REGIONAL WATER POLLUTION
                     PROFILE
            FWPCA Northwest Region
             Department of the Interior
Federal Water Pollution Control Administration
                September 1968

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                                     CONTENTS
                 PART 1   BASIN PROFILE:  COLUMBIA - NORTH  PACIFIC
                  SUBJECT
                                       Page
      SUMMARY OF POLLUTION PROBLEMS      1
  I.  Description
      1.   Geography                      4
      2.   Population                     7
      3.   Industries                     8
 II.  Principal  Water Uses
      1.   Withdrawal Uses               11
      2.   In-stream Uses                14
III.  Water Pollution in Northwest      18
 IV.   Water Uses Impaired               3T
  V.   Cost of Pollution Control          36
 VI.   Institutional  Framework           42
      1.   State Programs                42
      2.   Institutional Barriers        45
      3.   Enforcement Actions           47
        EXHIBIT

SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS (TABLE)
Location of Problems (Map)
Major Physical Features (Map)
Major Economic Features (Map)
Comparative Water Withdrawal
  (Table)
Use of Major Waterbodies
  (Table)
Kinds and Sources of Pollution
  (Table
Application of Implementation
  Plans to Pollution Sources
  (Table)
Water Uses Impaired (Table)
Cost of Procedures (Table)
Institutional Characteristics
  (Table)
Page
  2
  3
  6
  9

 12

 15

 29

 30
 35
 37
 43

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           PART 3  SUMMARY OF FWPCA PROJECTS AND RESOURCES
                                                                 Page
  I.   Resources
 JI.   Organisational Structure                                    5]

III.   Key Projects                                                52
      A.    Water Quality Standards                                52
      EL    Basin Planning                                         52
      C.    Technical Projects                                     55
      D.    Federal Facilities Coordination                        57
      E.    Enforcement                                            57
      F.    Construction Grants                                    57
      G.    Pollution Surveillance                                 57
      H.    Research and Development                               58

 IV.   Regional  Problems of FWPCA                                  58
      A.    "No  Degradation" Policy                                58
      B.    Water Management Policy                                59
      C.    Enforcement and Compliance                             59
      D.    Thermal Pollution Policy                               59
      E.    Administrative                                         59

  V.   Personnel                                                    60
                                111

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          Basin Profile, Columbia - North Pacific Watersheds
                       (FWPCA Northwest Region)
Summary of Pollution Problems
Water pollution, In greater or lesser degree, exists 1n every majpr
Pacific Northwest river except the Kootenal.  The Willamette and the Snake
Rivers have suffered most seriously from water quality damages;  but the
Clark Fork/Pend d'Orrelle, Spokane, Yaklma, Boise, Portneuf, Walla Walla,
Columbia, Tualatin, Sant1am and other rivers have demonstrated severe pro-
blems.  Puget Sound and the Grays Harbor and Coos Bay estuariane areas have
also suffered water quality degradation.

Damages have been Incurred principally by fishery and aesthetic  uses of
water; though fishery damages only represent the ultimate stage  of general
deterioration of the aquatic ecology, and aesthetic damages  are  sympto-
matic of conditions that restrict utility or Increase the cost of irriga-
tion, water supplies, and recreation.
Major sources of pollution are reservoir management procedures,  agriculture,
and factory wastes, though municipal  wastes contribute to pollution in
many circumstances.
Water quality problems Include sediments and sludges, low dissolved
oxygen levels, high bacterial concentrations, high water temperature,
turbidity, oil slicks, and—Increasingly prevalent--excess1ve enrichment
of waters.  Toxic concentrations of heavy metals occur below some mining
areas; and toxlcity has been suspected in connection with some manufactur-
ing wastes and runoff of agricultural chemicals.

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I.     Description of the Basin
      1.    Geography
           The Pacific Northwest Includes  two major watershed  areas.  The
           greater part of the area 1s drained by the Columbia River system,
           which discharges an average annual volume  of 180 million acre-feet
           a year.  The thin coastal  strip on the west slopes  of  the Coast
           Range and the northern Cascade  Range develops another  50 million
           acre-feet or more, which flows  directly Into the Pacific Ocean or
           into Puget Sound.
           The Columbia Basin includes four tributary systems  which would con-
           stitute major watersheds 1n a less monumental framework.  The
           Willamette, Clark Fork-Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai Rivers each
           develops a runoff of over 25 million acre-feet a year, and the
           Snake produces 35 million acre-feet a year.
           Six basic sets of landforms distinguish the area.   On  the west, the
           Coast Range of mountains descends sharply  to the Pacific.  An
           extended valley, the Willamette-Puget Trough, lies  between the
           Coast Range and the much higher Cascades--the northern extension
           of California's Sierra Nevada.   The area between the western slopes
           of the Cascade Range and the Pacific Ocean is a fertile rain forest
           where annual precipitation varies between  60 inches per year In the
           Willamette-Puget Trough and 150 Inches a year at the tip of Washing-
           ton's Olympic Pennlnsula.  East of the Cascades, the Columbia Plateau,
           a semi-arid, elevated plain, takes up about a third of the total  land

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area of the region.  These high flatlands  give way  to  a series of
successively higher, interfolded mountain  ranges  on  the east—largest
are the Mai Iowa, Salmon, Bitterroot,  Clearwater and  Rocky Mountains—
that occupy another third of the region.   The Valley of the Snake
River, a fertile crescent curving between  high northern mountains
and the Bear Range on the south, constitutes the  sixth identifiable
sub-region of the Pacific Northwest.   Most of th^ land area east of
the Cascade Range is arid or semi-arid, depending on winter snowfall
rather than rain for its water supply.  Climate is generally moderate,
growing more severe from west to east.  Except for mountainous areas,
the growing season through most of the Northwest  is  150 days per year
or more.

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2.   Population
     The Pacific Northwest is thinly populated.   In  an  area  about  the
     same as the combined Ohio and Great Lakes watersheds, it musters  a
     population of little more than 5.5 million  persons.  Of that  total,
     well over three million are concentrated in the Willamette-Puget
     Trough, where the Portland and Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan  areas  lie.
     Oregon's Willamette Valley contains a million and  a  half persons.
     Another 1.7 million are located in the urbanized strip  between  the
     Cascades and Puget Sound that includes Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia,
     Everett and a substantial interstitial population.   East of the
     Cascades, population is sparse.  About a quarter of  a million persons
     live in the Spokane metropolitan area, half a million are scattered
     along the snake Plain, and another two hundred  thousand or  so lie
     within a fifty mile radius of the juncture  of the  Snake and Columbia
     Ri vers.

     Historically, population growth in the area has occurred at rates
     well over those of the nation as a whole.   During  the   nineteen-
     fifties, however, the rate of population growth dipped  to little
     more than the natural rate of increase.  While  future growth of popu-
                  /
     lation may be expected to occur at rates modestly  higher than the
     nation's, there is little reason to anticipate  revival  of the vig-
     orous growth of the past.  The region seems  to  have  reached relative
     maturity since  World War II.

