Street roots., August 15, 2014, Page 8, Image 8

8
street roots
Aug. 15, 2014
This land is your land
Brownfields are everywhere in and around
Portland, prompting a concerted effort to
explore options for this property that grows
in value with the city’s need for space
85th Avenue & NE Siskiyou Street
H
This expansive property in Northeast
Portland faces a residential neighborhood.
It housed a landfill in the 1970s and was
closed and capped in 1982. It later served
as a driving range, but has sat vacant for
decades. Neighbors worked with former
Mayor Sam Adams to stop a Canadian firm
that proposed a big-box shopping center
from buying the land seven years ago
because they feared a WalMart might
move in. In 2009, the Oregonian reported
that at one point, the property owner fell
behind on regular methane tests required
by state regulators, causing neighbors
environmental concerns. DEQ tests show
that methane continues to leak from the
property.
BY E M ILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
hey’re everywhere, but often go unnoticed — the
empty lots and vacant buildings that dot many of
Portland’s thoroughfares and neighborhoods.
Overgrown with innumerable weeds or concealed by a
layer of asphalt, they hardly catch the eye. But in a city
that projects a population growth of 200,000 people over
the next 20 years, the potential for development on •
brownfields will play a vital role in the future of
neighborhoods around them. These vacant fields are
commonplace occurrences on outer East Portland’s
landscape, and some area neighborhood associations
hope property owners will sell to developers who will
build businesses that benefit their communities rather
than pave the way for more fast-food chains and
convenience stores.
But there is more to these formerly developed
brownfields, than their unknown future. Many are toxic
or under suspicion of being toxic. In many cases, the
existence of contamination is unknown because there is
no requirement that property owners disclose
environmental hazards on their property to the state. A
vacant lot may have housed a gas station, dry cleaner or
other operator of toxic chemicals in its earlier days, so
before it can be developed, it has to be tested and made
safe if necessary. In the meantime, historical pollutants
can pose health risks to those close in proximity.
Earlier this year, the Department of Environmental
Quality began work on an EPA-funded pilot project to
identify and assess former dry cleaner lots in Portland
and Tillamook, many of which are brownfields. Dry
cleaners use the carcinogenic solvent tetrachloroethylene,
more commonly known as PCE. While its use today is
highly regulated and managed, in the past many dry
cleaners dumped the used solvent out the door of their
businesses, contaminating the property for years to
come.
Project lead Sarah Miller scoured old phone books and
directories to determine where the cleaners had been
located and to see if any of the sites are in close
proximity to schools, churches, residences or other
buildings where vulnerable people might be spending a
lot of time. Thus far, DEQ has discovered 40 historic dry
cleaners near 82nd Avenue that were previously
unknown. Some are brownfields, and some are
businesses. A Mexican restaurant and a horse tack shop
are on the short list of former dry cleaners that DEQ is
examining for its pilot project
Miller said that the most common effects felt from
exposure include “headaches, dizziness and sleepiness.”
Long-term effects can be much more serious. According
to the EPA, all routes of exposure to PCE can be
carcinogenic, and in some cases lead to reproductive and
central nervous system disorders.
There dbe currently more than 100 sites in Portland
receiving EPA funds to help with the assessment and
cleanup process. Often property owners will foot the bill.
Some properties sit un-assessed while their owners wait
for property values to go up. Many times contamination
isn’t discovered until a buyer comes along and
investigates.
According to a report released by the City of Portland
in 2012, there are approximately 910 acres of brownfield
properties in Portland, and the development of those
properties could result in 31,000 new jobs.
Metro, the area’s regional government, has also
formed a broad coalition of organizations, businesses and
interested parties to address the future viability of these
properties. The group, which started this year and meets
quarterly, is looking at various options for developing the
properties — where viable — including incentives for
remediation to examining existing laws and perhaps
future legislation "to support future projects.
Groundwork Portland, an organization that works with
community members in low-income neighborhoods to
reclaim underutilized land for purposes that will benefit
the community, has been focusing on the potential of
some of these sites for gardens, parks and community
centers. Earlier this month, nonprofits Groundwork and
Know Your City hosted a bus tour of “The Dirty Side of
Portland,” in which both a vacant and a reclaimed site
were visited. At right are several of the sites on the tour,
which gives a snapshot of the amount of land currently in
limbo over the cost and complications of contamination.
9
street roots
Aug. 15, 2014
T
The dots on this
map, prepared for
Metro, represent a
selection of known
brownfields in the
Portland metro area,
identified by the
Department of
Environmental
Quality .The shaded
areas are
populations with
above-average
levels of poverty.
The map was
prepared by Maul
Foster Alongi and
published in Dec
2012.
The Environmental
Protection Agency
classifies
brownfields as
properties where
“the expansion,
redevelopment, or
reuse of which may
be complicated by
the presence or
potential presence
of a hazardous
substance, pollutant,
or contaminant.
3330 SE Division
According to EPA spokesman Mike Slater, this former
gas station and auto shop was assessed and cleaned
up with EPA funding and other investments made by
the redevelopment project. An apartment building
with retail space below is currently mid construction
on this desirable plot of land located amongst popular
restaurants, shops and a slew of other new apartment
buildings in inner Southeast Portland.
PH O T O S B Y E M IL Y GREEN