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Binding Agreement Signed to Launch Portland Harbor Cleanup
Release Date: 10/5/2001
Contact Information: Wallace Reid
reid.wallace@epamail.epa.gov
(206) 553-1728
October 5, 2001
01-034
With the stroke of several pens, the Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study(RI/FS) has been launched to discover the nature and extent of contamination in Portland Harbor, including the lower reaches of the Willamette river near Portland, Oregon. The EPA and members of the Lower Willamette Group – a coalition of companies and public agencies identified as “potentially responsible parties” in the cleanup process – have signed an Administrative Order on Consent, which is a very significant step in cleaning up the Harbor. Portland Harbor was added to the National Priorities List(NPL) in December, 2000.
“This is a landmark deal,” said Ron Kreizenbeck, Acting EPA Regional Administrator in Seattle. “Our negotiations required a new way of thinking to craft a large-scale cleanup partnership that recognizes natural resources, endangered species and tribal concerns over a broad landscape. All this while being sensitive to economic development in a working harbor.”
The Portland Harbor Superfund site includes the six-mile reach of the Willamette River between the southern tip of Sauvie Island and Swan Island. This was the area that EPA used to score the site for the NPL. Site boundaries will be established at the conclusion of the RI/FS process.
The river carries heavy marine traffic and supports a thriving commercial port. A multitude of industrial facilities line the banks on both sides of the river. Private and municipal wastewater outfalls add effluent to Portland Harbor. The Willamette River is an integral feature of the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, home to over 500,000 people. The harbor is an international portal for commerce and dozens of industries located within the site provide economic sustainability to the community. The Lower Willamette is also a popular area for recreation, including fishing and boating. The river provides a critical migratory corridor and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead, including endangered runs of steelhead and chinook. The area holds great importance to several tribes as a natural and cultural resource.
Activities which have degraded the river include hazardous substances from industrial and municipal waste, petroleum product operations; marine construction; wood treating; agriculture; chemical production; shipping and other transportation-related operations. These multiple sources of contamination resulted in high levels of hazardous substances in the Willamette River. Some of the primary contaminants found in sediments include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC), heavy metals, arsenic, tributyltin (TBT), and petroleum hydrocarbons, including polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and pesticides such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichlorethene (DDT).
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