Portland observer., January 17, 2018, Page Page 3, Image 3

January 17, 2018
The
Page 3
INSIDE
Week in Review
M ETRO
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
page 16
F OOD
This page
Sponsored by:
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Photo by D anny P eterson /t he P ortlanD o bserver
Citizen advocates representing the Portland Harbor Community Coalition apply pressure to make
sure the EPA’s Superfund Site cleanup plans to remove toxins in the Willamette River are carried out
and benefit the community. Pictured (from left) are coalition members Rahsaan Muhammad, Jackie
Calder, Cassie Cohen, Donovan Smith and Bob Sallinger.
River
Keepers
Citizen activists keep watch
on EPA cleanup plans
b y D anny P eterson
t he P ortlanD o bserver
Community advocates are rais-
ing alarms to how the U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency plans
to evaluate future cleanup work as
plans move ahead to isolate and
remove decades of toxic pollutants
from the Willamette River.
A sampling plan for the Port-
land Harbor Superfund site was
supposed to track the progress of
the cleanup by determining the
levels of toxins and contaminants
that continue to pass through the
food chain from fish and wildlife,
determining impacts from the
cleanup work.
The EPA is moving to enforce
the industries, governmental
agencies and private utilities re-
sponsible for the pollution to pay
for the cleanup, identified along
11 miles of waterway, from the
Broadway Bridge, downtown, to
nearly the river’s confluence with
the Columbia River. The Oregon
Department of Environmental
Quality also shoulders responsi-
bility for the cleanup efforts. The
first phase of work is expected to
take 13 years, with a total cleanup
timeline that could take 50 years
or more, and estimated to cost
about $1 billion, Kevin Parrett,
one of DEQ’s clean-up plan man-
agers, told the Portland Observer.
In the Willamette’s current
state, fish and wildlife can pick
up contaminants from pollutants
in the water and from the land,
and public health department offi-
cials recommend that people limit
consumption of resident fish, es-
pecially young children, women
who are pregnant or plan to be-
come pregnant in the future, and
immune-deficient people.
A rough draft sampling plan
released last June would have in-
cluded sampling resident fish like
carp and small mouth bass and
wildlife like crayfish and the eggs
from fish-eating osprey birds, as
well as migratory fish like salmon
and sturgeon.
That was a robust and compre-
hensive plan compared to a new
sampling plan released by the
EPA in December which is to only
sample small mouth bass.
“Bottom line is we think that
C ontinueD on P age 4