Toxics Reduc
Newsletter
February 20
Photo by Susan Hess
In This Issue:
Working Together to
Reduce Toxics in the
Columbia River Basin
"Reducing PBDEs"
Workshop February
25, Portland, Oregon
Columbia River Toxics
Reduction Action Plan
Working Together to Reduce Toxics in the
Columbia River Basin
The magnificent and precious Columbia River Basin is one of the
world's great river basins, covering a major portion of the North
American landscape. The Basin is contaminated with many toxic
pollutants that threaten the health of people, fish, and wildlife.
Subsistence fishing by tribal people provides an even greater threat to
tribal communities who have depended on fish for many generations.
To protect people and the environment, EPA created the Columbia
River Toxics Reduction Strategy to reduce toxics in Basin fish, water
and sediment. A large, diverse group of partners, including state,
tribal, and local governments; other federal agencies; the Lower
Columbia River Estuary Partnership; citizen groups; and industry, is
now collaborating on actions to reduce toxics throughout the Basin.
Omeg Orchards: Green
All Around
Places of the
Columbia: Kettle Falls
Oregon DEQ Toxics
Reduction Strategy
Exchange Network
Gives Easy Data
Access
For More Information:
Mary Lou Soscia
Columbia River Coordinator
soscia.marylou@epa.gov
503-326-5873
Debra Sherbina
Community Involvement
sherbina.debra@epa.gov
206-553-0247
www.eDa.aov/reaion10/columbia
httos://twi tter.com/EPAcolumbia
Reducing Flame Retardants/PBDEs in the Columbia River Basin
Workshop February 25 in Portland, Oregon
By Susan Hess
How did something designed to do good end up
being such a problem? My four-year-old cousin
Tommy died when his pajamas caught fire as he
stood too near a heater. Although it happened
many years ago, his death remains seared into
our families' memories. In response to many
similar events, well-meaning people created
a way to put flame retardants into children's
sleepwear, saving many childhood deaths.
But the miracle had a dreadful side. In the
late 1970s, National Cancer Institute studies
determined that "tris", the flame-retardant
chemical used, caused cancer. The Institute
banned the use of this chemical in children's
sleepwear. The research of Arlene Blum, then
at the University of California, Berkeley, was
one of the key factors leading to the regulation.
She found that PBDE, a chemical fire retardant,
was being used in many consumer products —
furniture, carpets, textiles, and plastics used in
electrical appliance and equipment.
In short, PBDEs are everywhere.
Recent scientific studies by the EPA and others
have found that PBDEs (polybrominated
diphenyl ethers) have become widespread in the
environment and are persistent, bioaccumulative
and toxic. Studies also show that PBDEs are
increasing in the Columbia River Basin, an issue
causing great concern.
On February 25 the Columbia River Toxics
Reductions workshop looks at the issue of
PBDEs in the Columbia River Basin—what
they are, how they affect human and ecosystem
health, how they enter the environment, where
they are found, how to reduce their use, and how
to develop green chemistry to replace them.
Dr. Arlene Blum leads off the day along
with experts from Oregon State University,
Washington Department of Ecology, Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality,
U.S. Geological Survey, EPA, and Oregon
Environmental Council.
PBDE workshop:
Feb. 25, 2010
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Ambridge Events Center
1333 NE Martin Luther King Dr.
Portland, Oregon
For more: www.epa. gov/regionlO/columbia
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Columbia River Toxics Reduction Newsletter
Columbia River Toxics Reduction
Action Plan
In 2005, EPA joined federal, state, tribal, local, industry and
nonprofit partners to form the Columbia River Toxics Reduction
Working Group to better coordinate toxics reduction efforts
and share information. EPA and the Working Group issued the
Columbia River Basin State of the River Report for Toxics http://
yosemite.epa.gov/rlO/ecocomm.nsf/columbia/SoRR, in January
2009.
This report describes the risks toxics pose to people and
animals living in the Basin, and describes efforts needed
to reduce toxics. It focuses on four contaminants: mercury,
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its breakdown
products, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated
diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. These contaminants exist
throughout the Basin at levels that could harm people, fish, and
wildlife. Many other contaminants that can impact ecosystem
and human health are found in the Basin including: arsenic,
dioxins, radionuclides, lead, pesticides, industrial chemicals, and
"emerging contaminants" such as pharmaceuticals.
