Oregon Field Guide; 812

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(Music) (Music) Tonight on Oregon Field Guide A special report on water quality in the Willamette river. New information is coming to light that maybe the river is not as healthy as we thought. And you might be surprised to learn just where today's pollution is coming from. Good evening and welcome the special edition of Oregon field guide, I'm your host Steve Amen. Tonight we'll be devoting the entire program to an examination of water quality in the Willamette Valley. When Tom McCall was governor, Oregon gained a reputation as an environmental leader, in large part because of the state's cleanup of the Willamette. But now, 25 years later, new questions are being asked about the river.

Just how clean is the water, and can it handle the hundreds of thousands of new residents moving to the Willamette Valley. As Jeff Douglas discovered the river is fighting for its health and the enemy is us. Well I'd say it's 166 down four to go. Don Francis is counting down, as he poles the last few miles of a canoe trip from Eugene to Portland. Don founded the conservation group Willamette River Keeper. This trip is the first of what he hopes will be a yearly effort drawing attention to problems affecting the health of the Willamette. We've cleaned up some of the more obvious sources of pollution or reduce them in any case. But we've got other types of pollution and we're destroying the health of the river through the destruction of "?river lands?". Don is afraid Oregonians assumed the job was finished, after the cleanup which put the Willamette on the cover of National Geographic. Oregonians felt a lot of pride, as they should, in leading the nation in these types of pollution control

technologies. Over the last 25 years though we've really ignored the Willamette, we've turned our back and we said it's fixed, and we walked away from it, and it wasn't fixed to begin with and it's gotten worse in a lot of ways because we have walked away from it. Now Willamette River Keeper wants to rekindle the public concern that got that initial cleanup going. The citizen's group in 1938 that went out and filmed along the Willamette River. The film showed raw sewage and industrial waste from mills and meat packers going right in the river. And they would then put these little fish, we think they were cutthroat trout, into the water and then see what happens to them. The oxygen level in some parts of the river was so low, they would suffocate within minutes. Portland's City Club called the Willamette a public health menace. Citizens passed an initiative demanding cities along the river starts some sewage treatment, but it wasn't nearly enough. Laboratory tests showed the river still had high levels of disease carrying bacteria, very low oxygen levels, and acidic industrial discharges deadly

to fish and wildlife. [music] In 1962, KGW TV broadcast "Pollution in Paradise" a landmark documentary which drew attention to the problems. It showed carp feeding at food processing outfalls and untreated waste pouring from the paper mill in West Linn. The reporter, future Governor, Tom McCall. The state sanitary authority regards the entire Willamette River, that is all the way downstream from Salem as too filthy for swimming. "?Test nettings?" in the Willamette show that only carp and other warm water trash fish are able to survive. And at times, even these scavengers perish for a lack of oxygen. Voters again demanded something be done, and backed it up by approving money for secondary treatment of sewage. Industries were told to clean up their discharges. As governor, Tom McCall created the Department of Environmental Quality or DEQ to monitor water and

air quality. And it worked, the Willamette was no longer a public health menace and families again swam in the river. The DEQ is still studying water quality and several years ago joined with federal agencies to assess the current conditions of the Willamette. Though the study isn't complete, already it's turned up evidence that maybe the Willamette isn't as clean as we thought. Part of that study sampled fish populations. It discovered a surprisingly high number with defects. Between Newberg and Oregon City, half the fish caught had lesions, parasites or even missing eyes. A more detailed study of juvenile squawfish turned up skeletal deformities such as curved spines. This kind of defect is normal in four to five percent of squawfish and near Eugene, that's what they found. By Salem, skeletal deformities went up to about 20 percent. Around Newberg, half the juveniles had problems, and in one sample 74