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3.    Industries
     Natural  resources have  dictated  the pattern of Industrial development
     of the Pacific Northwest.   Forest  and agricultural products dominate
     the region's economic patterns.  The area produces forty percent of
     the nation's lumber,  most  of Its plywood and hardboard, a quarter of
     its wood pulp, twenty percent of Its paper, half of its apples,
     half of its potatoes, a quarter  of its beet sugar, sixty percent of
     its peas, a quarter of  its green beans, an eighth of Its beef, most
     of its soft wheat.

     Industrial development  in  the last two decades has built in large
     measure on these basic, long-established industries.  The thousand
     or more individual  sawmills have shrunk to a couple of hundred, but
     their production capacity  is greater than before, and they share their
     markets with almost fifty  plywood  mills, a couple of dozen hardboard
     mills.  Basic pulping capacity has been increased through plant
     expansion and construction of eight new pulp mills since World War II;
     and the Northwest—long a  pulp exporting area—now uses most of its
     pulp in the production  of  paper.   Similarly, while agricultural out-
     put has been expanding, growth of  food processing has gone on at an
     even greater rate; so that the major portion of the area's output of
     agricultural products is now processed in the Northwest.

     More rapid development  has occured in newer industrial lines.  Avail-
     bH1ty of almost a third of the  nation's hydroelectric capacity
     within the region has created a  concentration of electroprocess in-
     dustries.  Aluminum plants date  to the early nineteen-forties; and
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aluminum output—currently accounting  for  over  a  third of the nation's
supply—continues to expand.   The region also provides much of the
nation's titanium--a result of cheap electric power and technical
developments originating from the Bureau of Mines Albany, Oregon
laboratory.  Phosphate products are manufactured  1n eastern Idaho,
cooper 1n western Montana, coal In western Washington, lead and zinc
1n northern Idaho, electro-chemicals along the  lower Columbia River,
Plutonium at Hanford on the Columbia,  aircraft  1n Seattle, ships and
highway and rail rolling stock In Seattle  and Portland.
Water 1s a critical raw material to much of the Northwest's Industry.
Without Irrigation and cheap hydropower, the larger share of the
region's postwar development would not have occurred.
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II.    Principal  Water Uses
      1.    Withdrawal  uses
           Abundant water supplies lead  to prodigal  use  of water  in manufactur-
           ing,  agriculture, and personal  use.   Westgarth (Municipal Water Needs
           1n the Pacific Northwest)  has defined average per-capita use 1n the
           region as 187 gallons per  capita per day,   Elchberger  (Industrial
           Water Use)  traces a pattern of  higher water Inputs per unit of labor
           Input or per dollar of values added  by manufacture than in any other
           part  of the nation.  Average  irrigation diversions, though marked
           by distinct sub-regional variations, exceed 4.5 acre-feet per acre,
           about 50 percent above the western average.   Water 1s  so plentiful
           that  there has been little effort on a total  regional  basis to con-
           serve 1t or to limit use.
           Among the various withdrawal  uses of water, irrigation far outstrips
           the combination of all others.   The  great  Irrigation developments
           of the Snake River Plain and  of the  Columbia  Plateau account for
           most  of the Irrigation demand;  but supplemental Irrigation is becom-
           ing increasingly prevalent in the humid areas west of  the Cascades,
           and Individual or corporate irrigation projects along the Columbia,
           the Snake,  and their tributaries continue  to  expand the extent of
           irrigation.

           Industrial  use of water is slightly  greater than municipal and other
           domestic use.  Almost three-fourths  of the total Industrial demand
           for water orglnates 1n the pulp and  paper  industry, where a con-
           centration  of old sulfite  pulping plants results in an unusually
                                      11

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high unit application of water.  A peculiarity of the region 1s that
a small portion of Industrial water use 1s for cooling.   Less than
30 percent of recorded water use by manufacturers 1s for cooling; and
the only significant block of thermal-electric power production Is the
85 megawatt Hanford, Washington plant.  (The situation will  be chang-
ing rapidly, however.  Over 7000 megawatts of thermal power  capacity
are projected to be required over the next decade.   The  Northwest's
era of hydropower development has ended, with virtually  every
feasible site now preempted).
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2.   In-stream Uses
     The economic and social significance of water to the Pacific North-
     west extends far beyond that provided by uses of water that  require
     it to be diverted from watercourses.  Quantification is Impossible,
     but it would seem that the uses of water that occur within natural
     channels are as important to the area as are withdrawal uses.
     Navigation underpins the economies of the two major metropolitan
     areas of the Northwest.  Both Portland and Seattle developed as
     Seaports and—Portland particularly—have continuously expanded as
     focci of transportation and service networks based largely on  port
     facilities.  In Portland's case, sea-going navigation 1s supplemented
     and complemented by vigorous barge traffic on the Willamette'and
     Columbia Rivers.
     Hydroe1ectric power, based on the huge flows of the Columbia system
     and the great head it develops in its fall from the Rockies  to the
     Pacific, has been the basic energy source of the Northwest for a
     quarter of a century.  Availability of low cost hydro-power  has
     shaped the industrial development of the region, and has caused it  to
     develop great competence in regional planning based on large blocks
     of electric power, long distance transmission of power, interlocking
     grids, and other techniques of energy utilization that are becoming
     standard American technology.

     Fisheries have assumed great commercial and social values in the
     life patterns of the Northwest.  Commercial fisheries serving national
     and International markets have been in existence for a century, with
                                14

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crabs and salmon produced in great quantities,  oysters  and  clams  in
lesser amounts.  Recreational  fishing  is  widespread, with angler
emphasis devoted to salmonids—salmon  and trout.
The people of the Pacific Northwest have  an  extreme regard  for
their salmon.  The great migratory fish of the  Pacific  once spawned
throughout the Columbia system, and in almost every coastal  stream.
Now dams have reduced the effective spawning area  of the Columbia to
less than half its former extent.   No  salmon can pass above Grand
Coulee on the Columbia, Brownlee on the Snake,  Lookout  Point and
Cottage Grove on the Forks of the  Willamette, Pelton on the Deschutes.
And it is the threat of further reduction of the resource that
spearheads anti-pollution activities in the  Pacific Northwest.
Water-based recreation is another accepted feature of life  in the
Pacific Northwest.  Oregon has more State parks than any other  State
in the Nation, almost all of them  based on water.  Recorded per-
capita visits to State parks in the Pacific  Northwest exceed those
of any other region in the Nation, in  spite  of  competing private  and
Federal facilities and the low population density  of the area.  In
Idaho, one person in four purchases a  fishing license,  in Washington
one person in six, in Oregon one person in five—the national average
is one in ten.  Per-capita boat registrations in Washington lead  any
other State in the Nation; and Oregon  is  close  behind.
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Aesthetic appreciation of water is closely allied with Intensity of
recreation.  The coast lines of Oregon and Washington are public
properties; and citizens jealously guard against private encroachment
on their rights of access.  River fronts and lake shores are pre-
ferred home sites, where not developed for industry or recreation.
Population of the region stretches out along its major waterways,
with population density thinning rapidly as distance to rivers
increases.  An extensive highway system parallels, and utilizes
the scenic advantages of, rivers and other waterways.  Access to
water, In both its physical and aesthetic functions, is part of
the heritage of the area.  Water rights laws of region guard that
access; and disputes to preserve it are not Infrequently resolved
at the point of a gun, even in the seventh decade of the twentieth
century.
                           17

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III.   Water Pollution in Northwest

      Pollution of the waters  of the  Pacific Northwest assumes every form of
      water quality problem, with the exception of salinity.

