Four Indian nations in the Columbia Basin are calling on the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality to launch a "comprehensive
investigation" into dioxin contamination at a Union Pacific-owned
Superfund site in The Dalles, according to an article by Paul Koberstein and
Jessica Applegate of the Portland environmental journal Cascadia Times.
Past studies showed that several species of Columbia River fish caught
downstream from The Dalles were contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic
chemical, according to the article. No one knows yet if the dioxin originated
at the Union Pacific Superfund site.
But the four Indian nations, each with treaty rights to Columbia River fish,
want to find out.
The reporters' article, Dioxin in The Dalles, is the fourth in a series
on a site in the Columbia riverfront community long used to treat railroad ties
with creosote. It was based on a review of 5,500 pages of documents released in
May by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
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