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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
‘City of Roses’ Volume XLVI • Number 10 www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • March 8, 2017 Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity Photo by Z aChary S enn /t he P ortland o bServer The Portland Harbor Superfund Site covers both sides of the Willamette River from Portland’s Broadway Bridge to Sauvie Island and covers areas that have served both historically and currently as centers of heavy industry. Our Contaminated Harbor Superfund cleanup gets ready for implementation Z aChary S enn t he P ortland o bServer Nearly 11 miles of the Willamette River’s most contaminated waters and shoreline is due to be cleaned thanks to a recently released Record of Decision from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Portland Harbor Superfund Site stretches from the Broadway Bridge to Sauvie Island and covers areas that by have served both historically and cur- rently as centers of heavy industry. A series of informational meetings being held in Portland this week will seek to educate community members and other stakeholders about the cleanup effort’s implementation. Lumber mills, shipyards and chemi- cal manufacturing along the river helped transform Portland into one of the North- west’s most productive industrial cen- ters. Today, however, nearly a century’s worth of toxic dumping and other en- vironmentally destructive practices has transformed the Lower Willamette into a veritable wasteland of noxious contami- nates and unhealthy wildlife. In the nearly two decades since the Portland Harbor area was added to the EPA’s Superfund priority list, a series of studies were conducted to determine the extent of the site’s contamination, the feasibility and projected cost of a clean- up effort, and the health risks the pollu- tion poses to both humans and wildlife. In the meantime, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality took charge by leading a limited cleanup effort of a small portion of the upland shoreline. According to a press release issued by the Portland Harbor Community Co- alition, the city’s disenfranchised popu- lations bear the brunt of the pollution’s negative effects. “Communities of color and low in- come people have been most likely to C ontinued on P age 4