      Dissolved oxygen deficiencies,  the  traditional pollution benchmark of the
      sanitary engineer, occur in some  degree  in  the Snake River and in several
      of its tributaries, in  the Walla  Walla and  Spokane Rivers of the upper
      Columbia drainage, in the Willamette  River  and some of its tributaries.
      Pulp and paper wastes and wastes  of food processing that occur in con-
      junction with low flows--in large measure the result of reservoir mana-
      gement procedures that  are not  geared to water quality needs--are the
      principal sources of serious  dissolved oxygen drawdown.  Municipal
      wastes contribute to biochemical  oxygen  demand that results 1n oxygen
      drawdown; but in every  case except  that  of  the Tualatin River—part of
      whose watershed is a densely  populated suburban area of Portland, Oregon—
      the effects of municipal wastes are slight, relative to those of indus-
      trial wastes and water management.
      Water quality standards  of the  four Northwest States are uniformly high
      with respect to dissolved oxygen—a reflection of the importance of
      salmonid fish to the area. In  general,  Washington's standards require
      that minimum dissolved  oxygen concentrations for rivers of strong, con-
      stant flow (the Columbia River, the Snake River, coastal streams) be 8
      Mg/1; lesser streams (mainly  east of  the Cascades) be at least 6.5
      Mg/1; and marine waters  be at a minimum  of  5 or 6 Mg/1, depending on con-
      ditions.  Montana, in effect, requires a minimum of 7 Mg/1 in all
                                      18

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waters of the Columbia system other than industrial-classified
Sllverbow Creek.  Oregon's general standards forbid a dissolved oxygen
concentration that falls below 6 Mg/1 as a result of a waste discharge
(with some exceptions for natural conditions) and require that dissolved
oxygen be at least 95% of saturation in salmonid spawning areas during
the period of spawning and hatching.  Idaho requires at least 75% of
saturation during seasonal lows, and 100% of saturation for fish spawning
areas in season.

All four States have filed detailed implementation plans, which are
apparently adequate to deal with conventional point waste source of oxy-
gen problems.  Secondary waste treatment or its equivalent is a general
requirement—and in Oregon and Washington it is one that can be enforced
through a tight system of permits.  Collateral sewering requirements are
generally spelled out in some detail.  Washington has considered non-waste
sources of oxygen-demanding organics or of interference with aeration;
though such matters are dealt with only by indicating a need for study.
And Idaho has made its dissolved oxygen standard for a critical reach
of the Snake River conditional on flow.
Turbidity--other than the natural turbidity caused by high water, snowmelt,
wind, and bank caving—is most marked in the heavily agricultural Snake
River and Walla Walla River and in the upper reaches of the Clark Fork.
Erosion of cropland, crude irrigation practices, and mining are the prin-
cipal sources.  Industrial wastes—pulp and paper manufacture in Puget
Sound and the Willamette River, lumbering and logging in forested areas,
phosphates manufacture on the Portneuf River, food processing throughoout
the Northwest, aircraft manufacture on the lower Duwamish River, and
                                19

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mining and smelting on the Clark Fork and Pend d1 Orel lie—all  have
discernible Impacts on the clarity of water, at least 1n the area
near outfalls.

For the most part, water quality standards for turbidity are broadly
hedged.  Washington has set a limit of 5 JTU for class AA ("extraordinary")
waters.  But beyond this clear cut standard, things become less certain.
Washington, Montana—and In some special standards, Oregon--call for no
more than 5 or 10 (depending on the stream classification) JTU above
"natural" turbidity.  Natural turbidity, however,  is not defined.  Oregon's
general standards and Idaho's standards are even more obscure.  Oregon
forbids any waste discharge that produces "objectional discoloration [or]
turbidity...." but without defining either "waste discharge" or "objec-
tionable."  Idaho does not allow "objectionable turbidity which can be
traced to a point source."

Implementation plans do not, in practical terms, exist.  Idaho specifi-
cally excludes remedies for turbidity due to agricultural waste or drain-
age, until future studies of their effects are completed. Oregon calls for
undefined "cooperative programs" to reduce erosion, and intends to study
agricultural wastes.  Montana requires that highway and local  government
projects be cleared with its Fish and Game Commission to reduce turbidity
and sedimentation effects, falls back upon the study device to deal with
agricultural drainage.  Washington will undertake studies of soil erosion,
agricultural wastewater, log storage, and dredging practices and has indi-
cated that initiation of control procedures will be deferred until the
studies are completed.  All four States have active programs of sewer
                                20

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seperation, but Indicate no mechanism for dealing with broader problems
of urban runoff.
Sludges or sediments occur 1n all of the areas marked by excess turbidity,
with the exception of the swift-flowing Pend d'Orellle.  Settling of the
suspended materials responsible for turbidity creates the sediment beds.
Water Quality Standards for sediment deposits are somewhat less vague
than those for turbidity.  Idaho's standards allow no "visible...sludge
deposits...deleterious to...aquatic life or injurious to public health,
recreation or industry."  Montana, in substance, permits no sediment
deposits other than those arising from natural sources.  (As always,
"natural sources" are not defined.)  Washington presents only a catch-
all prohibition against offensive substances.

There are no programs proposed to deal with sediments other than those
caused by point waste discharges.  The lack of methods to deal  with
turbidity obviously precludes means of dealing with settleable  sub-
stances that result in turbidity.
Enrichment of waters by growth-producing nutrients is probably  the most
prevalent—and the most obviously increasing—source of pollution in the
Northwest.  The condition applies with greatest force in mid-Columbia
lakes and the Snake River, but is present in the Spokane, Yakima,
Walla Walla, lower Columbia, Chehalis and lower Willamette Rivers to
the point that growths constitute a nuisance; and it 1s observable in
many other streams in lesser degree.   Release of nutrients occurs with
stabilization of any organic waste; so, to some extent, the increase

