Northwest (OR WA)

"As long as American Indians have lived in the Pacific Northwest, they have looked to a jawless, eel-like fish for food."

"For over 75 years, Blau Oyster Co. has relied on Washington state's cool clean waters to grow the plump oysters that are as prized in the Northwest as salmon and orcas. But too much pollution from animal and human waste has been washing into Samish Bay in north Puget Sound, prohibiting shellfish harvests 38 days already this year."

"Oregon's Environmental Quality Commission [Thursday] adopted the strictest standards for toxic water pollution in the United States."

"The Elwha River on Washington's Olympic Peninsula once teemed with legendary salmon runs before two towering concrete dams built nearly a century ago cut off fish access to upstream habitat, diminished their runs and altered the ecosystem." Now the dams are being removed.

"The states of Oregon and Washington agreed on Wednesday to suspend euthanizing sea lions caught feasting on endangered Columbia River salmon until September while the courts consider a lawsuit challenging such killings."

A timeline of past megaquakes and tsunamis generated by the Cascadia fault leaves one clear message for the coastal Pacific Northwest: Prepare.

"The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are leading the drive to push Oregon to adopt the nation’s strictest rules against toxic pollution of the state’s waters."

Environmentalists say mercury emissions from the TransAlta coal-burning electric power plant in Washington state are dangerous.