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Current Campaigns

• Clean Air for All - A Campaign to Ban Field Burning

Field burning pours thousands of tons of air pollution into our air every summer creating a public health crisis. Oregon Toxics Alliance is working with a coalition of environmental groups, physicians, and state legislators to pass legislation to ban grass seed field burning within the state of Oregon. 

• Pesticides

Pesticides are chemicals designed to kill and destroy living organisms. By their very nature they create risk to humans, plants, and animals. Many pesticides in use today are known to cause cancer, genetic damage, asthma, miscarriages, and birth defects.  They can burn the skin and eyes, damage the nervous system, and disrupt our hormone and immune systems.  They kill fish and birds, and many other unintended plants and animals.  They contaminate our land and waters. Oregon Toxics Alliance is working with a number of community groups, citizens, and state legislators to reduce pesticides to protect children, adults, and the environment from the health effects of pesticides.

• Rail Yard Contamination in Eugene

Oregon Toxics Alliance is providing technical assistance, organizational skills and professional clout to empower Eugene residents to demand accurate information about the level of contamination from polluted ground water, soil and air due to 75 years of toxic rail yard activities. Community insistence convinced Union Pacific to order an independent assessment of the cancer risk caused by the contaminated groundwater plume.  The study, published in January 2006, documents that the cancer risk exceeds standard levels for a number of toxic chemicals once used at the rail yard.  OTA is supplying critical organizational support to the Rail Road Pollution Coalition to help over 20,000 residents act to protect their health and the safety of local ground water and soils.

• Benzene Pollution Reduction Campaign

     OTA is advocating for a state law to require that all gas stations with underground tanks greater than 1500 gallons use Stage One vapor emission control equipment to reduce fugitive emissions of benzene and other petrochemical by-products.  There is mounting evidence that on-going exposure to benzene vapors emitted by gas stations significantly raise the risk of a child being diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.  Vapor control equipment is an important tool to improve air quality and reduce hazardous air pollutants.

• Community Toxics Right to Know (TRTK)

     OTA advocates for implementation of community toxics right-to-know laws as a positive method to bring change to the laws and policies regarding environmental and public health in Oregon . We believe that the public has a fundamental right to know the identity and amounts of toxic chemicals that are released into the workplaces, air, water, soil, and environment of their community.  The founders of OTA spearheaded the 1996 campaign to pass Eugene ’s pioneering Toxics Right to Know program and chemical reporting ordinance.  OTA provides organizational strategy and advocacy for toxics right-to-know laws in other communities and promotes the public benefit of the right to know what hazardous chemicals are released into neighborhoods and shared environments.

     All of us have the right to breathe clean air, live in areas free from toxic pollution, and consume safe food and water.  In order to guarantee this right, the public must have the ability to know about toxic materials stored and released in their community.  However, industry is required to report less then 5% of its chemical use.  An important tool to hold industry accountable for reducing their toxics use and emissions, the public needs to insist on Toxics Right to Know.

• Toxics Use Reduction Home Guide.

Oregon Toxics Alliance has a public education feature on our website: Home Guide to Toxics Use Reduction and Preventing Children’s Exposures to Toxics. Our goal is to provide citizens with the information they need to protect their families and themselves from unnecessary indoor air pollution and contact with toxic chemicals in their homes.

• Precautionary Principle - Be Safe Oregon

     The Precautionary Principle, provides a framework for decision-makers which states that protective action can and should be taken to prevent harm to human health and the environment when there is credible evidence that harm is occuring or is likely to occur.  Although largely developed  and adopted in Europe, the precautionary approach is an important element of US environmental policy, including the U.S. Pollution Prevention Act of 1990.  It has been implemented at the municipal level and has been successfully woven into policies by the City of San Francisco and others.  OTA is working with selected cities in Oregon to explore the benefits of implementing  the principle to guide decision-making in city government.

     OTA is building support for the Precautionary Approach to help Oregonians prevent health threats and environmental destruction before they happen.

Community Partnerships

     OTA receives numbers requests from Oregon communities across the state in need of expert help to understand local contamination issues or to form grassroots opposition to industrial facilities that plan to unnecessarily release toxic chemicals.  OTA also advises communities on the application of the guiding principles of alternative assessment, toxics right-to-know and precautionary principle.  The Board of Directors reviews the requests for community partnerships to make decisions about prioritizing and providing assistance. 

2005-2006 Community Partnerships Projects:

  • Ontario ; Concerned Citizens of Malheur County – Chemical gasification facility;
  • Eugene; River Road and Bethel Neighbors – Creosote emissions from an old manufacturing plant, and Union Pacific rail yard ground water contamination;
  • Toledo : Emissions from the Georgia Pacific pulp and paper mill;
  • Coburg : Save Our Valley - grassroots opposition to fossil fuel power plant and natural gas pipeline;
  • Citizens in rural Lane County – assistance with understanding levels of herbicide/pesticide spray on forest and agricultural lands and finding solutions to reduce chemical spray and protect humans and wildlife.