Willamette Riverkeeper
Portland, OR
This site is the commercial harbor of Portland on the Willamette River immediately upriver from the junction with the Columbia River. The site was added to the EPA Superfund list in 2000 and since that time, EPA identified approximately 80 potentially responsible parties (PRPs). Earlier in 2008, EPA sent letters to an additional 280 parties who may also be responsible. From those, fourteen PRPs comprise the Lower Willamette Group that has taken on the cleanup and is responsible for the Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study under an agreement with EPA.
The industrial site was originally listed because more than 6 miles of the Willamette River are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, various metals (lead, zinc, mercury, tin), pesticides, dioxins and other chemicals.
March 2010: Peter gave a presentation to the Portland Harbor Citizens Advisory Group on possible options for cleanup that will likely be considered in the upcoming the Feasibility Study. Click here to view the presentation
The Remedial Investigation, Baseline Ecological Risk Assessment and Baseline Human Health Risk Assessment, which together serve as the foundation for designing the cleanup, are now available to the public. They can be found in full on EPA’s website under the Harbor Wide RI/FS tab
The next step in the remediation process is planning and preparing for the Feasibility Study, set to be released at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011.
Click on the title to view presentations from the April 2009 Portland Community Advisory Group meeting:
Burt Shepard’s presentation for EPA
Bob Wyatt’s presentation for the Lower Willamette Group
Click here to view the Lower Willamette Group’s presentation on the upcoming Feasibility Study
To learn more about the Willamette Riverkeeper, click here…
For updates on the Community Advisory Group, click here…
Click here for EPA’s Portland Harbor website…