Group formed to invest, grant money from state's largest environmental damages settlement
The Lower John Day River, pictured, is among the Oregon waterways contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls. (Photo by Greg Shine/U.S. Bureau of Land Management/Flickr)
More than two years ago, Oregon settled with agrochemical giant Monsanto over the company's alleged role in polluting waters of the state for more than 90 years with toxic chemicals harming humans and aquatic species.
Now, Gov. Tina Kotek and the newly established Oregon Environmental Restoration Council will begin planning, investing and distributing that settlement money – $698 million – over the course of 50 years, using it to pay for environmental restoration and cleanup work across the state. Kotek announced the council's chairs Wednesday, as well as details about how the money in the state's Environmental Restoration Fund will eventually be allocated.
'The term 'once-in-a-generation opportunity' can be a little bit hyperbolic, but I think in this case, it's absolutely true,' said Nicole Maness, manager of the fund. 'This is a significant amount of money, and it's coming at a time when there's a huge amount of uncertainty around federal funding for restoration.'
The settlement money will be invested by the State Treasury, and earn interest income that will be distributed by the Environmental Restoration Council and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board biennially, Maness said.
Half of the settlement money awarded each biennium will go to state agencies to support work on water and environmental restoration. One quarter will go to the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon for conservation and natural resources; and the remaining quarter will go to local communities and community-based organizations for projects benefitting people and neighborhoods disproportionately harmed by pollution.
The deal between the Oregon Department of Justice and Monsanto is the largest environmental damages settlement in state history. The company agreed to pay in December 2022 to end a lawsuit brought by then Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum over allegations that Monsanto had for decades polluted state waters with Polychlorinated biphenyls, also called PCBs. Oregon is among several states that have sued the company, which has not admitted guilt or liability for the pollution.
Monsanto was for decades the only manufacturer, seller and distributor of PCBs — colorless or light yellow compounds once used in coolants, electrical equipment, hydraulic oils, paints and caulking and copy paper — until it voluntarily ceased production of the compounds in 1977. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found the compounds can cause cancer in animals, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency says they are likely human carcinogens. PCBs continue to leach from landfills and travel into ground and surface waters where they are difficult to remove.
More than a dozen waterways in Oregon are damaged by PCBs, including the Portland Harbor, Lower Columbia River, Middle Columbia River, Willamette River, Upper and Lower John Day Rivers and Coos Bay.
The money will be used for more than just trying to tackle PCB pollution, Maness said, and 'in a way that is going to be meaningful to Oregonians, that is going to strike that balance between addressing past harms, but also opportunities to restore places that are important to people, important to wildlife.'
These could include removing barriers to fish passage, improving overall water quality and aquatic habitat and ensuring salmon consumed among many tribes in Oregon are abundant and safe to eat, she said.
Kotek on Wednesday announced she appointed Chuck Sams, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the former director of the National Park Service, and Michael Dembrow, former Democratic state senator representing Portland, as co-chairs of the council. She also appointed Vice Chair Cheyenne Holliday, advocacy director at the nonprofit Portland-based environmental and social justice group Verde.
'This is a tremendous opportunity for us to improve the health and living conditions of Oregonians in every part of the state, year after year for the next fifty years at least,' Dembrow said in a news release. 'It's especially important to have this stable source of funding right now, given our uncertain state budget and little hope for federal support for this important work.'
The rest of the council will be made up of the directors, or a designee of the directors, of the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality; Oregon's attorney general or someone from the Office of the Attorney General; and two non-voting members from the Oregon House of Representatives and the Oregon Senate, chosen by those chambers.
Kotek has yet to pick the final two members of the 11-member council she gets to appoint, but Maness said they will have to possess expertise in either PCBs or a wide range of environmental toxins.
The council aims to have its first meeting this summer, Maness said.
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And the price of uranium would have to rise enough to make domestic production financially sustainable. If that happens, it would mean revival — and jobs — to an industry that locally has been moribund since the Ronald Reagan era. 'President Trump has made it clear that our energy security is national security," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in announcing the fast-tracking policy in April. 'These emergency procedures reflect our unwavering commitment to protecting both.' More fast approvals appear likely. Trump's order also applies to oil, gas, coal, biofuel and hydropower projects — but not renewable energy — on federal lands. Conditions are ripe for more U.S. uranium mining Global uranium prices are double what they were at a low point seven years ago and, for the past year, the U.S. has banned uranium imports from Russia due to that country's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. More domestic mining would address a major imbalance. The U.S. imports about 98% of the uranium it uses to generate 30% of the world's nuclear energy. More than two-thirds of U.S. imports come from the world's top three uranium-mining countries: Canada, Australia and Kazakhstan. Less government regulation won't spur more U.S. uranium mining by itself. The market matters. And while spot-market prices are up from several years ago, they're down about a third from their recent high in early 2024. While some new uranium mining and processing projects have been announced, their number falls far short of a surge. That suggests prices need to rise — and stay there — for a true industry revival, said John Uhrie, a former uranium executive who now works in the cement industry. 'Until the price goes up dramatically, you're not going to be able to actually put these places into operation,' Uhrie said. 'You need significant capital on the ground.' Still, the industry is showing new life in the Southwest. 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Nods to Moab's post-World War II mining heyday can been spotted around town — the Atomic Hair Salon isn't just named for its blowout hairstyles. The biggest reminder is the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project, a 480-acre (194-hectare) site just outside town. The decades-long, $1 billion U.S. Department of Energy effort to haul off toxic tailings that were leaching into the Colorado River upstream from the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead should wrap up within five more years. That mill's polluting legacy makes some Moab residents wary of restarting uranium mining and processing, especially after the Trump administration cut short their ability to weigh in on the Velvet-Wood mine plans. 'This was a process I would have been involved in,' said Sarah Fields, director of the local group Uranium Watch. 'They provided no opportunity for the public to say, 'You need to look at this, you need to look at that.'" Grand Canyon Trust, a group critical of the Pinyon Plain mine as a danger to groundwater, points out that the U.S. nuclear industry isn't at risk of losing access to uranium. 'This is all being done under the assumption there is some energy emergency and that is just not true,' said Amber Reimondo, the group's energy director. Supply and demand will decide uranium mining's future Hundreds of miles to the north, other nuclear energy projects point to the U.S. industry's future. With Bill Gates' support, TerraPower is building a 345-megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor outside Kemmerer in western Wyoming that could, in theory, meet demand for carbon-free power at lower costs and with less construction time than conventional reactor units. Meanwhile, about 40% of uranium mined in the U.S. in 2024 came from four Wyoming 'in-situ' mines that use wells to dissolve uranium in underground deposits and pump it to the surface without having to dig big holes or send miners underground. Similar mines in Texas and Nebraska and stockpiled ore processed at White Mesa accounted for the rest. None — as yet — came from mines in Utah. Powering electric cars and computing technology will require more electricity in the years ahead. Nuclear power offers a zero-carbon, round-the-clock option. Meeting the demand for nuclear fuel domestically is another matter. With prices higher, almost 700,000 pounds of yellowcake was produced in the U.S. in 2024 — up more than a dozen-fold from the year before but still far short of the 32 million pounds imported into the U.S. Even if mining increases, it's not clear that U.S. capacity to turn the ore into fuel would keep pace, said Uhrie, the former uranium mining executive. "Re-establishing a viable uranium industry from soup to nuts — meaning from mining through processing to yellow cake production, to conversion, to enrichment to produce nuclear fuel — remains a huge lift," Uhrie said. ___ Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