In 2006, EPA designated the Columbia River Basin as a priority
Large Aquatic Ecosystem (LAE) in the same class as the
Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, and Puget Sound. But unlike
our partner LAEs, all who have designated funding sources,
all Columbia River Basin work is currently being done through
coordination and partnerships who must add it to their current
workloads.
In the State of the River Report for Toxics, the Working Group
identified an action plan as a next step. The Draft Columbia
River Toxics Reduction Action Plan includes five initiatives,
with recommendations for citizen and government action that
must be taken if we are to reduce toxics in the Basin. The plan
outlines work that can be done with current resources, and actions
that could be taken if given additional resources. However, the
Working Group believes that toxics reduction for the Columbia
River Basin will only be accomplished if there are additional
resources.
Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Action Plan Goal and
Initiatives:
Goal: Reduce human and ecosystem exposure to toxics in the
Columbia River Basin
• Increase toxic reduction actions
• Conduct monitoring to identify sources and then reduce
toxics
• Develop a regional, multi-agency research program
• Develop a data management system that will allow us to share
information on toxics in the Basin
• Increase public understanding and political commitment to
toxics reduction in the Basin
The Working Group plans to have a Final Action Plan by
May 2010. Send comments to EPA Region 10 Columbia River
Coordinator, Mary Lou Soscia, at soscia.marylou@epa.gov. or
EPA Region 10 Oregon Operations Office, 805 SW Broadway,
Suite 500, Portland, Oregon 97205.
Oregon DEQ Toxics Reduction
Strategy
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
(OR DEQ) is developing a Toxics Reduction Strategy.
The goal is to employ a comprehensive, integrated,
cross-media approach to reducing toxic chemicals and
pollutants in Oregon's air, water, and land.
Mercury is often discharged in the air - from cement
and coal plants - and then deposited on lands where it
runs into lakes, rivers, and creeks. Mercury is just one
of the toxic chemicals and pollutants OR DEQ aims to
reduce with a "cross-media" - meaning "air and water" -
approach. By ensuring cross-program coordination, OR
DEQ will also find ways to use resources more efficiently.
Studying the problem in a holistic way allows the agency
to move beyond a chemical-by-chemical approach to
addressing toxics and establish a long-term direction.
OR DEQ identified seven steps for the Toxics Reduction
Strategy, each one builds on the other:
1. Determine high-priority toxic chemicals
2. Identify sources and pathways for priority toxics
3. Evaluate current strategies for reducing toxics (i.e.,
identify gaps)
4. Identify new toxics reduction opportunities
5. Develop implementation and communication plan
6. Conduct public outreach and present final strategy to
environmental quality commission
7. Implement strategy
OR DEQ identified high-priority chemicals, gathering
data on those chemicals, and information on sources
and pathways. OR DEQ also started a review of existing
programs to identify gaps related to priority chemicals
and sources, and developed criteria to evaluate possible
new or modified toxics reduction actions. The current
plan is to complete a draft strategy by summer 2010.
The OR DEQ Toxics Reduction Strategy is closely tied
in with other current toxics reduction initiatives. These
include the Senate B 737 Persistent Pollutant Program for
surface water toxics, the revision of the Human Health
Toxics Water Quality Criteria, the Portland Air Toxics
Solutions project, and the Columbia River Basin Toxics
Reduction Action Plan. As a result, as part of strategy
development, OR DEQ, EPA and other agency staff
working on these initiatives are coordinating their efforts.
An internal, cross-program team is guiding the work
within OR DEQ, while an external stakeholder group is
giving input to the agency on the each major step in the
process.
Find more information on the OR DEQ Toxics Reduction
Strategy on the agency's new toxics reduction webpage:
http://www.deq.state.or.us/toxics/index.htm. or contact
Kevin Masterson at masterson.kevin@deq.state.or.us or
503-229-5615.
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February 2010
Omeg Orchards: Green All Around
By Susan Hess
Mike Omeg plants "scabs." That's what orchardists call land
too steep or shallow to plant trees. He plants wildflowers there
to provide nectar and pollen for beneficial insects—lady bugs,
bees, lacewings and dozens more. With what is, essentially, a
gigantic flower garden, the scab land becomes an insectary—one
component of what makes Omeg's 400-acre cherry orchard an
example of how to bring green into a traditionally pesticide-heavy
industry.
