detecting Harmful Algal Blooms using satellite imagery

Satellite imagery is proving to be an effective and essential tool to detect harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in Oregon’s lakes, rivers and reservoirs. Brian Fulfrost, a water quality analyst with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, has led an effort to add satellite imagery to a series of tools that a new  team of specialists areContinue reading “Breakthroughs in detecting Harmful Algal Blooms using satellite imagery”

Columbia River Basin pollution reduction projects receive $2 million EPA grant

A total of 14 projects to reduce pollution in the Columbia River Basin watersheds will get $2 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which includes $800,000 for six Oregon-based restoration projects, EPA announced in September.

Message from Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission Chair

People across Oregon have been suffering the impacts from unprecedented wildfires throughout our state and region and I want to acknowledge the tremendous losses that have been suffered by our fellow citizens. Up and down the West Coast, the destruction from these fires is heartbreaking.

Oregon wildfires, smoke prompt a coordinated response

DEQ’s role when wildfires burn is to let the public know about the quality of the air and what steps to take if it starts to head into the unhealthy range. The agency depends on its ever-growing network of air monitors along with a host of other government, tribal and health organizations to accurately predict where the smoke is going to be and how it affects air quality.

Knowing the colors of the air quality index

A glance at a map of air quality monitors around the state provides a quick check of the air. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality uses a color-coded system to signal air quality at each of the monitors. Green means good. Maroon means hazardous. And there are three colors, and levels of air quality inContinue reading “Knowing the colors of the air quality index”