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Welcome to the home page for Portland, Oregon's Building Environmental Community program. Help the Portland Metro area become a national leader on climate change We need your help to encourage the Washington County Board of Commissioners to sign on to The US Cool Counties Initiative! Click here to read and sign the petition. The Cool Counties Initiative is a declaration, signed by county-level governments, that commits the county to 1) create a plan to reduce their county global warming emissions to 80% below current levels by the year 2050, 2) encourage the federal government to create meaningful plans to combat global warming, 3) to work with other local, regional, and state governments to best reduce global warming pollutants. For more information on The Cool Counties Initiative, visit kingcounty.gov/exec/coolcounties Coloring a Clean Willamette--Our Poster Winner The winner of our First Annual Race Against Pollution Coloring Contest is…Kaylee (age 8). Kaylee will receive a gift certificate from SpielWerk Toys in Sellwood. Congratulations!   Paddlin' Fish Check out photos from the 1st Annual Race Against Pollution for a Clean Willamette. Click here or go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raceagainstpollution   Our Rivers are Our Legacy. Volunteers meet up at Sellwood Park. Oregonians take pride in the beauty of our state, but sometimes underneath the beauty of our rivers lie unseen hazards for our communities. The Portland Building Environmental Community campaign is working hard to make sure our rivers are as safe for Oregonians as they are beautiful by working to phase out the use of toxic mixing zones. Toxic mixing zones are areas along our rivers where the Department of Environmental Quality is permitting facilities to discharge toxic chemicals, like mercury, arsenic, and lead, into our rivers at "toxic" concentrations. The DEQ is basically suspending the Clean Water Act in those areas where facilities are discharging. You may ask yourself, where are these areas? That's one of the biggest issues. We don't know. They aren't marked so all the people you see playing, fishing, and enjoying the river might be doing it right in the middle of a toxic mixing zone. The public has a right to know what is in our rivers and what effects those toxins might have on us and future generations to come. Governor Kulongoski has said he wants the restoration and protection of the Willamette River to be his environmental legacy and has recently released his “Blueprint for Restoring and Enjoying a Healthy Willamette River Basin.” There are great things in the plan, and we thank the Governor for taking the initiative to protect the Willamette. Unfortunately despite his plan, the Governor continually refuses to acknowledge that the direct dumping of toxics into the Willamette into mixing zones is a problem. If Governor Kulongoski is serious about his plan for the Willamette, it needs to include and address mixing zones in a serious way. Read the Governor's plan at http://governor.oregon.gov. Please join us in working towards a cleaner, healthier Willamette River. Sign me up to protect Oregon's Willamette River.   Sign me up to help protect Oregon’s Willamette River.   Check our events page to find out what's coming up! Sign up to help protect Oregon's Willamette River. Send an email to: Cons-oregon-news@lists.sierraclub.org Read more about our program. The State Department of Environmental Quality is revising how they permit Toxic Mixing Zones in Oregon's waterways. Check out the Columbia Riverkeeper's 5 point critique. Fun stuff we've done: We paddled 72 miles upriver to draw attention to toxics in the Willamette. Also: Slideshow! Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use