16 Years In The Making, Portland Ore Superfund Cleanup Plan Will Open Up For Public Comments.

Talk about dragging your feet...

My vote is to dredge the nasty shit out of the river and haul it off to a landfill. Be done with it.

There is talk of "capping" some of it off.

I see too many variables that could disturb that down the road, get rid of it.

There are some seriously nasty things at the bottom of that river that have been there for decades. There is also a native salmon run that goes through there.
You can see fishing boats and people hauling salmon into them during the season from the river banks in down town Portland.
There has been a standing warning for years for people not to eat most of the fish that live in it too.
The salmon are just passing through so don't have much of the pollution built up in their bodies.

EPA: After 16 Years, Get Ready To Comment On Portland Harbor Cleanup

st/OPB

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to release its proposed Portland Harbor Superfund Site cleanup plan early next month.

The plan, 16 years in the making, will include the agency’s preferred option for cleaning up a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River that’s highly contaminated from more than a century of industrial use. The EPA has spent years investigating the site and developing a range of options for reducing contamination to an “acceptable” level.

Cami Grandinetti, a project manager for the EPA, said a lot of information about what’s at the site is already available, including levels of contamination and human health and environmental risks.

So, she said, you can start reading all about it — right now.

Snip

Most of the contamination across the Portland Harbor site is in the sediment at the bottom of the river. The EPA has found 65 contaminants of concern, including heavy metals, pesticides such as DDT, herbicides, dioxins and furans from burning, chemical manufacturing and metal processing waste, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a banned coolant found in building materials and ink, and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) released through burning coal, oil, gas and wood.

The biggest risk to people, according to the EPA, is from eating resident fish such as bass, catfish and carp that accumulate the toxins when they eat insects that live in the contaminated sediment.

The state has fish advisories and guidelines on how much fish is safe to eat. Because of the health risks from contamination, mothers and children should avoid eating resident fish from the Willamette between Sauvie Island and the Fremont Bridge.

The pollution has accumulated from a number of industries, including shipbuilding and ship breaking, wood treatment and lumber milling, storage of bulk fuels and manufactured gas production, chemical manufacturing and storage, municipal sewer overflows and industrial storm water. The EPA has identified more than 150 potentially responsible parties that will be asked to help pay for the clean-up. Ten of those parties teamed up to form the Lower Willamette Group, and agreed to help with the cleanup process.

Seriously, nasty shit down there.

I used to work on that river and have seen what happens when the sewers overflow after heavy rains. Seriously, nasty shit .
Condoms, needles, tampons, all kinds of disgusting stuff comes flowing down off the streets.
The stuff they are talking about is in the sediments at the bottom and it is TEN MILES LONG.
It goes right through the middle of Portland from one end to the other.

We are taking years and years of cleanup effort and Billions and Billions of dollars now.

I can pretty much guarantee it won't get done in my lifetime.

Now is the time to hold the EPA's feet to the fire and make them clean that shit up the right way and make it a permanent fix, not throw Band Aids at it.