Clean Water

Clean Water

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Sharon Selvaggio of the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides is very concerned about the plight of steelhead and salmon in view of the huge amounts of pesticides that find their way into our waterways in the Northwest. Water – abundant, pure and cool – is of vital significance in western Oregon. A dense network of streams and rivers fed by snow and rainwater filtered through mountain forest soils supply millions of Oregon residents with drinking water, power an economically robust agricultural economy, and are home to the state's most iconic fish – salmon and steelhead.

Clean and cold water is increasingly scarce in the Willamette Basin. Nearly half of the Basin's stream and river miles are currently considered to be severely biologically impaired. Toxic contamination, along with warm temperatures, sedimentation and low, dissolved oxygen levels is a problem in the Willamette River and its tributaries. Pesticides – which include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, soil fumigants, and repellents – are the most commonly detected chemicals in the Basin. More than a dozen of those pesticides have been determined to jeopardize the continued existence of salmon and steelhead.

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