Cover Story In any good monster movie, the initial terror comes from knowing there’s something awful out there—even though you don’t get a good look at it.  It lurks in the shadows or just bene   More

News The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched a criminal investigation into a large leak of ammonia from a Columbia County fertilizer plant in 2010 that went undetected for five days. Re   More

News A years-long battle with the feds [PDF] over Portland's drinking water crosses another threshold next week as City Council considers how it will respond to the totally sexy-sounding "Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule" from the Environmental Protection Agency. First, some background: Last year, the U.S. District Court of Appeals rejected a plea from Portland leaders to deem parts ...   More

News The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied [PDF] the City of Portland's request for a variance that would have allowed the city to keep its open reservoirs at Mt. Tabor and Washington Park. The EPA has recommended instead that the City follow its own plans from last year to build new, enclosed storage facilities. The letter from the feds is stamped Dec. 16, 2009. The Water Bureau ...   More

News Mary Peveto calls herself an “accidental activist.” She had no plans to be an environmentalist until a year ago when she saw a USA Today article that used EPA data to map the industrial pollution near schools across the nation. The data placed the Northwest Portland school that Peveto's three children attend, Chapman Elementary, in the worst 2 percent in the country in terms of air ...   More