Five years ago Omeg, 34, took over the family farm. He's the fifth
generation to farm this land which lies a few miles south of The
Dalles, Oregon. He graduated from Oregon State University with
a master's degree in entomology. When he took over the farm, he
started putting what he learned into practice. From insectaries to
weather stations, he's revamping the way an orchardist controls
agricultural pests, uses water, and protects water.
Insectaries
"Many dozens of insects assist us in the orchard with pest
control and pollination," Omeg says. The cherry orchard is a
monoculture; the rows planted with grass and mowed. After
cherry bloom, there is limited food for insects. The insectaries
provide food and habitat all season. "I also notice they get a lot
of bird activity," Omeg says, "in the fall when the flowers go to
seed."
Owls, bats and bluebirds
To control gophers and voles, Omeg had been using rodenticides.
"We spent a lot of time and labor on something I didn't want
to put out, and we were barely keeping up controlling the
population," Omeg says. In searching for a better way, he found
that California vineyards had successfully used owls. He invited
cavity-nesting bird conservation expert John Schuster http://
www.wildwingco.com/idl4.html to speak to growers. 94 growers
showed up to hear him.
Omeg installed 50 owl boxes, 50 bluebird boxes, a few kestrel
boxes, and 3 bat boxes (each capable of housing 2100 bats) in
his orchards. Nearby growers have put up an additional 250 owl
boxes.
"A barn owl family will eat 3000 gophers in a season," Omeg
says. He was paying a man $2.50 for each gopher trapped. "Much
cheaper to put in an owl box." He still is using some rodenticide—
one with low toxicity to owls. He's experimenting to see if he can
eliminate using any rodenticide, because all types can harm or
even kill other helpful predators, like foxes and coyotes.
The kestrel boxes are new. Omeg hopes kestrels will keep out
fruit-eating birds like starlings and English sparrows. And the
bluebirds? The best insect eaters. Last year bluebirds used every
box.
Irrigation
Saving water keeps more water in the Columbia River and reduces
energy use. Most of the irrigation water the orchard uses is
pumped 700 vertical feet from the river. Efficient irrigation was
installed on the entire acreage: 80 percent micro-sprinklers and 20
percent drip. Both are over 85 percent efficient versus 50 percent
Mike Omeg with owl, kestrel, and blue bird boxes
for overhead sprinklers. Additionally, he applies straw mulch on
land with the most water concerns.
Omeg and an irrigation consultant meet weekly during the season.
Weekly moisture-probe readings are fed into the weather station's
computer models, which tells them how much the crop has used
and how much it will need.
Weather stations
The cookie example best explains why the weather stations made
such a difference in reducing pesticides use.
The weather stations look like poles. They have equipment to
measure wind speed and direction, humidity, precipitation,
temperature, barometric pressure and dew point, plus providing
hourly forecasts into a web-based network.
"It's about degree days," Omeg says. "Insects are cold blooded;
they need Mother Nature's heat to develop. If the environment
is warm, they develop faster. It's like baking cookies: a certain
amount of heat must accumulate to go from cookie dough (the
insect egg) to a baked cookie (the hatched worm). If the oven
is set at 200 degrees the cookie will bake, it will just take a lot
longer than baking at 375 degrees."
For years orchardists sprayed by the calendar. Some still do, but
calendars can be very far off depending on the season's weather.
But the weather station computer models put all the weather
conditions together and accurately predict the best time to apply
sprays.
Omeg takes a chart out and shows how it works for one pest: the
leafroller. "For this insect, if you always spray at bloom, we have
to use a long lasting product, like an organo phosphate. But really
we just want to spray at egg hatch—when it starts and when it
ends. Then we can apply 'soft' (or reduced risk or low toxicity)
pesticides that will only be active for two to three days. We only
want to spray once, because the soft pesticides are expensive."
The original money for the first 15 weather stations in Wasco
County and developing the computer models came in $1.2 million
in grants from EPA, BPA, Oregon DEQ, Wasco County PUD
and local growers. A second grant bought 18 more for orchardists
Continued on page 4
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Columbia River Toxics Reduction Newsletter
Omeg Orchards: continued from page 3
in Hood River County. Growers have since
purchased an additional 161.
