Portland City Council set to contribute to Willamette River Superfund cleanup plan

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland's City Council is set to consider an agreement, with the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wednesday that may finally get the ball rolling toward cleaning up contaminated sediment in the Willamette River from the Fremont Bridge to the Columbia River.

That stretch of the river has been designated a federal Superfund cleanup site.

But the patchwork of contaminated sites involving 150 separate landowners, including large multi-national corporations, has delayed getting most of the cleanup underway.

On Wednesday, Portland's City Council will consider an ordinance setting aside $12 million to join the state of Oregon in contributing to an EPA fund to design a final cleanup plan for nearly 300 acres of Willamette River sediment contaminated with cancer-causing PCB's and heavy metals.

River advocates believe the public money will now convince private landowners to finally put in cleanup money too.

"This is money that they would have to put forward at some point in the process because those two entities have legal liability to help move the cleanup along. But for them to establish this fund to help incentivize work at other sites is pretty important," said Travis Williams, Willamette Riverkeeper executive director.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's office says the state has already committed to putting $12 million into the fund.

Individual property owners could then use money from the fund to design cleanup plans. They could use $80,000 for design planning for each acre to be cleaned up with half of the money delivered to get planning started and the remaining half delivered once federal officials approve a cleanup plan.

The EPA has set a deadline of the end of this year for the state, city and some 150 landowners to finalize their cleanup plans.