Page 12
Commentary
Street Roots • April 8-14, 2016
EPA/DEQ promise much, deliver little protection for river
BY BARBARA QUINN
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
n a March meeting hosted by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to offer an update on the imminent
Proposed Plan for the Willamette River
Superfund, the word “cost” came up
numerous times. In fact, it was the only
criteria cited by EPA as DEQ officials sat
quietly and approvingly. The once-in-a-
lifetime cleanup proposal for 11 miles of the
lower Willamette is about to go to the public
for 60 days of comment starting in April.
The mega-site, stretching from the
Broadway Bridge to the Columbia River is
one the most contaminated sites in the
nation. It is not safe for fishing or contact
with shoreline sediments. Swimming is
likely not safe everywhere in this area.
Though EPA’s mission is to protect human
and environmental health, they cited only
polluting businesses’ feedback in choosing a
plan that further de-emphasizes removal of
carcinogenic persistent toxins. Instead, they
propose to rely most heavily on doing
nothing over 86 percent of the site. The
meeting to update community
representatives was short, condescending
and angering to community members, many
who have volunteered in the process since
2000.
It would be similar to acknowledging
harmful toxic air in Portland yet only talking
to polluting businesses about what they are
willing to do about i t EPA’s Plan would only
I
Barbara Quinn is a
St. Johns activist and
member o f the Portland
Harbor Community
Advisory Group most
interested in restoration
o f the lower Willamette
River and the
surrounding watershed.
ensure somewhat fewer toxins in our river
over time - maybe. Instead of only being
able to safely eat 8 ounces of fish such as
crappie, bass or catfish per month, you
might be able to take one more bite -
maybe. If you are a pregnant woman or child
you will not be able to eat any safely.
The do-nothing method favored by river
industry and EPA, euphemistically called
Monitored Natural Recovery (MNR), is
known among the Community Advisory
Group as “natural spreading.” The method
relies on the breaking down of contaminants
over time, but the persistent pollutants in
the river bottom sediments don’t break
down easily. In fact they have not done so
over the last 100 years. Hence the
Superfund listing. No one knows how long it
will take PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls)
spread all over the site to become neutral,
possibly centuries. Other harmful
contaminants, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons), DDTs and dioxins and furans
have been shown to be carcinogens. The
equally toxic heavy metals simply don’t
break down at all over time. Those include
lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, asbestos,
and zinc.
Like the air, the water is shared in the
commons and falls under the Public Trust
Doctrine. It’s a concept of public resources
being owned and shared by the public and
it’s been a part of our U.S. democracy from
the beginning. Under the public trust, the
common waters can never be controlled by
or transferred to private interests for
private purposes or gain. Our rights to use
the river cannot be alienated or
subordinated by our governments to special
private interests (flowforwater.org). In the
case of the Willamette, public uses have
been impaired by a century of industrial
dumping.
The cost of the cleanup will fall to
businesses that have polluted and they are
not small, local glass companies. Among the
150 polluting companies, there is Shell, BP,
ExxonMobil, Chevron, Bayer Cropscience,
Siltronic, Arkema, Schnitzer, Vigor,
Gunderson to name a few. These alone have
profits in the billions. The cost to effectively
cleanup the mega-site has been estimated to
be around 2 billion - over 20 years, split 150
ways and with the help of insurance. These
companies have benefitted from damaging
our common property, our river; yet EPA
and DEQ have not shown the will to hold
them accountable by proposing a cleanup
that truly protects our health and that of the
environment.
i A weak proposed plan is especially
harmful to the most vulnerable among us
who fish on the lower Willamette for food
and as a cultural or family tradition. Those
include minorities, houseless people and /
immigrants who may not know that fish
such as catfish, crappie, carp and bass carry
harmful carcinogens that have magnified as
they’ve traveled up the food chain from
small creatures living in the bottom of the
river.
The river is the commons and should be
safe for all users no matter their
circumstances. The Community Advisory
Group is asking that the cleanup result in
fish no more contaminated than those in the
rest of the Portland area. We need a cleanup
plan that returns the commons safely to
residents. A truly protective plan is a matter
of equity. The advisors and other community
partners are recommending another option
that does that.
To learn more, all are welcome to attend
a Community Forum on the Superfund
sponsored by the Community Advisory
Group on April 26, 2016, from 7 to 9 p.m. at
the Portland Building Auditorium at 1120
SW 5th. There will be a rally at City Hall
starting at 6 p.m. The EPA has declined to
participate, but the Advisory’s technical
consultant, Dr. Peter deFur, will be present
to explain the EPA Proposal in easy-to-
understand terms and answer questions.
Refreshments will be available.
F or more inform ation a n d updates see
PortlandH arborC A G .info.
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CHUMP
2016
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