River dumps still in play for Superfund cleanup


The Environmental Protection Agency and property owners in Portland Harbor continue to pursue building contaminated sediment dumps at the edges of the Willamette River as a way to speed the long-delayed cleanup of Oregon’s largest Superfund site. 

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Despite concerns about leaks, the Environmental Protection Agency and property owners in Portland Harbor continue to pursue building contaminated sediment dumps at the edges of the Willamette River as a way to speed the long-delayed cleanup of Oregon’s largest Superfund site.

Dumps in a slip in the Port of Portland’s Terminal 4 and in the Swan Island Lagoon could capture nearly all the sludge dredged up during harbor cleanup and would likely cost less than hauling it to landfills, EPA says.

Berms would dam the dumps from the river and contain nearly all the contamination into the foreseeable future — for more than 450 years in the case of the Terminal 4 dump, a Port-commissioned analysis concluded.

Read more in today’s Oregonian.