Street roots., June 10, 2016, Page 8, Image 8

Commentary
Page 8
Street Roots • June 10-16, 2016
PHOTO BY G.H. THORN
BY STEPHEN QUIRKE
STAFF REPORT
he Willamette waterfront is many things
to many people - a place to sleep, a food
source, a wildlife habitat, a place to swim
and for others, a place to dump industrial
T
waste.
An Oregonian report from 1906 called the
river a “common sewer for the entire valley,”
and after a state official reported typhoid
germs in the river that year, the Oregonian
suggested that readers should “cultivate the
gentle art of keeping their mouths closed while
in the water.” In 1885 the city of Portland
formed a committee to find water less polluted
by sewers and pulp and paper mills, and by
1895 the first water from Bull Run was flowing
into the city.
The Willamette River became a “National
Priority Site” for toxic waste removal in 2000,
with the EPA putting polluters on notice that
they would be paying for a clean-up under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act of 1980
(CERCLA). The river is currently a Superfund
site (a CERCLA designation) for 10 miles
between the Broadway Bridge and Kelley Point
Park, and advocates say the number of
seriously contaminated areas actually represent
a “Mega-Superfund”, with at least 13 high-
priority sites the EPA has studied as a single
project. Polluted sites adjacent to the river,
whose run-off could lead to re-contamination,
are managed by the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, and are considered
“early action” clean-up areas.
Many polluting companies have pushed for a
quick and cheap clean-up of the river. And
according to advocates close to the process,
those companies most responsible for the
pollution have had an excessive influence over
the decision-making process that’s shaped the
clean-up plan. Unless that changes, the future
of the Willamette River could be decided by the
same people who turned it into a toxic stew,
pushing all other relationships to the river -
including those based on fishing or recreation -
back into the margins for another hundred
years.
After 16 years of studies, the public is finally
being asked to influence their future river. The
EPA released its draft clean-up plan June 8,
kicking off a 60-day comment period that asks
the public whether the EPA plan does enough
for the river and the people relying on it
A century of poison has made the Willamette
one of the most polluted rivers in the United
States - it contains at least 65 chemicals that
risk human and environmental health,
according to the EPA, including petroleum,
poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides
like DDT, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium,
arsenic, mercury, asbestos and zinc.
The diversity of pollutants has led to a
complex clean-up plan, involving a mix of
capping, dredging, and “monitored natural
recovery.”
The EPA has sent letters to the Lower
Willamette Group - the group of polluters
actively cooperating with the EPA. In response
to the EPA’s superfund listing, 10 of the parties
listed as “potentially responsible” by EPA
signed an agreement to pay for a feasibility
study for the potential clean-up. Four others
have contributed funds for the effort, and
combined form the Lower Willamette Group,
including the Port of Portland and the city of
Portland.
In 2013 the group of 14 “potentially
responsible parties” was fined $125,000 for
failing to adequately address the human health
risks of river pollutants in an assessment
originally released in 2009. EPA determined
the report had “several instances of incorrect
or misleading information” which had not been
changed despite numerous warnings. In June
2012, the Lower Willamette Group was notified
that it would be fined up to $5,000 a day until
its report was fixed. After fighting with the
EPA for the better part of a year and accruing
fines in excess of $1 million, the group finally
submitted an acceptable assessment in early
2013, then expressed shock and outrage to find
itself stuck with a reduced fine of $125,000.
EPA’s Proposed Cleanup Plan for the
Portland Harbor Superfund Site presents EPA’s
preferred alternative or option to lower risks to
people and the environment from
contamination in the lower Willamette River
and its river banks. Alternative I, EPA‘s
preferred alternative, reduces risks to human
health and the environment to acceptable
levels by dredging and/or capping 291 acres of
contaminated sediments and 19,472 lineal feet
of contaminated river bank, followed by 23
years of monitored natural recovery. The
preferred alternative also includes disposal of
dredged sediment in both an on-site confined
disposal facility and upland landfills. This