2025 Goals

Photo Credit Ben Herndon

Five Challenges to Tackle in 2025

By Simone Anter, Staff Attorney & Hanford Program Director

Originally published in Columbia Riverkeeper “Currents” Issue 2, 2024

As 2024 comes to end, Columbia Riverkeeper is celebrating our wins and setting our goals for 2025. A new year means new challenges, but it also means new opportunities to protect the river that we all love so much. Here are the five challenges we plan to tackle.

1.) Put the Fun in Superfund

Maintain energy and engagement on long-term hazardous cleanup sites along the Columbia River.

Columbia Riverkeeper focuses energy on two Superfund cleanup sites along the Columbia River: the Hanford Nuclear Site and Bradford Island, the river’s newest Superfund site. What sets Superfund sites apart from other cleanup sites? The long-term nature of the clean up involved and the hazardous nature of the contamination. This poses unique challenges for engagement, including maintaining hope and engagement in the process, two things we will continue to do in 2025.

Both Bradford Island and Hanford pose enormous risks to the Columbia River—Hanford being the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere with contaminated groundwater already reaching the river, and Bradford Island having the highest levels of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the country. Watchdogging the cleanup process is vital to ensuring government accountability.

2.) Rewrite the Script on False Solutions to the Climate Crisis 

Call out Small Modular Nuclear Reactors  (SMNRs) and greenwashed energy developments that will not stop the climate crisis.

As our climate crisis worsens, increased energy development proposals abound. Columbia Riverkeeper will continue to vet new energy development along the Columbia based on the proposed environmental impacts, impacts to BIPOC and frontline communities, and impacts to Tribal cultural and religious resources.

Columbia Riverkeeper will also continue to advocate for a just and equitable green energy transition. We’ll fight against false solutions like SMNRs, which will produce more nuclear waste for which there is no long-term disposal, and improperly sited developments like the Goldendale Pumped Storage proposal. 

3.) Forget Fossil Fuels

Stop new fossil fuel infrastructure and advocate for policies that promote climate action.

Zenith, NXT Energy and GTN are all energy projects that will impact people’s water and increase our reliance on fossil fuels. In 2025, Riverkeeper will elevate the voices of people who are pinpointing the flaws in these developments. Our climate and the Columbia River cannot afford to lock in decades of fossil fuel infrastructure.

In addition to fighting fossil fuel infrastructure, Columbia Riverkeeper will continue to engage in the strategic local and state policy opportunities to advance our climate goals.

4.) Empower and Inspire

Learn from and prepare the next generation with the skills and knowledge to take up the mantle.

Nothing is more challenging than continued, long-term inspiration and vigilance, something Columbia Riverkeeper’s campaigns require. In 2025, we will tackle this problem by continuing our education and outreach all around the Columbia River Basin, to build collective knowledge around the issues we work on and how to stay involved. Focusing on the next generation not only nurtures tomorrow’s leaders, it gives us fresh perspectives on how we can be more effective in our advocacy.

Collaboration in the form of skill building and uplifting the voices of the next generation ensures that this important work continues. Riverkeeper will continue spending time in the classroom, talking with students about our work, tabling at community events, providing internship and scholarship opportunities, and uplifting the next generation’s voices.

5.) Recover Harvestable Salmon Runs

Demand action now for better fish passage and heat pollution reductions on behalf of imperiled salmon.

The largest contributing factors to the loss of salmon are warm water and dams, which raise water temperatures, impede migration, and block access to important spawning habitat.

As our climate heats up, the Columbia and Snake river temperatures continue to rise. We have to act now if we are going to save these keystone species from extinction. In 2025, we will hold the government accountable to the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative, advance litigation for fish passage, and use science and the law to restore the Columbia’s iconic salmon.

With your support, Columbia Riverkeeper has won on big issues in the past. We are gearing up for our 25th anniversary and another year of fighting the good fight, arm and arm with people who rely on and love the mighty Columbia.