Most of the population in the two counties lives around the confluence of three mighty rivers: the Columbia, Snake and Yakima. The mix of desert, intensive agriculture, dams, Native American claims and recreation creates a potent brew of water issues for the area. Besides water quantity and quality measures, air quality is a traditional concern, not so much from human as from natural causes. Measures addressing these concerns are tracked in this category. So are indicators following energy, recycling and some land use.
A full definition of each indicator, as well as its relevance to the two counties, can be found in the More Information section. The data are available in a spreadsheet via the Download Data tab.
