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Water contamination worsened as DEQ went easy on Port of Morrow
The state’s chief environmental agency knowingly let the Port of Morrow pollute year after year, contributing to drinking water contamination for thousands, an investigation by the Capital Chronicle showed. To protect jobs, the state Department of Environmental Quality addressed the industrial pollution with deals instead of enforcement. Agency officials accepted the port’s plans over the […]
Powerful port pollutes water for years with little state action
Guadalupe Martinez points to a 24-pack of bottled water by her kitchen sink with just a few bottles left, one of thousands she’s brought home over the last 18 years. “Ever since we’ve been living here, we’ve been buying water,” she said. The 54-year-old grandmother knows she can’t drink the water that comes out of […]
Rewards, tougher prosecutions employed to slow illegal slaughter of wildlife
In what was described as a “thrill kill,” poachers in January killed two pronghorn antelope and shot two others, left for dead outside the remote community of Crane, in Oregon’s Outback. In December, a poacher shot and killed a mule deer from a private driveway near homes outside Springfield, beheading the animal and fleeing when […]
Oregon legislators propose big boost in their pay – and they have community support
SALEM – Oregon legislators would get a significant pay increase and qualify for $1,000 a month for child care under a proposal supported by minority advocates, a leading state union and a Portland business group as a way to increase diversity in the Oregon Legislature. Under provisions of Senate Bill 1566, the base annual salary […]