Willamette River Cleanup
It’s Your River. It’s Your Voice. It’s Your Choice.
Contribute to support the work of the Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group.
About the Portland Harbor Cleanup Site
The Portland Harbor Site spans 10 miles of the Lower Willamette River. The river sediments, surface water, and the fish that reside in the harbor have high levels of PCBs, PAHs, dioxins/furans, DDT and other pesticides which present an unacceptable risk to people’s health, especially subsistence and tribal fishers, and to the environment.
Under EPA cleanup plan, contaminated sediments at the site will be addressed through dredging, capping, enhanced natural recovery, and monitored natural recovery. Approximately 394 acres of sediment, out of 2,190 total acres in the site, will be actively remediated with dredging and capping, including removal of over three million cubic yards of contaminated sediments. Approximately 1,774 acres of the site with lower contaminant levels are expected to recover naturally over time.
Active cleanup construction work is expected to take about 13 years and cost $1 billion. Following the active cleanup construction phase, EPA expects a 100-fold reduction in contamination-related cancer and other serious risks. The river’s natural recovery process will further reduce these risks.
Final Portland Harbor Supplemental Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment
Today the Trustee Council published a Final Supplemental Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment (SRP). Of the alternatives evaluated in the SRP, the Trustee Council has selected the Restoration Bank Credit Alternative for this phase of restoration. View and...
*RSVP Now!* March 10th Virtual Portland Harbor Collaborative Meeting
From US EPA: Everyone is welcome to join the first quarterly Portland Harbor Collaborative meeting! Please read below for information about how to submit an RSVP for this event (required), a final agenda, and more! Date: Next Wednesday, March 10th Time: 5:00pm –...
From US EPA: EPA is convening a Cathedral Park Project Area Working Group for EPA’s initial sampling work. Please read below for more information! Working Group Purpose: Discuss community education and engagement opportunities for EPA’s initial sampling work at the...
EPA reaches major cleanup agreement for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, 100 percent of site now in active engineering design phase
Settlement with businesses, federal, state, and local agencies for remedial design of the Swan Island Basin area brings the last and largest area into active cleanup work
Appreciation and Gratitude from the Portland Harbor Community Coalition (and updates)
Updates from Our River | February 8, 2021 We recognize and deeply appreciate your support in PHCC's collective victories in 2020. We'd like to especially extend gratitude to those who submitted comments on various issues, shared our messages via email or social media...
Willamette River Insider
Read the December 15, 2020 Issue of Willamette River Insider right here.
Salmon Habitat, Columbia Slough and NRDA Restoration
Please Join Our Virtual CAG Meeting.Wednesday, February 10 At 6:30 p.m. PacificClick Here For The Zoom Link Hello Everyone, February is here, love is in the air and on the Willamette River, seen by our two friends in the picture above. Interestingly, I was told by...
Notes from January 13 PHCAG meeting
A discussion about the fuel tanks in the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub in Linnton and its relations to risk management within Portland Harbor and the Willamette River. We are revisiting this topic of the CEI risk because of the importance for our community...
Please Join Our Virtual CAG Meeting.
Wednesday January 13th At 6:30 p.m. Pacific
Please Join Our Virtual CAG Meeting.Wednesday January 13th At 6:30 p.m. PacificClick Here For The Zoom Link Happy New Near Everyone, 2021...WOW...it's here! I am hoping that later in this year we can possibly gather as close as the cormorants in the Columbia Sough...
North Portlanders Want a Contaminated Beach Turned Into a Park. Government Officials Propose to Bury the Toxic Waste Onsite.
On sunny days, Michael Pouncil likes to stroll past the warning signs posted along Willamette Cove and tramp through what he hopes will be Portland’s next great waterfront park.
For Pouncil, the 3,000-foot stretch of beach in North Portland, owned by regional government Metro, is an oasis: a place to hike in dense woods or spy on the rafts of aquatic birds bobbing offshore.
RSVP Now! December 16th Virtual EPA Portland Harbor Quarterly Public Forum (with support from DEQ and the CAG)
RSVP: To automatically receive webinar connection information, please submit an RSVP as soon as possible at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7G0TswNBTUudEbTQy3fitA
Where We Live: Portland Harbor Superfund Site
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) —You would never know it from the surface, but underneath the water of the Willamette River in downtown Portland, there’s a huge problem. Twenty years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency designated a ten-mile stretch of the lower Willamette—between the Broadway Bridge and Sauvie Island—as seriously contaminated.
Called the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, it is the biggest of 13 superfund sites in Oregon, and about 1,300 nationwide.