The Green River has been recognized as an Outstanding Resource Water!

Earlier this year, upper sections of the Green River near Mount St. Helens, along with sections of the Napeequa River and the Cascade River, were designated as Washington’s first-ever Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW) by the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology). 

The Clean Water Act of 1972 tasks individual states with designating waters possessing exceptional ecological and recreational value as Outstanding Resource Waters. Once designated, ORWs receive high levels of protection. The Green River’s new ORW status is well-deserved in light of the unique roles this waterway plays for fish, wildlife, and the many people who love and care for this special corner of the Cascades.

Members of the Green River Valley Alliance were involved in the process of nominating the Green River for ORW status from the beginning, and worked to build public support for the new designation in the year leading up to Ecology’s decision.

Does the Green River’s new ORW status end the threat of mining in the Green River Valley?

The short answer is maybe, though we believe it will reduce the chance that any future attempt to mine here is successful.

Here’s why. The protections conferred by the Green’s new ORW status prohibit any new activities that would degrade or damage the water quality of designated sections of the river. However, these protections do not explicitly prohibit mining, which leaves a door open for a mining corporation attempting to claim that a future proposed project wouldn’t damage the river or to attempt to employ a bunch of technology to mitigate their impacts on water quality.

Despite this possibility, we believe the decision by Ecology to recognize the unique value of the  Green River is an important victory for our alliance. ORW status will serve as a strong deterrent to future attempts to mine here, provide an additional layer of legal protection against mining interests, and adds further support to the argument we’ve been making for years: Mount St. Helens is NO PLACE FOR A MINE! 

How is our focus shifting in 2024?

While the Green’s ORW status has provided some breathing room, the Green River Valley Alliance is continuing to pursue a mineral withdrawal–a federal land management tool which provides long-term protections by explicitly prohibiting mining in the area without impacting other permitted activities.

So far, we’ve focused primarily on pursuing the strongest and most long-lasting protection possible, specifically a legislative mineral withdrawal enacted by Congress. The benefit of a legislative mineral withdrawal over the alternative, an administrative mineral withdrawal, is that an administrative action is effective for up to 20 years, while an act of Congress is more or less permanent. The benefits of the administrative withdrawal are that it can be enacted by the Secretary of the Interior rather than by Congress.

With 2024 being an election year and in the face of perpetual Congressional gridlock, we have decided to shift our primary focus to pursue an administrative mineral withdrawal, while continuing to work towards a bill in Congress that would make the protections we hope to secure administratively permanent.

In other words , although we’ve made great progress in building momentum, demonstrating support, and gaining new untested state protections – there is still work to do to ensure this place is emphatically and clearly declared NO PLACE FOR A MINE.