Riverkeepers seek increased federal funds to monitor toxins in the lower Columbia

The Columbia Riverkeepers, a non-profit organization that seeks to protect water quality in the Columbia river is seeking $3.5 million in increased federal funding to monitor toxins in the lower Columbia river before the water reaches the Pacific Ocean.

The Oregonian Reports that the number of environmental monitoring sites has declined from 350 to 1, with 2 more sites planned, "meaning pollutants such as PCBs, DDT and mercury are going largely unrecorded and unmapped".

The Environmental protection agency tabbed the Columbia as one of the nation's 7 "great water bodies" in 2006, and targeted the Columbia as a priority site for monitoring and reducing toxic runoff.

The 146 mile-stretch of the lower Columbia from Astoria to the Bonneville Dam is host to some of the nation's largest salmon runs, subject to releases from chemical plants, paper mills, sewage treatment plants, agricultural pesticide runoff and industrial storm water sites in Portland and Vancouver.