Federal regulators are giving additional time to comment on their plan for cleaning up Portland’s most polluted stretch of the Willamette River.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it has received numerous requests for more time to review its plan to bury toxic sludge on the bottom of the river’s Portland Harbor.
The EPA is extending its deadline for public comment by 30 days to Sept. 6
The Portland Harbor cleanup area is within an eleven-mile stretch of the Willamette running north from the Broadway Bridge. A century’s worth of industrial pollution led to the Portland harbor’s designation as a Superfund site in 2000.
Seven of the companies responsible for the pollution filed a legal challenge to the cleanup plan.
One of the Portland Harbor’s largest landowners, the Port of Portland, is not a party to the legal challenge. But it, too, has criticized the plan, calling it too broad. The port also says the cleanup plan needs to better target specific areas for cleanup and that its $750 million price tag does not reflect the true cost of the undertaking.
The EPA has scheduled four meetings where its cleanup plan will be discussed. All four will be in Portland and will run from 11:30 am to 8 pm:
Friday at the City of Portland Building, 1120 SW 4th Ave.
Wednesday, June 29 at the EXPO Center, 2060 N. Marine Drive
Monday, July 11 at the University Place Conference Center, 310 SW Lincoln St.
Wednesday, July 20 at the Ambridge Center, 1333 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
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