A multi-national corporation has submitted plans to build a hazardous liquefied natural gas import terminal on the North Spit of Coos Bay, and a 230-mile pipeline through Southern Oregon's neighborhoods, rivers, streams and public lands. Their main intent is to sell gas to the lucrative California market.

Portland City Council will consider this week a proposal to build a water treatment plant (LT2) for our pristine Bull Run water. The plan is, we are told, designed to address a US EPA requirement that all drinking water in the US be treated/filtered for Cryptosporidium. While this cookie cutter approach will likely add to the safety of water in other cities, it is not appropriate in Portland because our Bull Run system supplies water with virtually no possibility of contamination. Cryptosporidium in a form that is lethal to humans has never been found in the Bull Run water system. There has been no demonstrated need for treatment/filtration.

The construction of a water treatment plant will be very expensive, $385 million, all of it to be paid for by the city water users. The $385 million would be financed via the issuance of bonds; interest payments due and paid for by water users would increase that figure to close to $1 billion dollars.

Alliance for Democracy has joined others in calling for the Portland city council to postpone a decision until later in August, and to hold public meetings scheduled it a time when citizens can attend. Ask the Portland city council now to postpone a decision until the public can gain knowledge of what is at stake and can get their voices heard. In addition to the letter below from Oregon Wild, please see the editional comment by the Oregonian where they write "The best solution, of course, is the one that would cost nothing: Leave Portland's water alone."

[Background Article:  http://friendsofreservoirs.org/background.html]

Kettleman City is a small town in the southwestern San Joaquin Valley. The city is next to the I-5 Interstate Highway and is the site of the largest toxic waste dump in the western United States. About 200 residents held a march and rally on Saturday, July 18th, to protest a cluster of birth defects that has recently been exposed.

Maricela Mares-Alatorre is a mother and has lived in Kettleman City for 31 years. She also helped organize the march. Mares-Alatorre said "in the past we have fought a lot of issues with our local toxic land fill, which is the largest in California. Currently they are in the process of an expansion, but what we are asking for is a moratorium on all of those permits until there is an investigation as to why there are so many children being born with cleft palate. We have had a cluster here — in a 14 month period from 2007 to 2008 five children have been born with cleft palate. We just found out this morning that there is another woman who is pregnant who will also have a child with cleft palate and we believe that until that is investigated and they know why it is happening that there shouldn't be any more permits issued."

Maura Alatorre is one of the mothers whose child was born with a cleft palate. Alatorre said she was at the rally because "it is in honor of the children that were born with these deformities and thanks to the attention that everybody is putting into this rally, there will be attention put to the problem in Kettleman City and that will help."

On Friday, July 17th, Kings County health officials said they were on a fast track to investigate the high incidence of birth defects in Kettleman City. The US Environmental Protection Agency also released a statement on Friday saying that it will be working with the county and the state to determine if the incidents are related to environmental factors. Photos and Audio Report

Marylanders today announced launch of a citizens' organization to stop the proposed experimental French, double-sized nuclear reactor in order to save the dead and dying Chesapeake Bay.

The last few weeks have been unbelievable! I want to share some of my experiences so that anyone who hesitates taking time off their job might think again, and renounce being consumer slaves of corporate capital, in favor of radical adventure and creative insurrection against the global government of militant madness.

Nearly a month ago I took time off work to partake in the most amazing Cascadia Summer, something like a summer vacation, even with an overnight in Douglas County Jail.

On Thursday morning, July 16th throughout Oregon a loud sign of relief followed by cheering started to spread as word came from Washington D.C. that the Obama administration pulled all six Records of Decision on the WOPR (Western Oregon Plan Revision). This is a big victory for the forests, salmon, critters, rivers, workers, and citizens of Oregon. Read Full Report | Portland Indymedia Coverage

A Brief History of Ashland, Oregon’s Green Welcome and Sustainability Center

July 2050:

Looking back over forty years, things have certainly changed. In 2009, our country experienced an extreme shift in thinking as a result of a near financial meltdown and indications of impending climatic and resource consequences. During that time period people began to evaluate their individual and group actions and values and came to understand that they must begin putting back into the environment more than was being taken out.

It was difficult to return to conservative practices after people had grown accustomed to using the plentiful natural resources of the planet in frivolous ways. When the cost of cheap fossil fuels accelerated based on decreasing supply and increasing demand,other solutions became,at first,necessary, and eventually mainstream - even popular.

The nation's food security could be at risk in a warming climate, say a group of climate scientists and other experts representing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Iowa State University, the US Climate Change Science Program (US CCSP), and the Great Plains Institute, in a new report called the Corn and Climate Report.

"High temperatures can lead to crop failure," said Professor Eugene Takle of Iowa State University. "There are likely to be other pressures as well, from unpredictable rainfall and snow cover to northward migration of diseases, all of which threaten the Midwest's ability to produce corn and other agricultural commodities." Read More | Related: A Brief History of Ashland, Oregon’s Green Welcome and Sustainability Center

In a recent talk Bruce Sterling proposed that the environmentalists of my generation apply the "Great-Grandfather Principle" to their actions. "Stop acting dead," he said.

read more

July 9, 2009 — Elk River Municipal Utilities yesterday rejected a proposal to become a partial owner in Big Stone II. Elk River’s rejection was the same day as a decision by Basin Electric Power in South Dakota to pull plans for a new coal-fired power plant.

Elk River's disavowal of coal is part of a trend. A string of 100 coal plants--with Intermountain Power coal plant in Utah as the landmark number 100-- have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush in 2001. Activists calling for a transition away from coal call this a significant milestone in the shift to clean energy. Read More | | | Past Coverage: Elk River City Council Tables Coal Decision, Big Stone II Goes Back to Utilities Commission July 8 | Elk River Municipal Power to Decide: Invest in Big Stone II Coal Burner?

Roseburg, OR - Following its annual national gathering, the no-compromise group Cascadia Earth First!, along with Cascadia Rising Tide, dropped a huge "Dam Home Depot, Save Chile's Rivers" banner at the corporation's Roseburg, Oregon store. The store is at 3000 NW Aviation Drive.

The groups are protesting The Home Depot's buying of timber products from the Matte Group, which is involved in a proposal to build five big dams on two pristine rivers in Patagonia, southern Chile. The dams and their associated transmission lines would ruin the Baker and Pasqua river ecosystems, flood rare endangered forests and destroy livelihoods.

www.internationalrivers.org/patagonia