                                21

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1n nutrient levels in the waters of the Northwest may be traced simply
to constantly higher populations and manufacturing outputs.   Over and
above the Increased scale of materials discharge, however,  distinct source
of pollutlonal enrichment may be Identified.   1)  secondary  treatment of
municipal wastes 1s well advanced in the Pacific  Northwest.   Discharge of
dissolved mineral products of the treatment process accelerates biotlc
uptake, triggering more immediate and more massive aquatic  growths than
would occur with in-stream decompostion of wastes.  2) Extensive phosphate
deposits in the Snake River watershed are carried to waterbodies by
natural drainage.  3) Wastes of phosphate processing plants  near the Snake
River cause an enormous increase in downstream phophorus concentrations,
though this is being corrected by treatment.   4)  Slime growths are be-
lieved to adhere to, and feed upon, wood particles.  These  are abundantly
present in water in lumbering area—more particularly below pulp and paper
plants and below the waste discharge points of timber processors that
employ hydraulic barking equipment.  5)  As in the rest of  the Nation,
use of phosphorous-based detergents has resulted  in marked  increase 1n
nutrient concentrations of domestic wastes.
Water quality standards of the States of the Northwest reflect fully the
prevailing uncertainty as to sources of enrichment and the  lack of a
developed control technology.  Washington, oddly  enough, is more specific
with respect to control of enrichment of law classification waters (Class
C) than for higher classified waters.  For Class  C waters,  the State
postulates that "aesthetic values shall not be interfered with by...
slime or aquatic growths...", while AA and A waters must adhere to a
                                22

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standard that requires that "aesthetic values  shall  not  be impaired  by
the presence of materials or their effects, excluding  those of [undefined]
natural origin, which offend the senses...." Montana has no standards
regarding nutrients or their effects, except insofar as  these  may  be
covered by turbidity and color requirements.  Oregon,  characteristically
limiting the scope of its responsibilities, forbids  waste discharges
causing fungi or other deleterious growths. Idaho,  almost as  vague  as
Washington, requires that "waters shall  not contain  excess nutrients of
other than natural origin,"  defining neither  "excess" nor "natural  ori-
gin."
With respect to control procedures, both Idaho and Oregon require  de-
finite—if limited—abatement measures in their implementation plans.
Idaho has defined treatment and process  measures to  limit phosphorus
concentrations of wastewaters from two chemical  plants.   Oregon is re-
quiring nutrient removal for all wastewaters—largely  of municipal origin
—discharged by sewers in the Tualatin River's watershed.  Neither Wash-
ington nor Montana details any responsibilities  for  controlling discharge
of nutrients.
Bacterial concentrations are well above  established  standards  below  al-
most every population center and in areas marked by  large numbers  of
cattle.  The prevalence of industries charactized by large discharges of
organic materials contibutes to maintenance of bacterial  populations by
supplying them with nutrients, thus stimulating  regrowth  and slowing the
rate of die-off.
                                23

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Water quality standards of all  four Northwest States  generally  require
that bacterial levels be under  1000 MPN.   In  some waters with high
current bacterial quality more  stringent  —50, 70,  or 240 MPN— limita-
tions are applied.  Each State  Invokes a  very reasonable escape clause:
The Standard applies where the  col1 form are associated with  fecal sources.

Implementation plans call for general  disinfection  of municipal waste
discharges, and contain statements  of  Intention to  pursue policies  In-
tended to prevent sewer overflows.   There 1s, then, substantial Indicated
effort to limit point discharges of fecal coll form  sources.  With refer-
ence to other sources of water-borne bacteria, the  only indication  of an
active control effort is Idaho's intention to negotiate procedures  for
feed lot controls.

Toxics are known or suspected to occur in water as  a  result  of  a number
of industrial waste discharges.  In many  instances, the toxiclty occurs
because of a marked increase 1n acidity—a decline  in pH levels. In
others, heavy metals are at fault.   Fabrication of  exotic metals at
Albany, Oregon on the Willamette River, discharge of  plating and clean-
up wastes to the Duwamish River from a Seattle aircraft manufacturer,
discharge of strong bleaching wastes from pulp and  paper mills  on the
lower Columbia, the Willamette, in Grays  Harbor, and  on Puget Sound are
known to be toxic; highly acid  wastes  of  phosphate  plants on the Portneuf
River, heavy metals from cooper mines  and mills at  Butte, Montana and
from smelters and mines in the  Kellog-Wall ace area  of Idaho  have all
been associated with toxicity to aquatic  life.  It  is strongly  suspected,
too, that pesticide residues in agricultural  areas—particularly in the
Snake River watershed where such phenomena has been documented—result
                                24

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1n at least Intermittent poisoning of aquatic life.   Pesticide residues
have also been detected in ground waters at many places in the Columbia
Basin irrigation project.  Biologists in the region  have long suspected
that there are synergistic toxic effects from the sulfides and mercap-
tans discharged as constituents of Kraft pulp mill wastes.  Adequate
laboratory demonstration of such toxic effects have  occured; but they
have proved impossible to corroborate in the stream.

Standards for toxicity vary widely in expression among Northwestern
States.  Idaho, most specific, allows no more than 0.5 induced variation
in pH, expresses radioactivity standards both in terms of maximum con-
trols and PHS drinking water standards, and provides a general state-
ment forbidding toxic materials of other than natural  origin.   Oregon
has established maximum permissable concentrations of a broad range  of
materials—all well within the drinking water standard—for specific
waterbodies.  Montana's requirement is substantially that concentrations
of toxic materials shall not exceed 40% of the TLm for aquatic biota
and shall be within the drinking water standard.  Washington's toxicity
standard is quite loose, ranging from "toxics... concentrations  shall be
less than those which may affect public health, the  natural  aquatic
environment, or the desirability of the water for any usage" in  the
case of AA waters, down to a prohibition against toxic interference  dur-
ing the course of a characteristic use, or concentrations that result in
"acute or chronic toxic conditions to the aquatic biota;" while  induced
pH variations are limited to 0.1 units.
                                25

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Implementation plans, while characteristically loose with  respect  to
non-point sources of toxics (e.g.  heavy metals or add mine  drainage,
pesticide run-off), are quite precise with respect to potentially  toxic
industrial waste discharges.  Oregon, in particular, has written very
stringent permit conditions for that kind of wastes; and the other States
have historically exerted great pressure for controls in instances of
toxic wastes.
Heating of waters is a growing problem of the area, one that threatens
to become critical with increased steam generation of electricity. At
the present time cooling water discharges to the upper Columbia River
from the Hanford nuclear installation are often noted to be  a source of
excess heat, particularly in combination with flow variations Induced by
upstream hydropower peaking operations.  And with construction of  Ben
Franklin Dam on the Columbia, Hanford's discharges into the  reservoir
pool are expected to result 1n an extreme increase in temperature. Every
large manufacturing plant contributes in some measure to temperature in-
creases.  More significant at this time are temperature modifications
that occur as a result of increased exposure to solar radiation that
occurs with ponding in the many reservoirs of the Pacific  Northwest.
These are most critical in areas of highly developed irrigation, since
effects are magnified and transmitted downstream by water  depletion and
by surface irrigation return waters that have been wanned  on fields.
For this reason, the Yakima, Walla Walla, Tualatin, and Snake Rivers—
all heavily used for irrigation—consistently exhibit extremely high
summer temperatures.
                                26

