Portland Harbor Superfund Site Finally Gets Some Good News

PORTLAND, OR – For more than 100 years, the banks of the Willamette in Portland were the home to industrial plans that poured waste into the soil. The result is that the area – now known as the Portland Harbor Superfund Site – is one of the most polluted in the country.

To get the site cleaned up, more than 150 different companies, government agencies, and other organizations spent more than a decade developing a plan.

That plan has been expected to cost $1 billion.

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Well, if the Environmental Protection Agency has its way, you can chop $35 million off the price tag.

The agency says that one of the cancer-causing toxins in the river – called benzo(a)pyrene or BAP, which comes from burning wood, oil, and coal – isn't quite as bad they had previously thought. As a result, they say, they can trim 17 acres from the 2,200 acres that they need to clean up.

Most of those 17 acres are around Terminal 4 owned by the Port of Portland.

The EPA says that people have until Dec. 21, 2018 to comment on the proposed changes, which are expected to be challenge by several environmental groups.

You can read the EPA's summary of the proposed changes here..

Photo of Portland Harbor via the Environmental Protection Agency.