Environmental Justice
From the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to the string of paper and aluminum mills, industrial uses have long harnessed the wealth and dumped their waste into the Columbia River. While industrial interests still dominate the politics of the Pacific Northwest, there is a growing recognition that clean water is key to a strong economy and healthy communities.
Our Commitment to Effected Communities: CRK’s work ranges from working with Native Americans at Celilo Village who disproportionately suffer the toxic effects of mercury and dioxin due to their traditional salmon diet, to residents of the urban Rosemere Neighborhood Association in Vancouver, Washington, where we have forced the clean-up of toxic waste that has been leaching PCBs into the river for 20 years. Our strength lies in working with volunteers, Tribes, small organizations, and river communities to greatly increase our effectiveness.
Snapshots of Empowerment: Our success in fighting environmental and social injustice includes forcing the cleanup of contaminated sites, preventing industrialization in low-income areas, and helping to enact and enforce stronger pollution laws. CRK’s work extends from urban areas, such as Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, to at-risk rural communities.
- Vancouver, WA. In this major urban area in southwest Washington, we work closely with the Rosemere Neighborhood Association to reduce the exposure to toxins of the predominantly low income and minority residents. CRK and Rosemere have joined together to fight for clean drinking water, to force clean up of PCB- contaminated sediment, and to stop a coal plant in the Vancouver airshed.
- Wasco County and Hood River County, OR. CRK is partnering with local business owners and concerned citizens—“Citizens for Responsible Development”—in The Dalles to protect unique vernal pool wetland resources and a salmon-bearing creek that are threatened by a proposed big- box store development. In rural Hood River County, CRK’s Adopt-a-River volunteers recently discovered E. coli levels that were literally off the charts in a creek that runs through town, near where children had made sand castles at the water’s edge. We collected additional samples and traced the problem to a broken and buried sewer pipe that was pouring raw sewage into the creek. That pipe was quickly fixed – another example of CRK volunteers taking water quality and community health into their own hands. See Hood River News “Riverkeeper finds E.coli in Indian Creek” (photo of CRK’s Tina de la Fuente).
- Celilo Village, OR. CRK works to highlight the connection between water quality and correcting injustices toward Native American and other fishers. In 2007, CRK collaborated with tribal members from Celilo Village to present a historic photo exhibit, movie, audio recordings and personal accounts of life at Celio Falls. In 1957, the Falls were silenced by raising water levels caused by construction of The Dalles Dam. CRK also advocates for stronger laws to protect salmon and other Columbia River food sources. Today, the water quality standards for toxic pollutants are based on the assumption that people only eat 0.6 ounces of fish per day (equals two 8-oz servings per month). Therefore, the tens of thousands of Native Americans, immigrants, and others who consume more than two fish servings per month are ingesting unsafe levels of toxic pollutants. Due to pressure by Tribes, CRK, and other partners, Oregon is considering increasing the fish consumption level ten-fold, which would require polluters to discharge far less toxic pollution. CRK will fight to ensure that pollution levels are truly ratcheted down.