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Water temperature standards have become a source of significant policy
dispute in the area, in that FWPCA has approved standards for Washington
that are at variance with those approved for Oregon and Idaho.  Oregon
standards do not permit discharges causing a measureable increase above
                          o                                  o
a stream temperature of 64 , and allow an increase of up to 2  when water
temperature is at or below 62 .  Slightly higher temperatures are allowed
by some special standards, notably those for the Columbia River, where
a 2° increase is allowed up to 66°, with a maximum permissable temperature
     o                                                         o
of 68 .  Idaho allows no increase when stream temperature is 68  or high-
er, and up to a 2  increase when water temperature is 66° or less (A
somewhat higher maximum temperature is provided for in the Brownlee Pool
reach of the Snake.)  Washington allows no temperature increase beyond
  o                     o
60  in fresh water or 55  in marine water—but cumulative temperature
increases on a river are permitted on a ratio scale.  Since maximum fresh
water temperatures are set well below natural highs and are thus effect-
ively meaningless, the cumulative permissable increases become critical.
                                              o     o
The formula has been interpreted to permit a 3  to 5  increase in the
                                                           o
temperature of the Columbia.   Montana's standards allow a 2  temperature
                 oo                                 o
increase up to 67  and a 0.5  increase in temperature above 67 .
There are no implementation plans with respect to temperature written into
the water quality standards of any of the four States.  Large scale pro-
posed additions to thermal  generating capacity make temperature a matter
of imminent import to the region, and the Pacific Northwest Pollution
Control council has produced a resolution calling for cooling systems for
                                27

-------
any plant that is to be constructed.  In the absence of Federal  sanctions
for temperature control measures, and In view of powerful  pressures from
regional development groups to limit application of temperature  controls,
the PNWPCC resolution has a hollow ring.  (In this connection it should
be noted that some of the strongest resistance to temperature contols
has come from Federal Agencies—the Atomic Energy Commission and the
Department of Interior's Bonneville Power Administration.)

Special pollutional problems of the area include oil spills and  estuarian
polltulon.  Oil spills-- forbidden by all four States'  water quality
standards, and with responsibllty for enforcement invested in FWPCA--
occur with fair regularity in the ports of Portland, Seattle, Tacoma,
Anacortes, and other places where oil is discharged by tankers.   An
intermittent nuisance is also created on recreational  beaches when oil
from bilges pumped at sea is washed ashore.  Federal law allows  indis-
crimate dumping by American Flag carriers beyond fifty miles; and there
is a general presumption that even the modest fifty mile limit is often
ignored.
Estuarian pollution is a matter of increasing concern.   The delicate
balance of the estuarian environment and its value as a nursery  area for
aquatic life are threatened by the attractiveness of estuaries for in-
dustrial and recreational development.  In particular, dredge and fill
operations and the persistence of organics and nutrients caused  by the
interaction of tide and flow represent distinct sources of concern to
those concerned with maintenance of estuaries.
                                28

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IV.    Water Uses Impaired by Pollution
      It is difficult to characterize any situation as constituting "pollution"
      if there 1s no impairment of utility.  There are no standards for purity
      of water, only threshold levels that  limit water's application to certain
      uses.  It has  been noted that there are eight sorts of water quality con-
      ditions in the Northwest—conditions  created by nineteen generalized
      kinds of activities—that constitute  pollution.  It remains, then, to be
      seen how those conditions--low dissolved oxygen, turbidity, sediments,
      enrichment, bacteria,  toxics, acidity, and heat--restrict or impair water
      use.
      (It must be noted that the simplified discussion that follows can not
      adequately describe the way in which  pollutional conditions reinforce
      and overlap upon one another.  Damages to categories of use are Indicated
      to be direct relationships between a  condition and its consequence.  In
      fact, however, conditions interact upon one another in almost symbiotic
      fashion.  The  clearest example is the fact that Northwest communities
      almost without exception do not use the cheapest and most readily avail-
      able sources of municipal  water supply.  Major rivers--the Willamette, the
      Snake, the Columbia—flow unused through cities that turn to distant,
      protected watersheds or to groundwater for their supplies.  It 1s not
      that these rivers are  not suitable sources of water.  Rather, there is
      a reluctance—essentially aesthetic and irrational, but very real--to
      use water supplies taken from rivers  known, or believed, to be polluted.
      Distaste for use of appropriate water supplies, then, costs the residents
      of the area millions of dollars annually.  Though the pollution-induced
                                     31

-------
Impairment of a potential use Is not direct or tangible, the costs  1t
Involves are very real).
Municipal and domestic water supplies have suffered from aquatic biota—
which Impart disagreeable tastes and odors and clog intakes—in the
case of the cities of Twin Falls, Spokane, and several  smaller communi-
ties.  In almost every case, the community has developed a groundwater
supply to replace its previous surface supply.  Heavy metals concen-
trations limit use of portions of the Clark Fork/Pend d'Orellle for
water supplies.

Industrial water supplies from surface sources are restricted by both
turbidity and presence of aquatic biota in the upper Columbia River area
and the Snake River area.  In each instance industries generally prefer
to incur the costs of well drilling and pumping rather than to use sur-
face sources of water.  And at Hanford, nuclear reactors that have
since been abandoned were unable to draw cooling waters from below
Grand Coulee Dam  because they were too warm for effective cooling.

Irrigation, too, has encountered difficulties as a result of excessive
aquatic productivity.  In the Snake, Yakima, and Walla Walla River
basins, buildup of vegetation in waters clogs pumps, headgates, canals,
restricts carrying capacity of canals and storage capacity of reser-
voirs, even results in deposits on cultivated field that become thick
enough to Impede drainage and restrict plant growth.

Aquatic life forms suffer the major damages of pollution.  Dissolved
oxygen deficiencies in the lower Willamette River, tributaries of the
                               32

-------
upper Columbia River, and tributaries of the Snake River preclude—at
least seasonally--the presence of salmom'd fish.  Sediments that smother
spawning grounds have damaged populations of trout, salmon, oysters in
Puget Sound, trout and salmon in the Willamette system, trout in the
Snake system.  Toxic industrial or mining discharges have had severe
effects on aquatic ecology in Puget Sound, the Couer d'Alene River, the
Clark Fork, and the Portneuf River.  In the Snake River, pesticides are
believed to have adversely affected fish and wildfowl population.   High
water temperatures have contributed to decreasing salmon runs in the
Willamette, lower Snake and Columbia Rivers, and have entirely precluded
natural reproduction of trout in a very large portion of the Snake River.

Recreational damages from pollution include the administrative definition
of much of the Willamette River and the Columbia River below the mouth
of the Willamette as unsafe for swimming, an unwillingness to use much
 of the Snake River for swimming due to the heavy aquatic weed growth,
shrunken sport fishing opportunities, nuisance accumulation of aquatic
growths on lines and nets in the Snake, Willamette, Columbia, and
Yakima Rivers.
Aesthetic damages imposed by pollution include odors resulting from
oxygen deficiency that occur seasonally in the Chehalis River, the Walla
Walla River, the lower Boise River, the Palouse River, 1n several  Snake
River reservoirs, and, intermittently, 1n Portland Harbor.   Sludge beds
are common below many food processing and pulp and paper plants, as well
as some other major manufacturing sites.  Turdidity 1s a general conse-
quence of careless irrigation practices in the Snake and Yakima Rivers,
and a result of industrial wastes at many points.
                               33

-------
Probably the most offensive aspect of pollution 1n the Northwest 1s the
thick blankets of aquatic weeds that are abundant through most of the
southern Snake River, the Yaklma River, and the Walla Walla River.
                               34

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V.    Costs of Water Pollution Control
      It is not possible to be precise  about the cost  of  pollution  control
      until objectives, methods, and procedures  for control  are  defined.
      There is an unmistakable tendency in the FWPCA to equate pollution  con-
      trol  with waste treatment, which  is  no more than an element in  a  complex
      matrix of requirements.   Given the present state of technology, some
      pollutional aspects of water use  simply can not  be  controlled;  in such
      cases we must either accept the probability of pollution or look  to some
      trade-offs among water uses.  It  is  painfully clear that if we  are  to
      define pollution control costs, we must tread into  some very  sticky areas
      of policy and technical  uncertainty.

