Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group January 11, 2023 Meeting
This Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group meeting featured a historical retrospective with founding members and advocates reflecting on 22+ years of Superfund cleanup efforts. Key figures like Travis Williams (Willamette Riverkeeper), Jim Robison (former CAG chair), and Bob Salinger (Portland Audubon) shared their experiences from the early 2000s formation through current challenges.
Summary
The January 11, 2023 Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group meeting served as a historical appreciation event for the pioneers who established the organization and advocacy efforts around the Willamette River Superfund cleanup. The meeting began with updates about the Braided River Gallery relocating within Lloyd Center after pipe breaks, and upcoming community events including a 'Rumble on the River' forum about the CEI Hub.
Travis Williams, Executive Director of Willamette Riverkeeper since 2000, provided extensive historical context about the formation of the CAG in early 2001. He described how initial optimistic timelines projected cleanup completion by 2010, but the process has taken much longer due to legal challenges from potentially responsible parties (PRPs). Williams emphasized the collaborative nature of early advocacy efforts and the importance of public engagement throughout the process.
Jim Robison, former CAG chair, shared his journey from neighborhood activism starting in 1989 through his leadership role. He highlighted the importance of moving meetings from state buildings to St. John's Community Center to improve local accessibility, and emphasized how he was often the only unpaid volunteer among paid agency representatives and organizational staff at meetings.
Katie Weil from Metro discussed her work on Willamette Cove since 2008, describing the site's potential for habitat restoration once cleanup is complete. She announced her transition away from cleanup work and introduced Allison Clements as Metro's new environmental remediation program advisor starting Tuesday.
Bob Salinger from Portland Audubon reflected on the organization's long-term river advocacy and the evolution of urban wildlife conservation thinking. He discussed broader challenges including the need for comprehensive habitat planning beyond Superfund requirements and concerns about the city's diminished environmental leadership capacity.
Key Insights
- Travis Williams explains that initial CAG optimism in 2002 projected remedial design and action completion by 2005-2010, but legal challenges from potentially responsible parties caused major delays beyond EPA control
- Jim Robison reveals he was often the only person at Superfund meetings who was not being paid to attend, highlighting the volunteer nature of true community representation versus paid agency and organizational staff
- Williams describes how even in 2003 fishing surveys showed people knew about contamination but continued using fish because they knew preparation methods or had other purposes for the catch
- Bob Salinger argues that Portland's river planning process was deliberately sabotaged when polluters sued successfully in Salem to get the habitat restoration plan thrown out after 10 years of development
- Katie Weil emphasizes that Willamette Cove has huge potential for off-channel salmon and lamprey refugia habitat once cleanup enables ecological restoration of the shallow water areas
- Williams notes that the cleanup law is vastly complicated and imperfect, and while the river will be cleaner than recent times, it won't return to pre-white settlement contamination levels
- Salinger warns that Portland currently has no city council members who think of themselves as environmental leaders, representing a significant departure from the city's historical green infrastructure leadership
- Robison explains that CAG meetings were moved from state office buildings to St. John's Community Center to ensure meetings occurred right in the affected neighborhood next to the Superfund site
- Williams reveals that McCormick and Baxter site was the last Superfund site funded by the original Superfund program, accomplished when Ted Kulongoski convinced George Bush on Air Force One to dedicate remaining funds
- Salinger describes how Mike Houck at Portland Audubon was given only $5,000 by the state to survey all habitat in the entire metro region because the state considered urban wildlife habitat surveys a waste of time
- Williams explains that Yakama Nation chose not to participate in some Superfund processes because they felt it focused too narrowly on the Willamette stretch without addressing related Columbia River contamination issues
- Weil announces that Metro has hired its first-ever environmental remediation program advisor, Allison Clements, who knows the site and will take over cleanup management as Weil transitions to pure science work
Topics
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