March 4- Port aims to keep strategy secret on river cleanup. Superfund - The Port will ask a court to shield the documents on Willamette polluters. Read the Oregonian article.

December 2- Dozens oppose Port plan for dump. Cleanup - Opponents fear a quake or flood could release buried toxic sediment into the Willamette. Read the Oregonian article.

November 2- Tar removal failings found
Devices to contain contaminants failed. Read the Oregonian article.

September 5-Toxic dump is called too perilous for Willamette
An engineering review says an earthquake or flood could spill contaminants, so environmental and other groups oppose the plan. Read the Oregonian article.

August 25- Dive starts Portland harbor tar cleanup. Read the Oregonain article.

Northwest Natural GASCO Clean-up Falls Short

The GASCO clean-up is a Northwest Natural project at a former oil production plant along the Willamette. A large tar mass sat on the banks of the river leaching petroleum products in to the river for more than 60 years. After years of wrangling with EPA and DEQ, Northwest Natural finally reached an agreement to proceed with the least cost method for tar removal despite unanimous public and tribal opposition. The project took place this summer and the outcome was a disaster. Barriers failed, dredges released sediments, water quality exceedances for highly toxics chemicals including benzene were literally off the charts, and lab reports took as long as 10 days while the dredging continued with no clear data.

A tribal debrief before the Community Advisory Group called the project unacceptable from every perspective except that the tar body has been removed. Even the EPA admitted that the project did not go well and only Northwest Natural tried to put a good face on it by detailing what good corporate citizens they have been.

Port Tenant Will Clean Up Ash

January 2005

Kinder Morgan, a principal tenant at the Port of Portland has agreed to spend up to $75,000 to stop soda ash from washing into the Willamette River under a preliminary settlement reached with the Center. The Center sued Kinder Morgan last April after a veteran longshoreman complained he was working in a "fog" of soda ash that covered the grounds and riverbank, and later washed into the Willamette River. Read the Oregonian news article.

Coal Tar Contamination at Terminal Four

Following up on reports from longshoremen that there were still coal tar contaminants at the Port of Portland’s terminal four restoration project, the Center has been able to gain assurances from the Port that they will do soil tests and clean up the remaining contamination. The coal tar releases at the terminal occurred over the past several decades when the commodity was loaded at the terminal. The Center confirmed the coal tar contamination during a site visit with DEQ, longshoremen, Port officials and a reporter from the Oregonian.

Update

Several Early Action Clean Up projects are underway within the clean up site. The Port and EPA are moving forward with plans for cleaning up contaminated sediments at terminal four, slip three. Northwest Natural’s GASCO site will be cleaned up next summer. The tars contaminating that site will be removed to a hazardous waste landfill in the summer or 2005. The old Atofina Chemical site is also going to be cleaned up within the year.

Searching for Potentially Responsible Parties

EPA is in the process of identifying potentially responsible parties (PRP’s) associated with the contamination of the Portland Harbor Superfund site. In 2000, sixty-nine “general notice” letters were sent to an initial list of property owners, tenants and governments, informing them of potential liability. An extensive search will eventually identify many more parties who may be responsible for contamination. The PRP search will eventually identify many more parties who may be responsible for contamination. The PRP search includes research in public records and requests for information from generators, transporters, owner and operators of facilities along the Lower Willamette River. With its history of more than 150 years of industrial use, finding those potentially responsible parties is a complicated but very important process.

Ten parties initially contacted by EPA formed the Lower Willamette Group and agreed to pay for the investigation. Parties who did not sign an agreement with EPA will still be responsible for their share of the investigation and cleanup. EPA will determine appropriate contributions by parties toward total site costs as part of the investigation and PRP search. The PRP search process will continue over the next two years.