percent were deformed. Toxic chemicals, pesticides, diseases and parasites could all cause these defects, so far nothing definite has been discovered. The DEQ says water testing indicates the river is still safe for boating, fishing, and swimming. But the fish deformities combined with declining salmon runs have people like Don Francis calling for action. I mean these are all indications that our ecosystem, the one's that we depend upon, that humans depend upon, is sick. And if we want to protect our own self interest, we have to protect these waters. The fish deformities attracted attention. Unfortunately the rest of the report did not. It found that while the public still thinks industry is responsible for most water pollution, in reality that's no longer the case. Clean water laws have greatly reduced pollution from industrial and municipal pipes. Now it's ordinary people, farmers and homeowners who

contribute most of what pollutes our rivers. The report graded the Willamette's condition by segment, one meaning very unhealthy and nine excellent. The section above Corvallis got the best score six point six. That's pretty good condition. Between Corvallis and Newberg the rating dropped to five point two, just above marginal. After Newberg though the river slows and its quality drops to between marginal and poor. And it stays impaired from Oregon City to the mouth. Just as important is the finding that water quality is not so good is evidence of where today's contamination comes from. The type of pollution we saw back then was very gross pollution. There's something you could see, but as that got cleaned up we started to look at and discovered that there are pollutants that we can't see. Even though there's pollution coming from pipes certainly that most of the pollution is coming from surface runoff, Nonpoint source pollution.

Ed "?Sale?" of Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality says Nonpoint source is a complicated name for any pollution that doesn't come from a pipe. It occurs when rain falls on the land, runs across the surface, picking up contaminants and then goes into a ditch or stream and eventually the river. Sediment turns clear streams muddy but the other pollutants degrading the river are mostly invisible. That's the big challenge now I think is for the people of Oregon to realize that what you don't see could be just as, if not more, harmful than what you do see. In the initial cleanup of the Willamette we significantly improve water quality by regulating what we put directly in the river. What these latest findings tell us, us is if we want to improve the health of the Willamette now, all of us are gonna have to change what we do on the land. The Willamette begins in pristine wilderness with absolutely pure water,

But along the way it picks up traces of human activities. Sediment from logging operations, especially inadequately maintained logging roads. Fertilizers and pesticides from farms. Herbicide sprayed into roadside ditches. Oil from parking lots and roads and chemicals from industrial and urban sites. So by the time you get down to the mouth of the river, Its a cumulative effect and everything that has happened in the basin from Eugene to Portland from the coast range to the Cascades is now present in the river [water sounds]. To get a better idea of what's in our nation's rivers and where it's coming from, the United States Geological Survey began a water quality assessment program. The USGS picked the Willamette as one of the first rivers to study. [water sounds] Gauge is 7.3 They've established that

most pollution in the Willamette now originates in its tributaries. Remember the Willamette's marginal water quality rating, many of its tributaries are considerably worse. The Tualatin and Long Tom rivers are rated in poor condition. The Yamhill, Luckiamute and Mary's rivers are marginal to poor. and the Pudding is worst of all, severely degraded. Tracing the pollution in those tributaries lead to even smaller streams draining cities and fields. That's why Chauncey Anderson and Kurt Carpenter of the USGS are sampling an ?unnamed creek? in Yamhill County. In particular we're looking for pesticides and we're looking for nutrients things like nitrogen and phosphorous that are contributed by fertilizers. Dennis Wentz heads up the USGS water quality study. In this creek they are looking for how farming affects water quality but they also test city streams for urban impacts. The USGS even swaps samples and information with Oregon's DEQ. No one

suggests that we're going to be able to get rid of Nonpoint source pollution completely. We're trying to understand it so that we can provide information to people to do a better job of managing the resource. The goal is to find the relationship between what pollutants are in streams and land use practices and then, devise ways to reduce the problem. For example, they discovered most fertilizers and pesticides don't enter streams during application, instead, they wash off with the soil during heavy rains and that not only pollutes the rivers it doesn't do the farmer any good either. If he understands how to manage how much he's applying then he can, you know, in addition to saving money he can make the environment a little better place to live for everyone else and then themselves included obviously. While the majority of the river's pollution does come from farmland, [water sound] on a per acre basis it's likely more contaminants run off urban areas. Many city dwellers think what they do doesn't matter much because they don't live near a creek, but really they do. This water

