Guest Opinion by Travis Williams
ver the past few weeks a group of folks have sought to publicize the idea of depositing contaminated sediment from the Portland Harbor Superfund site into Ross Island lagoon. These folks are known as the Ross Island Collaborative. In essence they want to dredge the river bottom and dump these contaminated sediments back into the river a couple miles upstream. This is a bad idea.
You see, the Portland Harbor stretch of the Willamette River contains contaminated sediment on the river bottom from 150 years of industrial activity. Because of this, a federal law commonly known as Superfund was implemented by the US EPA in 2000 to decrease the risk from the contaminants to wildlife and people.
A cleanup plan was finalized in 2017, which included removal of the contaminated sediment, and permanent safe storage of a portion of the contaminated material at inland sites that already exist and are specifically designed for toxic waste..
The recent effort seems to be about trading environmental certainty in favor of cost savings for polluters. The situation also has some strange collaborations between the liable parties, environmental groups, and others. The situation emanates an overall lack of understanding by the proponents of the plan.
Unfortunately, the proponents of the Ross Island Collaborative have made statements about cleanup costs being a huge public burden given that the City of Portland, Oregon Department of State Lands, and the Port of Portland hold a share of the liability. But these are not the entities putting forward such scare tactics. At this point their cleanup costs are speculation.
Sure, Superfund law is not perfect. That said, the reason we have still seen little action on the cleanup, such as removing polluted sediment more than 25 years after the Harbor was designated a Superfund site, is due to a series of delays brought forth by some of the companies who hold liability. Now, ironically, some of those folks are making assertions about “increased cost” because things cost more today than they did in 2015.
The effort of these companies and nonprofits has the feel of a coordinated campaign – resulting in articles in various newspapers to sell the idea and meetings with public officials.
Proponents in the Ross Island Collaborative have also met privately with investors who want to purchase Ross Island with the goal of making Ross Island a waste dump. In turn these investors would rake in a huge amount of money from the companies in Portland Harbor who are trying to get rid of their contaminated sediments in the cheapest way possible. On top of that, the investors will not reveal their identifies.
It makes the most sense to send contaminated waste to inland facilities that are specifically designed to hold them in perpetuity.
Those in the Superfund process have a responsibility to do right for this river and our community. That includes not taking shortcuts in seeking the long-term health and well-being of our river, and the people who live around it.