Friends of Toppenish Creek

Board of Directors

Executive Director

 

FOTC Articles of Incorporation

FOTC By Laws

 

 

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 509-367-3581

What membership means

 

Goals and Objectives

The Friends of Toppenish Creek is a non-profit corporation, created in 2009, for the following charitable, scientific and educational purposes:

  1. To take and inspire action to restore, enhance, preserve and protect the Toppenish Creek, Yakima and Columbia River watersheds as a natural resource and a community resource, and to restore, enhance, preserve, and protect open space and natural areas within the watersheds; 
  2. To promote awareness, community support and appreciation of the Toppenish Creek, Yakima and Columbia River watersheds;
  3. To promote for the benefit of the general public the preservation, protection and balanced use of the natural resources in, but not limited to, the Toppenish Creek, Yakima and Columbia River watersheds;
  4. To increase awareness and be a catalyst for change affecting the quality of water, fish in the streams and rivers, drinking water and air;
  5. To increase community eco-friendly use, appreciation and understanding of the natural environment through protection and preservation of the Toppenish Creek watershed ecosystem, for the enjoyment, education, and benefit of present and future generations;
  6. To randomly test water quality through the measurement of phosphates and/or nitrates in drinking water;
  7. To use all properties held or controlled by the corporation and the net earnings thereof for the benefit of the general public and for charitable, educational, recreational, conservation, scientific, and historic purposes;
  8. To cooperate with other nonprofit organizations in the preservation, monitoring, and conservation of the Toppenish Creek, Yakima and Columbia River watersheds;
  9. To cooperate with other nonprofit organizations in the preservation, monitoring, and conservation of other watersheds and ecosystems throughout the Country;
  10. To aid, support, and assist by gifts, contributions or otherwise, other corporations, community chests, funds and foundations organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, or educational purposes, including one or more of the purposes listed above.
  11. To do any and all lawful activities which may be necessary, useful or desirable for the furtherance, accomplishment, fostering or attainment of the above purposes, either directly or indirectly and either alone or in conjunction or cooperation with others.

Accomplishments

     FOTC formed in 2008 when a large, concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) dairy sought permission to relocate next to a wildlife refuge near Toppenish Creek on the Yakama Reservation. Neighbors knew that our quality of life would be destroyed, and the refuge would suffer serious pollution if the dairy set up operations in this area. Friends of Toppenish Creek took shape. We kept the dairy out and went on to become a leader in the fight for clean water and clean air in Yakima County.  

 

Helped secure a consent decree with Snipes Mountain Dairy that required lining of manure lagoons and agronomic application of manure to cropland

 

Helped secure a consent decree with John Bosma Dairy that required lining of manure lagoons and agronomic application of manure to cropland

 

Helped secure a consent decree with Sunnyside Dairy that required lining of manure lagoons and agronomic application of manure to cropland

 

Helped secure a consent decree with Viewpoint Dairy that required lining of manure lagoons and agronomic application of manure to cropland

 

Brought the EPA Office of Civil Rights to Yakima and secured an agreement to engage the public in both English and Spanish

 

Joined other environmental groups in litigation before the WA State Court of Appeals that resulted in ruling that requires the WA State Dept. of Ecology to re-write and improve National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES General Permits for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)

 

Conducted air monitoring in the Lower Yakima Valley that found ammonia levels 63 times higher than levels in the Upper Yakima Valley

 

Conducted water testing in the Yakima River Basin from Cle Elum to Prosser that found dioxins and furans in well water

 

Presented a bi-lingual public forum on drinking water for the people of the Lower Yakima Valley

 

Joined national environmental groups in petitioning the EPA to protect the environment in Yakima County