running down the street and into a drain is really a little tributary from some urban stream. [sound of spraypainting] In spite of efforts to stencel storm drains, about half the public doesn't know, most of them empty right into creeks. About ten percent admitted that they use the drains, storm drains for disposal of anything that they had around the house. But it's not intentional dumping that contributes most urban pollution, it's routine activities like fertilizing are lawns or driving our cars. What each of us does wouldn't matter much except there are so many of us. I can't say that washing your car in the driveway is going to impact water quality in the Willamette River, But what i can do is say that with three million people washing their cars in their driveways there is a dramatic impact on the water quality in the streams and in the Willamette River. Look at a parking lot in the rain, usually you'll see oil spots

Multiply that one drip of oil by how many cars are there, let's say in the Portland metro area and imagine all that oil dripping off and then running into a creek. Every year in the US 180 million gallons of motor oil never comes back for proper disposal and that's the equivalent of 16 Exxon Valdez oil spills. No one knows how much of that ends up in rivers, but a lot does. For example, it's estimated that 45 hundred gallons of oil a year get in to Fanno Creek which runs through Tigard and we didn't have to go far to prove that sediment is a problem in cities too. Right across the street from OPB, lots of soil is washing off a construction site creating a muddy mess. Worse yet, the settlement washes across the street and into a storm drain it goes straight to the Willamette. One little stream off construction site may not be that harmful but when you start thinking about a myriad number of little streams running off construction sites and into creeks, it isn't just the sediment, it's carrying

everything that's been in that soil. In urban areas dirt is often contaminated with petroleum products, heavy metals, or toxic chemicals. But even uncontaminated dirt is serious pollution. If it's a spawning bed the sediment can smother the eggs, it can kill the insects in the stream that the fish need to live on. Rick ?Rick? ?Hayfly? is a DEQ biologist. We found him and Doug Drake counting fish in a small woodland stream. The types of species of fish we find in their in their general numbers give us an idea of the health of the stream. Rick says it takes more than clean water to make a healthy river. One of the top problems he finds is thermal pollution. Water that is too warm because we've removed trees and shrubs along streams. If it's warming up you'd find that the the trout and other cold water species would disappear and you'd find other species like Redside shiner would dominate [water bubbling sound]. Rick does take water

samples for testing. This one measures oxygen levels. About 98 percent, that's fine That's a good amount of oxygen. Tests like this, while precise, measure just one moment in time. Rick thinks he learns more by looking at the streams residents from fish to insects. They're going to indicate conditions that are in the stream, whether or not sediments may be a problem, or temperature, or other factors. Alot of the the bugs are actually attached to the rocks so rub the rocks to get to get the bugs of. What insects turn up in the sample and their their abundance tells Rick a lot about what's happening in a stream. Course what you want to see in healthy conditions would be a good diversity, a good variety of different types, looks like the most of what we're seeing in here are different different types of Mayflies, a few Stoneflies and some snails. Since each species needs certain conditions their numbers can reveal more about

about stream conditions than occasional water samples. And you may not be here when when the Nonpoint source problems occur and you take a chemical symbol and it looks fine but the invertebrates and the fish are here year around and are having to deal deal with whatever's going on, so their populations and their numbers are going to reflect that. This stream is in good condition but Rick says the information is still valuable as a benchmark. So when we go to another site that has a lot of disturbance we know to what degree the water quality has been changed because we can compare it back to the streams that are in good shape. We know from the DEQ and USGS studies that the Willamette and its tributaries have some water quality problems. We don't know if it's getting better now or starting to get worse. But what has everybody worried is Oregon's population boom [sound of hammers]. The sound of hammers is good news for Oregon's economy but

