NEDC News Archive

Find out more about the projects our staff and students have been working on.

NEDC Featured in Oregonian

NEDC was the subject of an in-depth profile in the Sunday Oregonian on November 14th, 2005. The favorable article by Michael Milstein highlighted our work to stem water pollution in the Columbia Slough and elsewhere.

Read the entire article in PDF format.

NEDC Resolves Clean Water Act Lawsuit Against Tidewater Barge on the Columbia River

The collaborative resolution included a $25,000 donation to Columbia Riverkeeper for that organization's Community Riverscaping Project, an effort to spotlight innovative strategies for managing stormwater pollution. An additional $25,000 was provided to the Western Rivers Conservancy for the protection of high-quality habitat in the emerging Middle Sandy River Preserve, just 25 miles from downtown Portland.

Settlement Reached in dispute with Georgia Pacific and DEQ over Wauna Paper Mill Discharges

NEDC and Columbia Riverkeeper have resolved legal claims against the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Georgia Pacific related to discharges of toxics from Georgia Pacific's Wauna paper mill on the Columbia River. Read the official DEQ News Release.

Owens Corning lawsuit

NEDC has been joined by the Sierra Club and Oregon Center for Environmental Health in a legal challenge against the Owens Corning Corporation. Despite the fact that it has not obtained the requisite pre-construction permit, the company is well underway with construction of a plant that plans to emit 283 tons per year of HCFC-142b, a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting substance. For more information see our Owens Corning webpage.

Oregon DEQ's Wastewater Program Deemed Deficient by EPA

NEDC has long worked to reform Oregon DEQ's inadequate NPDES wastewater permitting program. EPA shares many of our concerns with the program's failings. From The Oregonian: EPA chides Oregon's handling of polluters. Read the full text of EPA's critical 62-page review.

New Permit Protects Oregon's Waters From Industrial Dairy and Feedlot Pollution

NEDC has resolved its lawsuit against the State of Oregon concerning an overly-permissive water pollution permit for factory farms. Visit our CAFO Permit page for more details.

Flagtail Salvage Logging Ruling

Representing NEDC and three other plaintiffs, the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center has received the latest in a string of favorable rulings in federal district court against an overzealous U.S. Forest Service. Read the US District Court opinion.

NEDC holds Columbia River polluter accountable

NEDC and Columbia Riverkeeper win $200,000 for Columbia River protection in a citizen suit against an illegal chicken rendering operation in Warrenton, Oregon. View the press release announcing the settlement or a copy of the 60-day notice.

Industrial Storm Water Pollution

Industrial stormwater run-off remains a major source of water pollution throughout the Pacific Northwest. To read more about our initiative to prevent storm water pollution, or to download copies of some of our recent 60-day notices, visit our Industrial Storm Water Enforcement Initiative page.

NEDC Joins Lawsuit to Protect Endangered Butterflies

NEDC has joined a coalition of conservation and scientific organizations seeking to protect three of the Pacific Northwest's rarest butterflies: the Taylor's Checkerspot, Mardon Skipper and Island Marble. View the press release or a copy of the 60-day notice.

NEDC Joins Clean Air Act Lawsuit Against the Bush EPA's Latest Backroom Deal

NEDC has joined forces with six other environmental and public health organizations to challenge a new Bush EPA rule that effectively guts the Clean Air Act's monitoring provisions for many large air polluters across the country. View the press release.

NEDC resolves Clean Water Act lawsuit against Rosboro Lumber

In the last week of 2003, NEDC reached a beneficial resolution of its lawsuit against Rosboro Lumber in Springfield, Oregon. Rosboro had numerous oil and grease-related NPDES permit violations over the past several years at its lumber yard, but has agreed to comply with the terms of the permit going forward or face stipulated penalties. Rosboro also agreed to fund a native plant revegetation and stream bank enhancement project to be performed by the City of Springfield in the vicinity of Rosboro's yard.

Read about the settlement in the Eugene Register Guard. You can also view the Clean Water Act 60-day Notice and complaint filed by NEDC to prompt this settlement.

NEDC Seeks to Defend Public Participation

NEDC filed two seperate lawsuits against the state of Oregon in the last two weeks of October 2003. The first challenge deals with Oregon's permitting of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and the second deals with the permitting of an Oregon shipyard. Both water pollution discharge permitting processes offer no opportunity for concerned citizens and local communities to comment or request a public hearing; and both occur completely behind closed doors out of view of the public. View the state court Petition for Review in the Sundial Shipyard case.

Land-Use Decision Protects Chum Salmon

The City of Vancouver has issued an important land-use determination that will serve to protect one of only three known chum salmon spawning sites in the lower Columbia River. Read our Fact Sheet about the city's decision.

NEDC v. Rumsfeld Victory Protects Willamette Wetlands

A massive new multi-acre National Guard facility will no longer be sited in a sensitive wetlands area in Eugene, Oregon. A decade ago, the Department of Defense decided Oregon needed a new National Guard training facility. In the mid 1990's, the Department secured over $1.5 million in federal appropriations, embarked upon project design and planning, and eventually decided to site the facility in a quiet undeveloped area laced with sensitive wetlands near Lane Community College on the eastern edge of Eugene. In 2001, the Department entered into contracts with a developer who began preliminary ground clearing at the site of the proposed facility.

Members of a local neighborhood association (the Russel Creek Neighborhood Association) captured the first bulldozer forays on videotape and contacted NEDC asking if we could aid them in stopping the project. NEDC provided legal assistance, and Eugene attorney Dan Stotter filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government failed to initiate the environmental review mandated under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) prior to making an irretrievable commitment of resources. After two years of legal wrangling, the Department set its sites on a more appropriate upland site outside of Springfield, Oregon and abandoned its plans to build the facility in an area that contains some of the few remaining natural wetlands in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Permapost Settlement Agreement

NEDC recently resolved its lawsuit against Permapost Products, a pressure treating and fabricated wood products company in Hillsboro, Oregon. Learn more about the Settlement Agreement

Timber Basin National Environmental Policy Act Victory

NEDC joined lead plaintiffs the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project and others on a lawsuit challenging the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement considering the impacts of a post-fire salvage timber harvest project in central Oregon. Plaintiffs were represented by Chris Winter and Ralph Bloemers of the Cascade Resources Advocacy Group in Portland, Oregon, who successfully argued that the Bureau of Land Management acted arbitrarily and capriciously in disregarding scientific evidence running contrary to the agency's final decision to allow the salvage logging, failing to consider the full range of environmental impacts of the project, and refusing to consider a restoration/rehabilitation alternative. Read the Court Order.