      To avoid the necessity for making determinations in the areas of  policy
      or technical alternatives, costs  are presented in a very generalized way.
      Costs of total application of control procedures, within the  limits of
      existing technology, have been calculated  for each  general category of
      pollution-inducing conditions—municipal wastes, industrial wastes,
      agricultural practices,  and reservoir management procedures—and  a
      judgement has been made  about the effect on water quality  to  be antici-
      pated from such control  procedures.   The major value of the exercise is
      that it is felt to provide a view of relative costs and consequences of
      a series of program possibilities.

      Municipal  waste treatment is assessed at the estimated capital  amount, as
      presented in The Cost of Clean Water, required to provide  complete
      secondary treatment to the municipal  population  of  the region.  Preva-
      lence of secondary treatment of municipal  wastes is currently very  high
                                       36

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in the region, and the indicated costs are, in large measure,  those
associated with increasing the degree of treatment of waste  discharged
to the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River, or of providing sewering and
waste treatment to communities currently using effective ground disposal
methods.  With the exception of the Walla Walla River, the Tualatin
River, and—perhaps—the Spokane River, there are no cases in  which
municipal wastes contribute significantly to a stream's oxygen deficiency.
(And secondary treatment is now provided in both the Tualatin  and Walla
Walla basins.)  Because little meaningful advantage is to be anticipated
from the extension of conventional waste treatment—and there  may be
actual diseconomies in the form of additional enrichment of  water and
the discharge to watercourses of residual organics now discharged to the
ground—we may assume that the cost is that associated with  procedures
desirable from a policy viewpoint rather than costs of direct  water
quality improvements.

Nutrient removal costs are those associated with the operation of pres-
ently available techniques of phosphorus reduction.  As presented in
Table 6, they compose an anticipated annual range of costs applied to
all municipal wastes sources; and the very substantial capital costs
associated with the procedures are represented only by implied deprecia-
tion.  Because enrichment is a significant source of pollution, reduc-
tions in phosphorus would seem to have a definite benefit if they can
be effective in causing concentration to drop below thresholds required
to create nuisance growths.  It is generally agreed, however,  that more
                                38

-------
efficient and  less costly treatment practices will be required before
nutrient removal becomes generally accepted.

Industrial waste treatment costs, derived from The Cost of Clean Water.
refer to expenditures required to achieve the equivalent of secondary
treatment of industrial wastes.  Because the major manufacturing
activities of  the Pacific Northwest—forest products and food processing--
are  characterized by large point discharges of organic wastes, many of
the  pollution  problems of the area derive in some measure from manufactur-
ing.  Increased industrial waste treatment, then, would be expected to
have an immediately improving impact on regional water quality.  The
main burden of financing the improved degree of treatment would fall upon
the older pulp and paper plants of the area, plants which are in many
cases directly responsible for pollution.

Nutrient removal from industrial wastes is priced on the assumption that
the relationship between secondary treatment costs and phosphorus removal
costs would be analogous to those applying for sanitary sewage.  The level
of expenditures, then, must be considered to be a very crude guess.
Necessity for nutrient removal  for many types of industrial  wastes remains
to be determined, as do procedures and attendant costs.   Lacking precise
knowledge of the stoichiometric balance of various industrial  wastes and
of methods of removing phosphorus, we can nevertheless state that there  is
a meaningful  reduction in enrichment possible through treatment of indus-
trial wastes  simply because one source—a pair of phosphate  processing
plants near Pocatello, Idaho—accounts  for a very large  share  of the
total phosphorus in surface waters of the Columbia River Basin.
                                39

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Effective erosion control—which 1s evaluated  at  the  level of current
annual expenditures estimated by the Soil  Conservation Service to be nec-
essary—would result in a major Improvement 1n turbidity and sedimentation
through much of the Pacific Northwest, particularly 1n the area east of
the Cascades.  Marginal Improvements 1n bacterial  quality, pesticide
concentrations, and BOO levels could also  be anticipated, since soils
transport of such pollutants 1s common In  agricultural areas.

Animal wastes control costs are assessed within a range of per-an1mal
costs factors experimentally related to feedlot controls.  There 1s Uttle
question that animal herds are the prime source of excessive bacterial
concentrations in many parts of the Pacific Northwest.  But effectiveness
of control procedures 1s, to this time, very limited; so that impacts of
expenditures may be expected to be light.
Revision of reservoir management procedures to provide dependable base
flows would provide the most immediately favorable Impact on water quality
of any of the listed controls.  Because of the high degree of regulation
of Pacific Northwest streams, opportunities for revision are great.  And
because holdover storage is still rare, water  so  used could in most cases
be applied without incurring offsetting costs.  (The  major cost would be a
higher degree of uncertainty as to flows available for hydropower and
irrigation; but application of hydrologic  knowledge and statistical theory
could reduce the degree of uncertainty to  an acceptable level of risk.)
The major obstacles to applying this remedy to the water quality problems
of the area has been Inability of the Corps of Engineers, Bureau of
Reclamation, and private power companies to change accepted ways of
                                40

-------
operating.  Recently, however, the Corps of Engineers and private power
in the Willamette River Basin have cooperated with the State of Oregon to
manage flows for water quality during threatening periods.  The Bureau
of Reclamation's slower performance, like the reluctance of FWPCA to
press for modification of reservoir operating rules, appear to residents
of the area to be due in large part to the Department of the Interior's
lack of a clear policy with respect to multiple purpose water management.
The authorizing legislation for Federal reservoirs, too, limits will-
ingness to alter operating rules for structures that antedate the
statutory authorization of water quality benefits.
                               41

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VI.    Institutional  Framework
      1.    State Programs
           The Pacific Northwest has  a long  history  of management of water re-
           sources for social purposes.  Water rights  laws  antedate Statehood
           in every State.   Cooperative irrigation development began over a
           century ago.  Oregon's State water pollution  control  agency was among
           the first in the Nation.   Multipurpose Federal water  projects on  the
           Columbia were initiated concurrently with TVA, and have continuously
           exceeded TVA in  scale, if  not in  public attention.  While eastern
           and southern States were ruthlessly savaging  their water resources,
           cooperative fishery, watershed, and soil  conservaton  activities
           were underway in the Northwest in the nineteen-twenties and early
           nineteen-thirties.
           It is not surprising, then, that  the Northwest States have well
           established Institutions for dealing with water  pollution.   Indeed,
           what is surprising is that the operations of  those institutions in
           the last two decades have  not more effectively forestalled   pollution.
           A review of the institutional facilities  available to each of  the
           States of the Pacific Northwest suggests  a  broad range  of capabili-
           ties to deal with problems of water pollution.   Oregon  and Washing-
           ton possess large technical staffs, a number  of  assistance and
           enforcement tools, and an  operating format  required  to  attack  pro-
           blems.  Less populated and less wealthy,  Montana and Idaho have
           much slimmer resources to  bring to bear.   (This  is not  to suggest
                                      42

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that they have been relatively ineffective.   Indeed,  by reason  of
great persona] talents and energies available, Idaho  has had one of
the most effective water pollution control  programs in the Nation
over the past five or six years).