but every construction project means more ground distrubed and the potential for more pollution [construction noise]. Those people are all want to do things do things like flush their toilets and drive their cars and build houses right along the Willamette River. There's a huge pressure right now for building big houses along the Willamette like that one right there. More people people means more pollution in our rivers, unless we change our ways. When Don completed his canoe journey he showed us changes Willamette Riverkeeper would like to see on farmland. First, he thinks every stream should have a a buffer of riparian vegetation to protect against runoff and to keep the water cooler. Next, fields need a good cover crop in winter to reduce erosion. Here's a field where there's no cover crop whatsoever. Look Look how much difference a cover crop makes. Here's one field without much vegetation to hold the soil. The rain has created gullies which carry the dirt, the earth, off of the

the land and what's carried out with the earth is also the pesticides and fertilizers and and whatever else is applied to the land. Contrast that with a field nearby that has established grass. The same runoff is not eroding big gullies and carrying sediment to streams. They can better manage their fertilizer usage. Rand Fisher of the Natural Resources Conservation Service works with farmers to reduce pollution getting to streams. This set up is an experiment to analyze exactly what's running off a grain field. So that collects samples to see how much sediment, how much phosphorus, how much nitrogen is in that particular water coming off of there. So by analyzing that then they're able to have lower fertilizer expense and of course much less problem of the of the fertilizers getting into the into the watershed. Rand showed us examples of practices he wants farmers to change, for instance, this uncovered manure pile out in the open and sheep on an over-grazed pasture.

When it rains, soil and manure are going to wash off and find their way to a creek. At this one cows are knee-deep in mud and manure just a few hundred yards yards from ?Dary? Creek. Compare that to a farm down the road that using Rand's suggestions. Plenty of grass in the pasture to slow erosion and the manure manure pile is in a shed, keeping the manure and these pigs, out out of the rain [pig noises]. Here's the same idea on a large scale at a dairy farm. Solid waste goes to a pile kept undercover, the the liquid to a holding pond. Algae grows in the liquid waste because it's extremely high in nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential plant nutrient but when it gets it gets in the stream the resulting algae uses up oxygen needed by fish. At this this farm they store the waste until later in the year when the grass is is growing rapidly then the plants will use the nitrogen instead of it washing into nearby waterways [ducks quacking]. This project reduced pollution and

it cut the dairy farmers fertilizer expense. Now here you see we have what are called ?the seams?. Rand showed us another project where he's embedded willow bundles in the soil to control stream bank erosion. I'm happy to see that we got some buds buds coming out so the Willows are taking root and they're going to be spreading out the roots to hold the soil. It's called bioengineering where you use biology or plants to engineer rather than hard structures like concrete or big rocks. Rand thinks vegetation actually holds the bank's better than rocks. And the word must be getting around because because just downstream a crew is planting willows. This is not one of Rand's projects. ?Kriegers" Nursery is doing this on their own. Not only only does vegetation slow erosion, it provides other benefits like shading the stream stream for fish, wildlife habitat, and keeping fertilizer out of the creek. These Willows will take nutrients out of the soil or out of the water flowing through that would get in

get into the stream. These ideas do improve river health but they cost money. money. So water quality regulations on farms would probably translate into higher higher prices for food. Regulations already exist exists to limit runoff at major construction sites. Here's how it's supposed to work. After clearing this land the developer planted grass to reduce erosion during winter. Silt fences trapped some of the soil that does runoff and finally a pond allows more sediment to settle out. The water that finally goes into the creek is reasonably clean. But look at the water pouring off off this construction project in Forest Park. It's full of silt, turning the creek in into a muddy mess. We visited the site with Ed Sale of the D of the DEQ on a day so rainy nobody was working. And that's not all that wasn't working. It appears that whoever put this in place did it probably because they were required to and then just let it go. There's a

