The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced a $1.05 billion cleanup plan for nearly 10 miles of the Willamette River, from near its mouth to the vicinity of the Broadway Bridge in Portland.
The cleanup plan has been in the works for almost 20 years, and the EPA’s decision was widely expected to be complicated, costly and controversial.
According to a post on the the EPA’s website, the selected cleanup plan, known as Alternate F Modified, will address 394 acres of contaminated sediments and 23,305 lineal feet of river bank. The cleanup will start 1.9 miles from the river’s mouth, across the Columbia River from Vancouver Lake, and run south 9.9 miles toward downtown Portland.
The EPA expects it will take 13 years to complete all of the cleanup projects.
“Alternative F Modified is designed to reduce risks to human health and the environment to acceptable levels,” according to the EPA, which noted it had received more than 5,300 public comments on the plan.
More comments were quickly released on Friday.
Willamette Riverkeeper, one of a number of environmental and grass roots groups that successfully urged EPA to increase the scope of the cleanup, said it was pleased.
“It appears to us this final plan is much better than the draft plan that came out last year,” the group posted on its Facebook site. “It dredges over 1 million additional cubic yards of contaminated sediment, and caps many additional acres. It appears that the EPA listened to us and others during the official public comment period.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the Bureau of Environmental Services, issued a joint statement saying they were pleased with the revisions.
“The city is committed to a clean river and is prepared to lead in building coalitions and partnerships to get this cleanup done right and done as soon as possible,” they said in a statement printed by The Oregonian. “This work is going to be done locally and it’s our priority to have it done by local workers. The time to act is now.”
Curtis Robinhold, Port of Portland deputy executive director, was less pleased with the decision.
“Early review of EPA’s decision leaves us concerned. We are convinced a protective, reasonably priced cleanup plan exists for the Lower Willamette River. We worry today’s (decision) is not that plan,” he said in a statement. “Our first impression is that EPA’s (decision) will make cleanup even more difficult to accomplish.”
Specifically, the port argues that the true cost of the cleanup plan will be closer to $2 billion, and will be subject to delay, because private parties that are part of the cleanup effort will oppose the beefed-up plan.
The cleanup affects the portion of the lower Willamette River known as the Portland Harbor. Once the bucolic setting for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition — Portland’s only world’s fair — the river has been the recipient of a century’s worth of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and industrial pollutants, many of which settled on the Willamette’s murky bottom.
EPA is planning to host community information sessions in March to present the details of the final cleanup plan. Dates will be announced by the end of the month.
