Our Mission
Friends of Toppenish Creek is dedicated to protecting the rights of rural communities and improving oversight of industrial agriculture. FOTC operates under the simple principle that all people deserve clean air, clean water and protection from abuse that results when profit is favored over people. FOTC works through public education, citizen investigations, research, legislation, special events, and direct action.
In June 2019 the Lower Yakima Valley Groundwater Management Area delivered a Program to address groundwater pollution in the area. The Friends of Toppenish Creek wrote a Minority Report and later filed an appeal of Ecology's certification of the Program in August 2019.
Learn About FOTC's September 2020 Appeal to the WA State Pollution Control Hearings Board:
We anticipate a ruling by the end of February 2021 and will post that ruling here
Northwest Environmental Advocates won a major legal victory on January 11, 2021. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle ordered the WA State Dept. of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take steps to reduce polluted runoff from land uses such as farming, logging, and septic systems.
While Washington has a state program to control logging pollution, it has no such program for farming and livestock grazing, and local governments have failed to carry out state laws to limit nutrient pollution from septic systems around Puget Sound.
This settlement also ensures that three federal agencies will review Ecology’s work to make sure that the size of streamside buffers will be sufficient to protect salmon and other threatened and endangered species.
To learn more click here or go to https://www.northwestenvironmentaladvocates.org/2021/01/11/court-settlement-benefits-washington-waters/
THE ORGANIC FARMING MOVEMENT was built on a loving, collaborative relationship between producers farming in consort with nature and consumers who are willing to more fairly compensate them for their efforts. For the first 25 years, this relationship returned increasing and economically stable farm gate prices—unlike the rest of agriculture. But the lucrative and growing industry was just too much to resist, and corporate agribusiness, with the tacit endorsement of federal regulators, accelerated its takeover and is currently squeezing family-scale farmers out of business.
To learn more click here or go to DairyReport2018-full-report.pdf (cornucopia.org)
Friends of Toppenish Creek Needs your help! Please consider joining us.
Groundwater levels are dropping. Will there be adequate water for your children and grandchildren to use in their daily lives?
Is the Lower Yakima Valley water quality hazardous to your and your children’s health now and in the future?
What can we do to limit the mega dairies from polluting the air and the water supplies?
Is there a way to stop the over application of dairy manure to our lower valley lands?
Why should a 75 year old WA state law which says livestock has unlimited water not be challenged in these modern times of population and agrarian growth?
Please contact us through www.friendsoftoppenishcreek.org or by phone at 509-874-2798
Lower Valley GWMA Budget Discussion
September 17, 2014 - The Lower Yakima Valley Groundwater Management Area was created in 2012 to address pollution of groundwater with nitrates. Various studies have found that 12% t0 20% of wells in the area have nitrates higher than the safe level -10mg/L. In the interest of keeping the public well informed, Friends of the Toppenish Creek will post videos of the ground water management committee meetings. These videos are from August 21, 2014, recorded at Radio KDNA in Granger WA. The purpose of this meeting was to... Read More »
Chief Sealth's Words
August 06, 2012 - Chief Sealth's Words - 1854
Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds.
My words are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon the return of the sun or the seasons.
The white chief says that Big Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship ... Read More »