Smoke Signals 7
FEBRUARY 1, 2009
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By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
The cleanup of Superfund site
Portland Harbor from river mile
one to 11.8, or from approximately
Sauvie Island to Swan Island has
another three years of preparatory
work before the in-river work be
gins, say Department of Environ
mental Quality project managers
doing the upland pollution work.
The harbor, located in the Willa
mette River just above where it feeds
into the Columbia River, and the
Columbia itself are among the Con
federated Tribes of Grand Ronde's
ceded lands, where Tribal ancestors
used to fish and trade.
Four presentations at a Jan. 14
meeting of the Portland Harbor
Community Advisory Group pro
vided the update.
Controlling pollution sources on
land above the harbor that still may
leach into the harbor must first be
neutralized, capped, removed or
otherwise eliminated before work
in the harbor begins.
"The last thing anybody wants
to see," said Jim Anderson, state
Department of Environmental
Quality Portland Harbor Section
manager, "is an expensive and time
consuming in-river cleanup only to
be recontaminated by an upland
source of pollution."
DEQ is the lead agency on the
upland sources of pollution and the
federal Environmental Protection
Agency is the lead agency on the
harbor cleanup.
The two are "partners," Anderson
said, with EPA looking over the
DEQ's upland work, though when
it comes to the in-harbor cleanup,
DEQ will not be tasked with looking
over the EPA work.
The project, in motion since 1995,
had found 17 cleanup sites by 1998.
Today, that number includes more
than 50 sites, Anderson said.
The principle contaminants in the
harbor are PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls), non-conducting fluids
used in a great number of manu
facturing processes, from the mak
ing of transformers to lubricants
to paints and adhesives. The EPA
banned production of PCBs in the
1970s, after its polluting proper
ties were discovered, but by then it
was already contaminating rivers
and streams, in water and upland,
across the country.
To date, the DEQ Harbor cleanup
group has named eight high priority
sites and "eight more that may be
high priority sites," Anderson said.
In addition, the group has taken
on the examination of two. new ,
sources of potential pollution for
the harbor: stormwater and sedi
ment contamination.
Karen Tarnow, DEQ Stormwater
specialist, said that the group iso
lated 125 sites of potential contami
nation. Fifty have either been fixed
or determined not to be a threat,
she said. Twenty-five are on "the
front end," which means they are
the most likely, so far, to be poten
tial problems. The last 75 are still
being evaluated, she said.
DEQ is working with the City of
Portland on this project, and some
of the time required to do it right
means waiting for "a rainy season"
to see what happens to the outflows
into the harbor then.
From river miles 12 to 16, or
roughly from the Steel Bridge to
Ross Island, DEQ manager of the
Lower Willamette section Keith
Johnson is leading the downtown
Portland Sedimentation effort.
"The downtown riverside has
changed dramatically," he said, but
his group found that "there never
was much sedimentation investiga
tion done."
The preliminary assessment from
the group has found 83 locations of
interest, from stormwater outfalls
to riverfront industries, past and
present.
"We're performing a benthic
survey," he said, that asks the
questionf "What's living in the
sediment."
The preliminary results are just
in, he said, and evaluation is begin
ning. The questions to be answered,
he said, include whether the level
of contamination is acceptable
and, if not, what needs to be done
about it?
This is a new area, he added, be
cause water quality projects do not
usually deal with sediment.
The presentation by DEQ's
Cleanup Project Manager Matt
McClincy provided an overview
of four cleanup projects currently
underway the Evraz Oregon
Steel Mills site, the ARCO site,
the Gasco Siltronic site and the
Arkema site.
All have upland and riverbank
contamination, and a range of
fixes have been and continue to be
employed. Where the groundwater
is contaminated, McClincy said,
groundwater extraction wells have
captured the water on the way to
the harbor, cleaned it and then sent
it along its way.
Where the riverbank is contami
nated, the project has built sea
walls to keep contaminants from
moving further into the harbor, and
the contaminated riverbank has
been removed and replaced with
clean fill. They have been working
on bank design to prevent erosion,
and follow that by attempting to
integrate habitat into the clean
riverbank area, though "previous
efforts at other facilities have not
worked," he said. "The goal is to
integrate habitat into the remedial
process."
In some cases, DEQ has been able
to biodegrade contamination.
At the Arkema site, DEQ is con
sidering constructing an entirely
new stormwater system. Back
in the 1940s, Agent Orange was
manufactured in this area.
While all the upland work is
scheduled to be done at the end of
2010, the EPA expects that date
to be pushed back at least six
months.
According to Judy Smith, EPA's
Pacific Northwest Region Commu
nity Involvement Coordinator for
the Portland Harbor Superfund
site, the delay will "allow us to com
plete work on analysis of the data
collected. The further we get into
the process the clearer a picture we
have of how long it's going to take
us to do a really good job."
The Grand Ronde Tribe's Natural
Resources pointman for the clean
up, Ceded Lands Manager Mike
Karnosh, said it might be pushed
back a year before it is done.
The big question, Karnosh said, is
"what level will the river be cleaned
up to?" And, he added, until it is all
done, there will still be the question
of recontamination.
An EPA report that came out the
day after the meeting said that the
Columbia River system still con
tains four pollutants PCBs, DDT,
mercury, and fire retardant that
continue to pose an "unacceptable
risk" to the public.
The Portland Harbor sits at the
lower end of the Willamette River,
just before it empties into the Co
lumbia, so many of these contami
nants cited in the new EPA report
would have to backwash into the
Willamette to further contaminate
the Superfund site, Karnosh said.
"Even though the Lower Wil
lamette is a tidally-influenced
river, it's highly unlikely that
contaminants from the Columbia
are deposited in the Willamette,"
Karnosh said.
For detailed information about the
project, take a look at the DEQ Web
site: www.deq.state.or.uslqcunwr
portlandharborindex.htm. Q
Census job opportunities
The Census Bureau is recruiting now for the 2010 Census and you can
be a part of it. Data gathered during the census is essential to determining
how federal monies are spent on the things that matter most to you. The
Census Bureau offers great pay, flexible hours, paid training and an amazing
opportunity for you to further your career and improve your community.
Tuesday, Feb. 10 10 a.m. to noon
Supervisory application and testing
Adult Education Room 126
Grandparents support
group to be held
The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren support group will
meet from 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursday, Feb. 19, in the Elders'
Activity Center.
The February topic of discussion will be "Interventions: Par
enting Young Children." Presenters will be Dawn Cottrell from
Yamhill County Health & Human Services' Family and Youth
Programs and Jeff Lukehart from the Center for Successful Liv
ing Northwest Senior & Disability Services.
For more information, call Carmen Mercier at 603-8791646.
Tuesday, Feb. 24 1 to 3 p.m.
Standard application and testing
Adult Education Room 126
Field positions: ListerAddress Canvasser $15.25hr, Crew Leader
$16.767hr, Crew Leader Assistant $15.25hr, Recruiting Assistant
$16.75hr, Field Operations Supervisor $18.25hr
Office positions: Office Clerk $11.50hr, Office Operations Supervi
sor $15.75hr
The U.S. Census Bureau is an equal opportunity employer. Bilingual
applicants are encouraged to apply at www.census.govroseawwwemply.
html. Call 1-866-86 1-20 10 for more information. For applications and more
information about testing, call Denise Harvey at 503-879-2112.
The recycle center will be open during the following hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays. We are sorry for any inconvenience
this may caurn you. but we have found it necessary to put tighter control on this
service. NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO DUMP PERSONAL OARRAGE OR YARD
DEBRIS AT THE SITE. If you see someone abusing this privilege contact Mike
Larson at 503-879-2407.