Restoring oak woodlands
Throughout the farm, Omeg is replanting
oaks and some ponderosa pines, "In the
mid-Columbia oak savannas provide the most
diverse wildlife habitat, both food and shelter."
Stream drift barriers
Native vegetation is left in areas along creeks
to protect the stream and prevent erosion and
runoff that would carry soil particles carrying
pesticides into the creeks.
Education
"We put out a big effort to have growers
change management practices to reduce the
impact of pesticides on streams," Omeg says.
A recent survey of 12 orchardists showed they
had reduced their use of organo phosphates 30
percent, some up to 100 percent.
Tower sprayers
One of the problems with spraying is drift:
into the air, creeks, neighboring properties.
Traditionally, orchardists have used airblast
sprayers. Omeg switched to tower sprayers.
The air blast style directs air out a single
central source creating a unidirectional flow,
allowing the small lightweight drops to drift
into the atmosphere above the trees. This is
inefficient and puts an unnecessary amount of
pesticide into the environment.
Tower sprayer nozzles spray horizontally into
the tree. 'The top of the tower focuses the air
slightly downward toward the center of the
canopy as well as providing a boundary of
clean air above the canopy. This boundary
of clean air traps the spray-laden air into the
target canopy, thus minimizing drift.' (OSU
report: Orchard Sprayer Trials: spray drift &
coverage, Mar. 2007.)
The towers are more efficient at depositing
spray solution which can cut the amount of
active ingredient needed up to 20 percent.
Omeg uses three towers and depends on the
weather stations to monitor wind conditions
that guide when spraying will create the least
drift.
Green, eco-friendly agricultural practices are
gradually taking the place of more traditional
practices nationally and worldwide. Mike's
work at Omeg Orchards is helping this new
tradition take root. For more information, visit
www.omegorchards.com
Places of the Columbia: Kettle Falls
It is puzzling why so much is written about Celilo Falls and so little about
Kettle Falls, the Columbia River's two great falls. For over nine thousand
years each was a Native American salmon fishing site, a place where people
came hundreds of miles to fish, trade, and socialize—comparable, in
importance for Pacific Northwest Indians, to New York City and London.
With a roar heard for miles, the Columbia plunged over these falls in a
series of rapids and cascades: 50 feet at Kettle Falls and 83 feet at Celilo.
The Northern Interior Salish people called Kettle Falls Shonitkwu,
meaning 'roaring or noisy waters.' In the lower Columbia, Sahaptin
speakers name for Celilo Falls meant 'echo of falling water.' Kettle Falls,
formed by ice age floods, lay the farthest up river: about 40 miles south of
the Canadian border in northeastern Washington State.
Once, salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn leapt up the falls.
At Kettle Falls, an Army Corps of Engineers 1999 study estimated the run
at 1.1 million fish. The salmon, slowly changing from marine to freshwater
fish, had traveled up the Columbia some 800 miles by the time they reached
Kettle Falls.
The salmon runs, Kettle Falls, and the Indian way of life ended in 1941
with the completion of 550-foot-tall Grand Coulee Dam. Engineers
provided no fish passage past the dam. Tribal peoples mourned the loss of
the falls and salmon with a Ceremony of Tears. The falls now lie 80 feet
beneath Lake Roosevelt, the 144-mile-long reservoir the dam created. The
Dalles Dam flooded Celilo Falls in 1957.
Celilo became an icon of tribal loss, while authors mention Kettle Falls
only briefly in books and articles. But Native Americans have not forgotten
the rushing waters of Kettle Falls and the lost salmon runs.
Exchange Network Gives Easy Data Access
If you need information on a topic, say PBDEs for example, you are forced
to search multiple databases. But if they could be linked, you could get the
data you need in one simple step. You could go to a single web application
and ask for information on PBDEs and the system would pull data from
government agencies, tribes, and non-profit organizations.
This is the goal of EPA's Exchange Network, explained Andy Battin, EPA
Deputy Director of the Office of Information Collection in Washington
D.C., and David Tetta, e-Government Coordinator in Seattle at the CRTR
January meeting. The system is already operating in some areas of the
country. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (OR DEQ) and
Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) have access points on the
network. EPA's goal is to increase participation to include tribes and other
local agencies.
"What the network will do," Tetta said, "is help agencies, tribes and others
share their data sets more easily with each other." For more information,
visit: http://exchaneenetwork.net/
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