The excellence of the institutional framework is demonstrated by the
fact that all four Pacific Northwest States have had  their water
quality standards submissions approved—though the State of Washing-
ton's temperature standards for the Columbia River conflict with
those of Oregon and Idaho.
The trend in the area seems to lie in the direction of application
of discharge permits, State financial assistance for  treatment  plant
construction, use-based water quality standards for all waters, and
a minimum requirement of secondary treatment and disinfection for
all municipal wastes.  It should be noted, too, that  separation of
storm and sanitary sewers 1s uniformly required for new construction
1n all four States.
                           44

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2.   Institutional Barriers to Pollution Control
     Pollution control programs run into distinct barriers  of law,  custom,
     or power balance that are common through the region.   Of these,  the
     most basic is the structure of western water law.   The foundation  of
     water rights in the west is the general right to divert and use  water,
     subject only to priority.  It is impossible, then,  to  structure  water
     quality programs on any firm base flows.  Where there  is scarcity,
     water assumes a great speculative value which can only be maintained
     by diversion and use; thus there is a distinct incentive to over use
     water.  Unfortunately, the access to water use has  traditionally
     occured only in the withdrawal context; so that there  is no precedent
     for protection of right to in-stream use of flows.   (The notable
     exception to this is free public access to coastal  beaches and coastal
     waters).
     Less defined, but equally damaging to water quality efforts, has
     been a lack of firmly established definitions of pollution and of
     sanctions against polluters.   All four States have  penalties to
     apply in instances of pollution.  But laws are so broadly drawn  that
     responsibility is impossible to fix; and instances  of  legal  action
     are rare.  The lack of a firm enforcement base is most evident in
     connection with industrial polluters.  Oregon has recently initiated
     a strong permit system that will, in the future, give  great power
     to control industrial waste discharges; and  Washington,  with a long-
     established permit system, has had some success in  securing  adherence
     to administrative requirements.   But even Washington has been  unwill-
     ing to press a case of disputed  waste discharge permit application
                                •5

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through the courts.  Idaho and Montana have at times  had great
success 1n making cooperative arrangements with manufacturing
establishments, depending on persuasiveness and the personality
of able administrators to secure what law could not afford.   In
all four States, the lack of administrable legal sanctions  has
resulted 1n a situation In which the cause of pollution control
advances by fits and starts, moving from plateau to plateau with
the Intermittent appearance of an interested, activist governor.
In recent years conservationists have noted a third,  and intangible,
barrier to effective pollution control.  As waste treatment has
advanced in prevalence, there have been only isolated instances of
improvement in water quality; yet pollution control programs have
not adjusted to deal with the many non-point sources  of pollution.
A sort of "sanitary engineering syndrome"--possibly fostered by the
limited scope of FWPCA policy—has characterized pollution  control
agencies, who have not generally accepted the larger  role of manage-
ment of the quality of the aquatic environment that is being thrust
upon them by the passage of time.
                           46

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3.   Enforcement Actions
     There have been three Federal  enforcement conferences  held  1n  the
     Pacific Northwest.  While degree of success has  not  been  uniform--
     due largely to the difference  in the circumstances of  the three
     actions—enforcement has unquestionably been the most  effective
     element of FWPCA activities in the region.
1.   The Lower Columbia Enforcement Conference has come into session
     several times—in 1958, 1959,  and 1966—as  the conditions of the
     lower Columbia have changed.   Initially called to deal with high
     concentrations of coliform bacteria in the  Portland, Oregon area,
     the action has since been broadened to deal  with the problems  of
     floating slime masses attributed to pulp and paper mill wastes.  In
     a series of resolutions which  have progressively been  implemented,
     the Conferees have obtained general disinfection of municipal  wastes,
     primary treatment of pulp and  paper mill wastes, discontinuance of
     pulping operations at two paper plants, and installation  of a  pro-
     cess change by a pulp mill  which will  enable it  to discontinue
     barging spent pulping liquors  from the Willamette to the  Columbia
     River.
2.   The Puget Sound Enforcement Conference has  resulted in documenta-
     tion of biological damages  inherent in waste disposal  practices of
     pulp and paper manufacturers,  and recommendations for  the installa-
     tion of treatment facilities and deep  water diffusers  by  eight pulp
     and paper mills.  Agreement has  been reached with four of the  mills
                                47

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     to undertake recommended actions  to protect the quality of  the
     waters of Puget Sound.   The action Is  1n Its sixth year, and  has
     Involved great controversy; but an ultimate resolution  of a pro-
     blem of three decades standing appears to be in sight.
3.    The Lower Snake Enforcement Conference has met  on only  one  occas-
     sion, resulted in no agreement among the conferees,  and did not
     develop specific recommendations.  The conference may well  have
     been premature, in that it pivoted on  problems  that  might occur
     with dam construction on the Lower Snake River. On  the other hand,
     it did bring to a variety of attentions the actual and  potential
     water quality problems of the area, resulted in a State order to
     several waste sources to provide treatment, and may  prove to  have
     been instrumental in averting the worst consequences of oxygen de-
     pletion and increased temperature that may eventuate in connection
     with the structure.
                                48

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SUMMARY OF FWPCA PROJECTS AND RESOURCES
           NORTHWEST REGION

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III.   Key Projects
      A.   Water Quality Standards Programs
           1.   Secure standards for Alaska.
           2,   Resolve inconsistencies of temperature standards  for the
                Columbia River.
           3.   Deal with the exemption for placer mining activities con-
                tained in Alaska statutes.
           4.   Obtain antl-degradation clauses.
                a.   Montana and Alaska:  great opposition to concept exists.
                b.   Oregon  and Idaho:  debatable authority for the  concept  In
                     language of State law.
                c.   Washington:  Substance,  but not the precise statement,  is
                     found in current standards.
      B.   Basin Planning Programs
           1.   Water Resource Project Studies.
                a.   Requested, 1961-68:  66
                b.   Completed, 1961-68:  53  (6 in 1968}
                c.   Requiring re-evaluation  in light of new reimbursement
                     policy:  15
                d.   Completed studies recommending storage for water quality
                     control:  32 (W.Q. storage authorized:  1 project,
                     16,000  AF).
           2.   Interagency  Studies of Pacific Northwest River Basin Com-
                mission (Water Resource Council Type I and Type II Studies.)
                a.   Columbia North Pacific (Type I)
                      i)  Municipal and Industrial water supply and water
                           pollution control  appendices (12 sub-basins)
                           completed for present status, under preparation
                          with respect to future needs and means to satisfy
                           needs.
                     11)   Participation 1n plan formulation and evaluation
                           to be satisfied In future.
                                     52

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     b.   Puget Sound (Type II)

           1}   Pollution control appendices nearlng completion
                for the 11 sub-basins; water supply data collected
                and draft written, future participation will  In-
                clude only review.

