Columbia River Basin Restoration Working Group

About the group

In October 2020, EPA transitioned the existing Columbia River Toxics Reduction Working Group into the Columbia River Basin Restoration Working Group to align with the 2016 amendment to the Clean Water Act, Section 123, which created the Columbia River Basin Restoration Program.

The goal of the working group is to understand and reduce toxics across the basin. It reflects the governmental, geographic, cultural, and economic diversity of the basin and includes representatives from tribal governments, states, industry, utilities, non-governmental organizations, and others.

More information: Fact Sheet: Columbia River Basin Restoration Program Working Group (pdf) (354.75 KB, February 2022)

Meetings

The working group meets two times each year, led and coordinated by EPA. Meetings are open to the public and anyone may participate.

Next meeting

June 10, 2025 (virtual only)
9am-12:30pm (Pacific) | 10am – 1:30pm (Mountain)

Register to attend (deadline to register is June 6) - Please register (at no cost) to choose your breakout group. Registration information is collected by Eastern Research Group, Inc. on contract to EPA and will not be shared.
Join the meeting (Microsoft Teams)
Call-in (voice only): 202-991-0477, code: 443210159#

Working group participants are also welcome to join an additional Toxics Monitoring Subgroup Workshop on June 12 from 9am-12pm (Pacific) that will focus on development of the science and monitoring strategy. For more information, contact gs-crbtoxmon@usgs.gov.

Past meetings

Additional materials from past meetings are available on EPA's file sharing site: Meeting Summaries and Presentations.

Toxics monitoring subgroup

The ad hoc Toxics Monitoring Subgroup grew out of a request for more focused discussion at the October 2020 Columbia River Basin Restoration Program Working Group meeting. Following that meeting, EPA hosted two webinars (in February and June of 2021). The goal of these collaborative meetings was to provide a flexible forum for grantees to share monitoring activities, discuss analytical methods, ask questions of EPA and other grantees, and share information and best practices. The group builds on these past meetings and establishes an ongoing conversation about monitoring in the Basin.

Subgroup meetings

Visit the Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership's CRBRP Toxics Monitoring Subgroup web page for meeting information.

Past subgroup meetings

Slide presentations and other meeting materials are available on EPA's file sharing site:

Toxics monitoring dashboard

The Columbia River Basin Toxics Monitoring Dashboard visualizes the data collected in the Toxics Monitoring Project Tracking Matrix. Together they are intended to advance the broad understanding of toxics monitoring efforts in the Basin (who’s doing what, where, when, and how), help facilitate coordination and collaboration among toxics monitoring projects, and assist with identifying information gaps.

For more information about the subgroup, contact gs-crbtoxmon@usgs.gov.

Project highlights

Below are some of the technical and informational products developed by the working group, including:

Contacts

For questions, please email us at ColumbiaRiverBasinGrant@epa.gov.