Editorial opinion by Barbara Quinn
For years, potentially responsible parties have stalled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), used sleight of hand with the community and refused to take responsibility for the Superfund cleanup of the lower Willamette River. Now they and some environmentalists, shockingly, and others, most of whom have barely been involved in the Superfund process, have discovered an “elegant” solution for all the river’s problems.
Here is their plan. Superfund-dredged sediments deemed too toxic to be left in the river due to hazardous chemicals laced through them: PCBs, mercury, lead, arsenic, zinc, cadmium, copper and dioxin-furans – the worst of the worst – these dangerous sediments they propose, could be dumped in Ross Island Lagoon.
Shockingly, community proponents like Mike Houck of Urban Greenspaces, Verde PDX, Neighbors for Clean Air, Human Access Project, Nigel Jaquiss of the Oregon Journalism Project, and City Club of Portland who’ve jumped onboard this dream ship suggest that filling the 120-foot-deep hole created by past mining of the lagoon’s gravel could make the island whole again and address algae bloom. They appear to believe this with all the fervor and hope of a Sunday morning religious revivalist.
Some have even formed a coalition and begun lobbying political leaders, agencies and residents to join them on this fantasy journey. All aboard! “On the Good Ship Lollipop/It’s a night trip, into bed you hop/And dream away/On The Good Ship Lollipop.”
What about the science?
Unfortunately, there are important things being left out of the discussion. Some refer to the dredged sediment as “non-hazardous” but that is a misnomer, because none of these serious contaminants break down over time and any exposure to them is harmful to the health of all life-forms. The only landfills that will accept them are lined facilities that have permits for hazardous waste. That should tell us something about their toxicity right there.
Also, importantly, the chief goal of the 25-year Superfund process is to keep these forever chemicals from continuing to enter the river food chain from the sediments because they magnify as they travel to the top and end up in harmful amounts in fish and the humans who eat them. Subsistence fishers in North Portland and Native American tribes who consider the lower Willamette part of their traditional fishing grounds are the most at risk.
And there’s a serious problem with Ross Island. Scientists say it was formed by alluvial gravel and sand that washed down the river in floods. Sand and gravel are porous and permeable. They allow water movement and are affected by river current as well as groundwater upwelling. The hole, all 120 feet down, is surrounded by permeable gravel and sand. No lining is being proposed, and it would probably not stay in place anyway due to river forces. The mined-out depression was dug mostly from the groundwater system underneath the water column because it is three times as deep as the rest of the river.
According to EPA’s own website, “Contaminated sediments dumped into the groundwater of a large river will generally not stay in place permanently and are likely to be transported downstream.”1
Further, “Pollutants stored in alluvial gravel under a river (the groundwater) can travel into the water column, acting as a ‘ticking time bomb’. Contaminants trapped in gravel bed sediment…are released into the water through sediment erosion, turbulence, increased flood frequency, and changes in water flow.”2
It’s clear that normal river forces, fluctuations and floods make it an unstable environment to permanently store toxic waste. Contaminants could move upwards into the water column, and downstream to the lower Willamette again and frankly North and Northwest Portlanders have been exposed to these chemicals long enough. We don’t want them back. We want a solution not a dream.
What about PCBs?
There is also the problem of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), the contaminant of most concern in the river according to EPA. PCBs are known to be endocrine disruptors that mimic hormones. They are an all-but-proven carcinogen. Studies during the 25-year Hudson River cleanup proved that PCBs can move from river sediment to the water column and from the water column they can volatilize into the air. They can also volatilize from land especially in warmer weather.3
PCBs will continue to affect the river, the air, fish and humans if they are dumped at Ross Island Lagoon. And they would make the Island a very questionable place for the nature park proponents envision.
The Ross Island dumping scheme is reminiscent of the 2000s plan to dump dredged waste into the T-4 bay north of the St. Johns Bridge. The sludge would have filled an unlined depression next to the river which pretty much ensures that contaminated water from the sludge would seep into the water table where it would reenter the river. And how the proposed permeable sand berm across its opening was supposed to keep chemical-laced water from seeping back into the river was never explained. There was no way the toxic mess would actually stay confined. The Ross Island scheme is deja vu.
The scheme is based on cost
The scheme is reported to have come originally from potentially responsible parties (PRP) interested in paying less for cleanup by collectively buying Ross Island as a closer place to dump contaminated sediments. Removal and transport is expensive and will run into the millions. But the most effective solution for dredged sediment, an EPA representative admitted in a meeting, is to transport it to a lined, permitted landfill facility. The closest ones that accept hazardous waste are 100 miles away. Industry and some environmentalists claim that is too far. Some say truck diesel fumes would be too much. They seem to be unaware that there are local barge and truck companies that use alternative fuels.
Is 100 miles too far? Dredge spoils from Seattle’s Duwamish River PCB cleanup, a comparable Superfund, are being transported by barge and sealed train cars 258 miles. Because, Washington state said, it wants to make sure the pollutants are “out of the [river] ecosystem.”
But in Portland? Welcome to the Good Ship Lollipop where we are considering an imaginary clean up. In one meeting, an EPA representative admitted that the Ross Island dumping plan would be a solution “somewhere between open ocean dumping people ‘used to do’ and removing the waste to a lined facility.” But, he said, EPA will support the Ross Island Lagoon dump if it’s what residents want. It appears EPA is willing to ignore its own science and wish the fantasy ship proponents a bon voyage moving contaminants from one river segment to another .
Yet, of the nine criteria EPA says it considers in a cleanup, cost is listed as number seven. Number one is “Overall Protection of Human Health and the Environment.”
Native American stakeholders?
The Yakama Nation considers the lower Willamette and Columbia Rivers part of their traditional fishing grounds. They have been very involved in the Willamette Superfund process for years. Below is their statement about the Ross Island plan:
“The Yakama Nation is very concerned about the removal of contaminated sediments from the Willamette River, as well as their ultimate disposal. Any proposal for taking contaminated sediments out of the river and then putting them back in the river will need to be detailed in a work plan that includes robust technical justification for how this in-water disposal concept would truly contain the hazardous substances in sediments and groundwater for many hundreds of years, restore habitat, support treaty resources, and ensure monitoring and stewardship in perpetuity.”
In response to this statement, Dr. Scott Wells, Portland State University, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and expert on river hydrology said, “Amen.”
But it is a tall order. Like those riding the mythical Good Ship Lollipop in the old song, those who advocate for using hazardous waste to fill Ross Island Lagoon are grasping for something that seems sweet but will ultimately be devastating to the wellbeing of the Willamette River and all Portlanders.
The only effective way to remove these toxins from the river’s food chain is to take them to a lined landfill designed for hazardous waste.
Barbara Quinn is a long-time community activist and was a member of the Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group from 2007 to 2017.
References
1 EPA: Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sediments (ARCS) Program, GUIDANCE FOR IN-SITU SUBAQUEOUS CAPPING OF CONTAMINATED SEDIMENTS, 1998, https://semspub.epa.gov/work/HQ/189670.pdf.
2 Assessing the impacts of river bed mining on aquatic ecosystems: A critical review of effects on water quality and biodiversity. Version of Record January 2024. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589757824000040.
3 Laboratory measurements of the volatilization of PCBs from amended dredged material. Accepted May 2007. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935107001284.