SalemWatch: Pressure Rising
Each week we will update you on any of OCN’s priorities when there is news to report. For the complete list and overview of all of the Priorities for a Healthy Oregon visit www.oregonpriorities.org Oregon must find balanced funding solutions for the Water Resources Department to avoid losing basic water management capacities that benefit all Oregonians. Senate Bill 788 would help fund management of Oregon’s water resources, one of the state’s most critical environmental and economic challenges. Eighteen out of nineteen of Oregon’s river basins are already over-appropriated from the late spring to the early fall. Oregon’s Water Resources Department desperately needs new income to avoid the worst effects of budget shortfalls. SB 788 would establish a $250 recording fee for certain exempt groundwater uses (lawn watering, domestic wells, and industrial and commercial wells). The fee is earmarked to fund groundwater studies, monitor ground water, and carry out administration and enforcement relating to exempt wells.
Senate Bill 740 would charge an annual $50 fee to holders of water rights to recoup part of the cost of managing Oregon’s system of water rights, with an individual cap of $400 and an institutional cap of $1600. There are approximately 85,000 water rights on record in Oregon.
Finally, Senate Bill 193 would start work on an integrated state water strategy to plan for Oregon's future instream and out of stream water needs. With the effects of climate change and other pressures on our waters, an integrated strategy will help Oregon plan for our water future.
Contact: John DeVoe, WaterWatch of Oregon, (503) 295-4039 x1
Peggy Lynch, League of Women Voters of Oregon, (541) 745-1025
Preserve Oregon's Coastal Legacy Consensus Marine Reserves Bill: on Senate Floor
The Oregon House of Representatives unanimously approved House Bill 3013A, a consensus bill relating to OCN’s priority of Marine Reserves. It is now up for a vote on the Senate floor. The bill outlines a detailed plan and timeline to complete evaluation of six potential marine reserve sites recommended by the Governor’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council. In addition, the bill establishes two pilot marine reserve projects at Otter Rock near Depoe Bay and Redfish Rocks near Port Orford and prescribes a process to evaluate the potential for reserves in four other areas of the coast. The bill outlines a balanced and diverse procedure for the planning of Oregon’s new marine reserves, including the development of regional community groups that will assist with the shaping of potential marine reserve sites: Cape Falcon north of Manzanita, Cascade Head north of Lincoln City, Cape Perpetua south of Yachats and Cape Arago-Seven Devils south of Coos Bay.
The Governor and the Co-Chairs of Ways and Means Committee have included this bi-partisan bill in each of their budgets, identifying surplus settlement funds to be used from the grounding of the New Carissa cargo ship. Sponsors and supporters agree that funds generated from an oil spill settlement should be used for marine science and conservation.
Contact: Kristin Leonard, Our Ocean, (503) 320-9427
Implement Global Warming Solutions Contact: Jake Weigler, Healthy Climate Partnership, (503) 206-4473
HB 3058: LNG Fast-Track Bill on its way to Senate The Oregon House recently passed House Bill 3058, a bill that would speed up the development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipelines. The Oregon Conservation Network has declared this bill a major threat to a healthy Oregon, as LNG emits much more global warming pollution over its life cycle than domestic gas. The bill would allow out-of-state LNG corporations like Texas-based NorthernStar Natural Gas to get dredge and fill permits on other Oregonians’ land, and waste state agency time processing permits that may never be used. There simply is no need to streamline the siting of damaging, dirty, expensive LNG facilities to serve California's energy demands.
Click here to urge your Senators to vote no on this bill! Contact: Evan Manvel, OLCV/Oregon Conservation Network, (503) 515-8548 HB 2940: Erosion of the Renewable Energy Standard Status: In Senate Rules Committee The Senate is considering House Bill 2940, a bill that would cause damaging erosion to Oregon’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES). Currently, the RES requires Oregon utilities to provide their customers with 25% new renewable energy by 2025. HB 2940, together with the additional proposed amendments to it, would cut the amount of new renewable energy required by the RES in half. The bill represents a giant step backward for clean energy in Oregon, and conservation groups around the state are opposed to it.
If HB 2940 passes, only half as much new renewable energy - and associated greenhouse-gas emissions reductions, jobs, property-tax income, landowner payments, and other economic benefits – would be serving Oregon families.
Please contact Senate President Peter Courtney to express your opposition to HB 2940 and ask him to vote No.
Contact: Suzanne Leta Liou, Renewable Northwest Project, (503) 223-4544
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Contact: Kristen Leonard, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, (503) 320-9427 2. House Bill 3465 Stalled in Revenue Committee Right now, when we throw deposit containers away or put them in curbside recycling rather than redeeming them, the five cent deposit is retained—not by the state, but by the beverage distributors.
HB 3465 aims to make our bottle bill return system more transparent and accountable by requiring the state’s beverage distributors to report on the number of cans and bottles sold each year and the number returned for deposit annually. This way we will have hard numbers on how successful our redemption program is, and how many of the deposits are staying with the distributors. HB 3465 also requires that distributors report their progress on creating redemption centers. Believe it or not, we currently have no way of getting that information.
This bill promotes good government. At the same time, this information will be critical for improving redemption rates, keeping litter off the streets, and diverting recycling from landfills. The bill is currently stalled in Revenue while we gather support in the House- please contact your legislator and encourage them to pass HB 3465!
Contact: Brock Howell, Environment Oregon, (503) 231-1986
Reducing the use of pesticide in schools and cleaning up polluting diesel school buses are effective ways to improve our school environments and the health of our kids. House Bill 2795, passed the Senate this morning (18-11), and is now on its way to the Governor! This bill requires the retrofitting of all diesel school buses in Oregon by 2017, or those that are too old to be retrofitted be replaced by 2025. Diesel exhaust exacerbates asthma and is linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, regional haze and global warming. Read more on the OEC website. And congratulations to all! Senate Bill 637 will create healthier schools by requiring that all K-12 schools in Oregon adopt Integrated Pest Management policies, reducing the use of pesticides in and around schools. This bill is up for a vote on the House Floor this Monday. Contact: Andrea Salinas, Oregon Environmental Council, (971) 221-2653 or Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis, Oregon Environmental Council, (503) 222-1963
4. The Metolius Protection Act of 2009 Takes a New Name Yesterday, the Senate Rules Committee took an important step toward protecting the Metolius by amending House Bill 3298 to include language from House Bill 3100, the original Metolius Protection Act (Read the story here). The bills are now identical and HB 3298 is our best chance to give the Metolius the long-term protection it so richly deserves. Naming the Metolius an Area of Critical State Concern will protect the area from the negative impacts of two controversial destination resorts proposed in and near the Metolius Basin.
Please contact your Senator today and ask him or her to support House Bill 3298, the Metolius Protection Act of 2009. Contact: Danielle Welliever, 1000 Friends of Oregon, (360) 259-8385
6. Paint Recovery Bill May Move Forward
Legislative Town Halls and Constituent Coffees
Coming Up... Representative Tim Freeman and Senator Jeff Kruse
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Senate Bill 38, Measuring and Reporting Pollution Emissions: House Floor vote Monday