          11)   Plan formulation and evaluation requirements  to
                be satisfied 1n future.

     c.   Willamette Basin (Type II) appendices completed, plan
          formulation continuing for both water supply and pollution
          control.

3.   Comprehensive projects

     a.   Immediate needs reports completed for all waters of the
          region.

     b.   Comprehensive reports to be completed by 12/31/1968.

            1)  Willamette Basin:  1n print.

           11)  Snake basin:  in final draft.

          111)  Upper Columbia and Oregon Coast Basin:   in first
                draft.

           iv)  Lower Columbia Basin:  study underway.

            v)  Puget Sound Basins:  to be a summary of the Type II
                interagency study appredices.

     c.   Power Plant Siting Study is to be initiated in near future.

     d.   Power Rate Impact Study outline being formulated.
                          53

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     4.   State Program and Planning Grants.
          a.   State Program Grant, Fiscal  year 1966.
                                                         Total State
               State        Grant award   State funds  Program
Alaska
Montana
Idaho
Oregon
Washington
$ 19,760
38,514
41 ,337
90,700
123,104
$ 37,870
66,890
76,000
324,275
634,500
$ 57.630
105,404
117.337
414,975
747,604
          b.   State planning grant applications being solicited,.
C.   Technical Projects
     1.   Columbia River thermal effects study.
          a.   Biological effects study ($300,000) to be Initiated 1n
               fiscal 1969.
          b.   Mathematical temperature prediction no*) <$JM,QQQ)
               underway.
                 1)  River run model complete
                11)  Deep reservoir and estuary  models underway.
               111)  Thermal monitoring to be Initiated.
     2.   National Estuarlane Pollution Control  Study begun.
     3.   Recreational sites waste treatment study proposed.
     4.   Plywood glue waste study essentially completed.
     5.   Liquid Waste Disposal 1n Lava Terrain  of Eastern Oregon  Study
          completed,
     6.   Aerated lagoon treatment of food processing waste study
          completed, consultations continuing.
     7.   Study of underground disposal of radioactive wastes  hts  net
          been Initiated because of AEC's unwillingness to
     8.   Effects of dredging on water quality study and handbook  being
          prepared.
                               55

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      9.  Houseboat wastes study completed.
     10.  Alaska placer mining study to be Initiated in Fiscal  1969.
     11.  Cook Inlet oil pollution surveillance constitutes a con-
          tinuing activity.
     12.  Kodiak Harbor surveys are completed, report not forthcoming.
     13.  Silver Bay water quality survey 1s underway.

D.   Federal Facilities Coordination
     1.   Plant inspection and plan review are continuing activities.
     2.   Program reviews are forestalled by lack of cooperation from
          other Federal agencies.  The Forest Service engaged 1n cooper-
          ative review in fiscal 1967, no reviews in 1968.
     3.   Review and Comment on Corps of Engineer dredging operations
          is a continuing activity.
E.   Enforcement
     1.   Puget Sound Conference negotiations and administration con-
          tinue during adjournment.
     2.   Lower Columbia River Conference negotiations and administra-
          tion continue during adjournment.
     3.   Oil pollution control monitoring is a continuing activity—
          45 documented violations in fiscal  1968 produced 8 fines.
F.   Construction grants administration:  grants awarded to date,
     1956-68
G.   Pollution Surveillance
     1.   Administration of State/Federal water quality surveillance
          programs 1s a continuing activity.
     2.   Compilation of waste inventories occurs as directed.
                               57

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     H.    Research  and Development
          1.    Eutrophication Research  (19  persons).
               a.    Lake Salle (Ely,  Minnesota).
               b.    Upper Klamath Lake  (Klamath  Falls,  Oregon).
               c.    Moses Lake (Washington).
          2.    Treatment and control  of Industrial  Wastes  (7  persons).
               a.    Paper and related products.
               b.    Food and related  products.
               c.    Biological effects  of Industrial wastes (Inactive).
          3.    Coastal pollution control  (2 persons).
          4.    Cold climate pollution control  (17  persons, 5/6 projects).
          5.    National thermal  pollution research.
          6.    Training (fiscal  1968:  6  courses  171 trainees).
          7.    R&D  Grants Management  (fiscal  1968:   3/4 grants awarded per
               month, 57 active grants  and  1  contract at year end).

IV.   Regional  Problems of FWPCA
     A.    Rejection of the "no degradation"  policy, as manifested at the
          Western Governors Conference
          1.    Alaska and Montana:  broad opposition, on basis of Impeded
               Industrial development—in case of Alaskan  placer mining, policy
               conflicts with State law.
          2.    Idaho and Oregon: policy  is viewed as inappropriate  to use/
               quality criteria embodied  in approved standards,  as Inter-
               ference with State's prerogatives,  and unauthorized by State
               law.
          3.    Washington:  policy  1s embodied in standards,  but somewhat
               different terms of expression.
                                    58

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B.   Lack of clear Department of the Interior policy of water manage-
     ment for quality control.

     1.   Bureau of Reclamation is viewed regionally as allied with
          irrigation in opposition to pollution control.

     2.   New reimbursement policy for storage for quality control  is
          considered ambiguous in application; State and conservation
          groups consider it tactic of Bureau of Reclamation to harrass
          Corps of Engineers activities.

     3.   Real location of benefits to include water quality control in
          older reservoirs has been recommended by inter-agency
          Willamette Basin task force, probable future recommendations
          will come from on-going Type I and Type II studies.

C.   Puget Sound pulp and paper companies refusal in four instances to
     comply with recommendations of the enforcement conference.


D.   Opposition to thermal pollution control

     1.   Private power companies desire to retain control over site-
          selection without accepting engineering controls.

     2.   Federal agencies - BPA and AEC - have allied themselves with
          private power, using a regional development rationale.

     3.   Water temperature standards approved for Washington are
          considerably more lax--and conflict with—those of Idaho  and
          Oregon.


E.   Administrative Problems.

     1.   Communications and operational coordination for Alaska.

     2.   Loss of expected assistance from Air Force in cold climate
          research.

     3.   Lack of staffing for study on environmental consideration for
          thermal power plant siting.

     4.   Headquarters lack of clear policy line and its arbitrary
          editorial standards which have caused comprehensive studies
          to require up to two years review and six drafts without
          substantive change.

     5.   Lack of responsiveness, delays in avallibllity, of STORET and
          other computer services.
                              59

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