SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon’s 2010 water quality report has earned a mixed review from the U.S. EPA.
This week, the EPA gave the report a thumbs up for listing nine-hundred and seventy places where rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs are polluted. That includes waters where fish tested positive for mercury.
Jennifer Wigal manages Oregon’s water quality standards and assessment programs.
Wigal: “We all want to be able to eat fish that are free from contamination and so that is one area of our list that we have updated.”
The EPA gave Oregon a thumbs down for failing to list more than one-thousand other polluted water segments.
States use their lists to prioritize clean-up plans and to determine how much pollution industries, cities and towns may discharge to surface waters.
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network
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