News
Page 10
Street Roots • July 29-August 4, 2016
PHOTO BY EMILY GREEN
The Steel Bridge can be seen under the Broadway Bridge, southern end of the Willamette River’s Superfund site.
BY STEPHEN QUIRKE
downstream to the Columbia River.”
Yakama’s EPA visit adds considerable
weight
to the concerns of community
fter 16 years of study funded by
groups
who are working closely with urban
polluting industries, the public
Native Americans and communities of color.
comment period for the Willamette
River cleanup is scheduled to end on Sept. The Portland Harbor Community Coalition
(PHCC), which represents several of these
6, with some officials hoping for a finalized
groups, has warned the city that ignoring
plan by the end of the year.
outreach to these groups may constitute
As previously reported in Street Roots,
racial discrimination under Title VI of the
the Yakama Nation has expressed deep
Civil Rights Act PHCC has asked city
disappointment with the EPA since its
officials to fund outreach to these groups,
preferred plan was released in early June.
and to use their formal role in the
After eight cleanup options were identified,
Superfund process to request a longer
with price tags ranging from $350 million to
public comment period that provides time
$9.5 billion, EPA announced its preference
for Option I - a $745 million plan that would to organize with their membership.
In a July 14 email, the PHCC also
remove only 8 percent of the known
requested that the Bureau of Environmental
contaminants in the river.
Services work in partnership with the
On Monday, July 25, the Yakama Nation’s
coalition to craft the city’s formal comments
tribal council flew to Washington, D.C. to
in alignment with social and environmental
meet with EPA Administrator Gina
justice priorities.
McCarthy. There, the council explained to
“The City's cooperation in these areas is
McCarthy why the plan, as it currently
a Title VI Civil Rights issue,” the email
stands, would violate Yakama Nation’s 1855
states. “And given the weak cleanup plan
treaty with the federal government, and
released by the EPA, it is even more
urged her to implement a more rigorous
imperative that the city take the lead in
plan that would keep their traditional foods
doing what is right, legally and ethically. We
free of hazardous chemicals.
are counting on the city - especially BES
“The EPA’s plan puts people at risk and
staff and leaders - to hold polluters and
puts our treaty rights in jeopardy,” said
other government agencies accountable, on
Delano Sealskin, Vice-Chairman of Yakama
behalf of Tribes, communities of color,
Tribal Council. “Their proposal simply relies
immigrant and refugee communities, and
too much on natural recovery and as such is
low/no-income Portlanders.”
not a solution to protect a healthy fishery. It
Yakama Nation’s Superfund Coordinator
will result in more contaminants traveling
Rose Longoria has previously told Street
STAFF WRITER
A
Roots that EPA’s weak plan represents a
violation of Yakama’s civil rights, treaty
rights and human rights. That position is
also shared by Portland’s Native American
Youth and Family Center, which serves
thousands of urban Native Americans who
hold rights to traditional foods.
NAYA’s Donita Fry and Roben White
described EPA’s clean-up plan as an
immense disappointment and agreed with
Longoria’s assessment that it represents a
serious human rights violation. Fry is the
organizer for the Portland Youth and Elders
Council, while White is a veteran political
organizer who joined NAYA’s Superfund
team in June; his aunt, Helen White
Peterson, was the first woman to serve as
executive director of the National Congress
of American Indians.
NAYA’s Community Engagement
Manager Cary Watters said she also agrees
“absolutely” with Longoria, adding “We
stand with the Yakama Nation in demanding
a full, comprehensive cleanup of this river.
Letting big polluters off the hook for 92
percent of their pollution is unacceptable,
and is an absolute violation of our treaty
rights and human rights. ”
“We also have other first foods that are
crucial to the livelihood of those that have
lived here since time immemorial who we
support - including Wapato just downstream
surrounding Sauvie Island. It’s just a very
important stretch of river for those that
See WATER FEUD, page 11