Support a Water Quality Management Plan with strategies and actions to keep the Columbia and Lower Snake rivers cool enough for salmon.
The Columbia and Lower Snake rivers are too hot for salmon. Now, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is developing a Water Quality Management Plan that will outline strategies and actions needed to keep the Columbia cool, as required by the Clean Water Act and EPA’s heat pollution budget for the Columbia and Lower Snake rivers.
This is important. But dam agencies and industry lobbying groups are trying to weaken the Plan. We need your support to advocate for salmon and the people and cultures that rely on them.
The Implementation Plan would be incomplete without a comprehensive, holistic analysis of all dam-related measures that could provide meaningful temperature benefits — including variable withdrawal from upstream storage reservoirs, seasonal reservoir drawdown, and Lower Snake River dam removal.
Ready to take action? Sign the petition below.
To the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality:
I support action to reduce heat pollution, hold federal agencies accountable, and make the Columbia and Lower Snake rivers cool enough for salmon.
The Water Quality Management Plan that Oregon DEQ is creating is an important tool and a unique opportunity. I support Oregon DEQ’s effort to identify and model all the actions and strategies needed to reduce heat pollution — including from dams and reservoirs — and meet the temperature-reduction goals set by EPA.
Columbia River Basin salmon, and the people who value and rely on them, are depending on you to help solve the hot water problem. I urge Oregon DEQ to adopt a temperature plan that points the way to real, comprehensive solutions.
Sincerely,