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Until now, KS Wild's work has primarily focused on the terrestrial landscape with an emphasis on old-growth forests, roadless areas, and species protection. However, in 2008 KS Wild identified a gap in regional aquatic advocacy: no one was performing citizen oversight of the Clean Water Act in the Rogue Basin. To more wholly implement its mission of protecting and restoring the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion, KS Wild took action to fill the hole.
Enter Rogue Riverkeeper
The Waterkeeper Alliance, based in New York, is an umbrella organization of water advocates that monitors rivers, creeks, bays, and estuaries to hold polluters accountable and keep activities compliant with environmental laws.
In seeking to develop a water program that is analogous to KS Wild's public lands oversight campaign, KS Wild applied to the Waterkeeper Alliance and was accepted as the Rogue Riverkeeper. Joining the ranks of stellar advocates at Humboldt Baykeeper, Klamath Riverkeeper, Columbia Riverkeeper, Russian Riverkeeper and others, the Rogue Riverkeeper program is now a watchdog and defender for water resources throughout the five-thousand-plus-square-mile Rogue watershed.
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Southwest Oregon's iconic Rogue River originates in the Cascade Mountains and travels 215 miles to the Pacific Ocean through some of the most diverse conifer forests in the world. The Rogue's fascinating history augments its geologic, botanical, ecological, and aquatic riches, exemplifying the grandeur of Oregon's natural heritage. Every year, tens of thousands of people from around the world travel to this area to float
and fish the river and enjoy the spectacular landscape.
The Rogue is a charismatic river that has provided sustenance and spiritual renewal for millennia. The ocean-derived nutrients from more than a hundred thousand salmon that return to the Rogue annually help support one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the Pacific Coast. Author Zane Grey wrote of salmon while living on the Rogue in the 1920s, "He brought the sea with him and had taken on the beauty of the river."
A Stressed System
Degraded water quality from development, industrial wastewater, stormwater, lax environmental enforcement, agriculture, mining, logging, and a pervasive, unmaintained road system threatens the integrity of the Rogue River watershed, the basin's municipal water supplies, and native fish populations.
Rogue River salmon were the backbone of the local Native American diet and culture, and today support commercial and recreational fisheries while serving as the iconic symbol of the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the Rogue River itself, more than 4,000 miles of fish-bearing tributary streams are found throughout the watershed. Alarmingly, Rogue salmon fisheries have been in decline for decades despite fishing restrictions and mitigation efforts.
Nearly all the native fish species in the Rogue basin have been identified as "species of concern" because of their depressed numbers, and coho salmon have been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has identified more than 165 streams as water-quality-limited, including violations of water quality standards for temperature, bacteria, sedimentation, pH, and dissolved oxygen. Rogue Riverkeeper is beginning to address these issues via legal, legislative, and organizing tools.
Clean Water Act Oversight
Public trust waters are among our most valuable natural resources, and the Clean Water Act's provisions for public involvement are critical to the implementation of this cornerstone environmental law. The Clean Water Act itself does not ensure clean water. The law depends on an informed, engaged public to speak up for clean water.
The Oregon DEQ, charged with Clean Water Act implementation, is a well-intentioned but underfunded bureaucracy that often falls short in thoroughly addressing water quality issues. Insufficient and expired permits, unpermitted discharges, and inadequate monitoring all pose a threat to the Rogue and are at the center of Rogue Riverkeeper's oversight program.
In addition to reviewing existing and new permits for legal compliance, the Rogue Riverkeeper program is focusing on emerging contaminants and previously unregulated pollutants. The Rogue Basin is contaminated annually by massive aerial spraying of herbicides by industrial timber companies, an activity that should be regulated for its impact on water quality.
Additionally, Lost Creek reservoir on the Rogue is showing an increase in toxic algae blooms that are well above World Health Organization standards. Rather than accept the agency response, which is to post warning signs of the reservoir's toxicity, Rogue Riverkeeper is pursuing the root cause of the problem: likely the nutrient loading above the reservoir as a result of heavy fertilizer use on industrial timberlands.
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Since 1851, mining has dramatically changed the aquatic landscape of the Rogue basin. Today there are hundreds of abandoned mines in the Rogue basin and no systematic monitoring of this activity's toxic legacy on aquatic resources. Abandoned mines on both public and private land leach an undocumented amount of pollutants into the river each year, including arsenic, mercury, and lead. The Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act provide tools for water advocates to shine a light on this pollution and force documentation and clean-up.
The blatant disregard of toxic mine discharge is inexcusable on the part of state and federal agencies. Heavy metals are leached into salmon-bearing streams, groundwater contamination threatens drinking water supplies, and toxic mine tailings are left for unsuspecting recreationalists. Rogue Riverkeeper is collecting data, visiting sites, and developing a strategy to address this silent threat to water quality and fish.
Halting Liquefied Natural Gas
The Jordan Cove/Pacific Connector Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project proposes the construction of an import facility in Coos Bay and an associated 230-mile pipeline to the California border. The pipeline would cross two mountain ranges, five major rivers including the Rogue, hundreds of streams containing imperiled salmon, and 72 miles of public forests, clearcutting hundreds of acres of reserves for endangered species. The pipeline project is proposed to cross several water-quality-impaired streams in the Rogue Basin, as well as perform a dubious drill under the Upper Rogue itself in prime salmon habitat.
Rogue Riverkeeper is working in coalition with landowners, Columbia Riverkeeper, Citizens Against LNG, and others to stop this ill-conceived proposal. In March, the LNG Public Protection Act was introduced in Oregon's legislature. The proposed bill would protect Oregon communities from proposed LNG import terminals by using the clear authority that the state has over the issuance of permits for state-owned resources, such as water and land, as well as federally recognized state permitting authority under the Clean Water and Coastal Zone Management Acts.
Gaining Permanent Protection
Rogue Riverkeeper is pursuing legislation to increase protections for the Rogue. Thanks to a diverse coalition of conservationists, businesses, and outdoor industry representatives, the Oregon Treasures Act was introduced into Congress in 2008. Unfortunately, the bill did not cross the finish line before the 110th Congress adjourned. With a better Oregon delegation in the 111th Congress, Rogue Riverkeeper continues to pursue legislation that would add 143 miles of tributaries to the Wild and Scenic system, effectively protecting tens of thousands of acres of old-growth forest from logging and road building.
In addition, Rogue Riverkeeper is working with students at Lewis and Clark Law School to petition for a section of the Upper Rogue to be designated as an "Outstanding Resource Water." Such a designation is the strongest protection afforded to a waterbody under the Clean Water Act, and there is yet no such designation in the state of Oregon.
Keeping the River at the Forefront
In the next fifty years, the Rogue Valley population is expected to double in size. This growth will usher in a period of greater competition for water to meet urban, agricultural, and ecological demands and greater taxation of an already problematic water treatment network. A report in December 2008 applied Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change models to the Rogue Basin and produced alarming results. The watershed is expected to experience increasing strain over the next century, including less water, higher temperatures, and more concentrated pollutants. As stresses mount from increased development, amplified water demand, and the effects of climate change, a Rogue Riverkeeper could not be more timely or necessary.
For more information, contact Lesley Adams at lesley@kswild.org, 541-488-5789; or visit www.kswild.org/rogueriverkeeper.