reason behind the regulation and the regulation is to protect water quality in the State of Oregon. Federal clean water laws don't even require sediment control on construction sites sites less than five acres. So the mud running down this Lake Oswego street is not not a violation. And that site across from OPB [vehicle motion alarm] it's four acres so so the DEQ can't order them to control their runoff. In fairness, many developers are cooperating with efforts to reduce Nonpoint source source pollution. Here's an example: All of the stormwater from the subdivision drains down here. Everything from the roofs, the driveways, the lawns is captured down here and held, it gives a chance for the sediment to settle out and as the vegetation grows up it will also start acting as a filtering mechanism to trap the pollutants, the fertilizers and other chemicals that come through. Portland's northeast police precinct is trying an idea to control parking lot

lot pollution by sending the water into depressions. This is a real effective and very simple means of keeping pollutants the oils, the greases that come from these cars from getting off into the street and being taken into the storm drain again directly to the river. Other Other parking lots send runoff into small wetlands to filter out pollutants. These detention ponds cost no more than hooking into the stormdrains drains although they do take space. But Ed says some developers have found these natural looking areas attract buyers as well as wildlife. This This facility we see here was required but we are starting starting to see a lot of developers who realize that it's right thing to do and has some aesthetic Qualities too. The DEQ can order some of these measures but there's no way they can regulate the activities of individual households. That's up to us. And just as it's little things that harm water quality it's going to be little things things we each have to do to improve it. We're going to see, unless we change our

habits, we're going to see a decrease in water quality. Obviously, no one should dump dump oil or household products in a stormdrain [dripping water sound]. But what other other habits can people change. It can be as easy as taking the car the car to a car wash that recycles the water. Buy organic produce, use mass transit or ride their bikes as much as possible, in their yards use native species of plants that don't need much irrigation or hopefully any pesticides or fertilizers. This homeowner in Northeast Portland is cooperating with a with a city program to reduce polluted runoff from yards by using native plants. With something like this you're not fertilizing it like you are a lawn. Even if you prefer a lawn, you could still reduce contaminated runoff. Dig weeds by hand instead of using herbicides. If you apply fertilizer to your lawn, just apply enough that the lawn needs, don't over fertilize and make sure that it's done in such a fashion that it doesn't run off and into the street and into the creek. If you live adjacent to a

to a stream don't mow the lawn all the way down to the creek like this, leave a a buffer on either side of at least five feet. ?or? the grass grow up or plant natural vegetation and trees along there. Ed showed showed us a simple gravel trap he built to capture oil and other toxics that wash off his driveway driveway. The point should just be as an individual, I just won't do anything that lets anything get into the water. Ed says environmental awareness and education is is ultimately the way we'll reduce pollution [sounds of walking on gravel]. These kids from Banks are learning by working to replant along a creek behind the high school. "?Vern Beeson?" their science teacher says he wants to instill three lessons. How we've abused are streams up to now, that it's hard work to fix them, and you have to think long term. I mean it's pretty hard for any of us to see this 20 years from now as a woodland and it's going to be wonderful to walk through here, right now it's a ditch, you know. Somebody's got to start it, so hey why not us?

Oregonians lead the nation 30 years ago when we demanded that cities and industries stop dumping untreated waste into our rivers. The question now is will we demand the same thing of ourselves, now that we know that most of the water pollution is coming from our farms, our streets, and our yards. It's a huge challenge but if we don't do it the costs the costs are going to be even greater. The people in Portland are going to be drinking this river more than likely in about 30 years. Don plans to pole his canoe from Eugene to Portland every year for a while, what's he going to see? A river losing ground to Oregon's population boom or clean water and a healthy river. One of the most important things we can do as individuals is to start to become part of the collective answer and that's to tell our elected officials that we want clean, healthy rivers and we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. Protecting rivers is kind of like housework, it's

it's never done, there's always work to be done. You can never stop conserving a river. [sounds] [sounds] [sounds] and it