Half-fast cleanup wholly done (Jack Bog's Blog)

The toxic Zidell site in the Portland's failed SoWhat District has been "cleaned up," according to its owners, and they're shouting loudly about all the money they've spent to remediate the environmental mess they made. According to the Portland Business Journal (motto: "Who needs critical thinking skills?"), Jay Zidell "will tell Portland’s City Council that the $20 million project has resulted in a cleaner 30-acre site."

Now he can build some more apartment bunkers. Whoopee.

What he won't be bragging about is how much nasty stuff the state has allowed him to leave on the riverbanks. It's been covered up, not removed:

The city of Portland and the Audubon Society protested the decision to cap contaminants in the river instead of dredging and removing them. The National Marine Fisheries Service, which ultimately approved the project, also preferred dredging initially. But Zidell said it would cost more than $80 million.
Zidell's solution: smaller, more fish-friendly rock -- no bigger than 2 1/2 inches instead of 6 inches -- to make up 6 inches of clean fill. The fisheries service gave it a green light.

In all, Zidell will cap 16 acres with 154,000 cubic yards of clean fill. Along the banks, 15,000 shrubs and 200 trees will be planted.

For Bob Sallinger, Portland Audubon's conservation director, Zidell and others are squandering a rare opportunity to fully restore this part of the lower Willamette.

"Once those contaminants are sealed in, there's no way in hell you're coming back in 20 years and uncapping it and recapturing that opportunity."

Going the cheaper route may hasten the condo-ization of the area, but it's not particularly good karma. Brownfields with a thin green cover may well result in trouble down the road.

Comments (15)

All true, but as Metro keeps telling us, we can't afford not to fast track building luxury condos for all the climate-change refugees arriving any day now...

Posted by Mr. Grumpy | December 12, 2011 3:45 PM

Isn't there a massive Superfund site on the Willamette River? What does the EPA think about Zidell's 'cleanup' efforts?

Posted by reader | December 12, 2011 4:43 PM

As I understand, the EPA delegates to the Oregon DEQ, and apparently they were fine with the cover plan.

Posted by Jack Bog | December 12, 2011 5:09 PM

There's been much capping of brownfields in SoWa.

http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?a=217129&c=53665

Posted by Ben | December 12, 2011 5:36 PM

But wait, didn't somebody already give some big dollars to somebody to clean up a big mess somewhere?

Posted by Abe | December 12, 2011 5:49 PM

I know nothing about geology, but what happens if an earthquake occurs and the soil by the river liquifies?

Posted by Evergreen Libertarian | December 12, 2011 5:53 PM

Good grief. In 10 years or less, after a few flood events, and some normal seasonal flow surging, that skimpy layer of little rocks will be strewn all the way down to Swan Island -- Hey! 2 sites with one stone! Ah, fug.

Posted by Mojo | December 12, 2011 6:02 PM

Funny how capping a landfill is a no-no but capping toxic chemicals under luxury condos isn't.

Posted by Mr. Grumpy | December 12, 2011 6:11 PM

As long as they can make it look good and green...

Do people really care to look deeper, underneath matters,
or behind the scenes that much?
Course there are some who do,
quite a few who blog on here.

Posted by clinamen | December 12, 2011 7:11 PM

The Condo Mafia makes campaign contributions. Fish don't.

Go by Streetcar!

Posted by Mister Tee | December 12, 2011 7:15 PM

Don't annoy the campaign contributors. Kick the can down the road. Don't annoy the campaign contributors. Make up more bullwash about how green we are. Kick the can down the road. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It's not a clean up. It is a fig leaf, and not even a very commodious one. Whenever they claim it's a clean up, we should all yell, "Fig leaf!" in unison.

Posted by Shirley U. Jest | December 12, 2011 7:53 PM

Isn't there a massive Superfund site on the Willamette River?

Look here.

Posted by John Rettig | December 12, 2011 11:31 PM

So you put 6 inches of pebbles, on average, over a large area at the bottom of a moving river. Yeah. That'll last.

Posted by Jo | December 13, 2011 12:47 AM

Abe, yes, "somebody" did "give some big bucks" to clean up Zidell's site-taxpayers.

The Oregonian fails to go back into their own archives in reporting how Zidell had us pay most of the capping costs.

As reported on Oct 27, 2010, the Oregon Supremes ruled that their insurance carrier Lloyds of London had to pay something like $20 Million.

Then back on Dec 21,2009 they reported how the feds (Navy) "will cover up to 35% of the cleanup costs" since they had ships dismantled by Zidell and they said they had ignorance that there was toxic materials in the dismantling process.

The Oregonian/CoP now paints a pretty picture how Zidell is magnanimous. How soon some forget. And Zidell, correct the record if it wrong, and give us the correct accounting.

Posted by Lee | December 13, 2011 9:07 PM

Portland Business Journal (PBJ=Peanut Butter and Jelly) is included in the critique of "how soon some forget".

Posted by Lee | December 13, 2011 9:12 PM

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Monday, December 12, 2011

Half-fast cleanup wholly done

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