Treasure Island story is much like the Slavin Rd property right west of SW Corbett that Portland Parks use to own. They sold it to a private developer (without bids) to hide the fact that DEQ determined it was "toxic". They filled the site with clean fill over the toxins and built 100 condos. The neighborhood association still has documents confirming this, plus it was slightly reported in the O back in the 90's.

People today forget what the Cold War was like, especially when Stalin first got the bomb and promised to take us off the map, and later when Khrushchev and Kennedy nearly did. A lot of things that are serious concerns today were ingnored in light of the alternative, all-out nuclear war. Still, sounds like pretty shady doings regarding the USN. And "USS Pandemonium"? What a mess.

Interesting about Slavin Rd. Before the RR was converted to Barbur Blvd, Slavin Rd. ran from SW Portland up to Hillsdale (now Capitol Hwy) beyond.

I wonder what's "toxic" about it and what caused it?

Think of it as a long-term investment that has a guaranteed payoff...

Grumpy, it was used by Portland Public Works, PBOT to dump road construction, other city construction material on the site. There is a lot of asphalt under the condos too. Since the site wasn't fenced off, controlled, there was a lot of illegal dumping too, with numerous toxic substances. DEQ in their testing with 5 test holes called it toxic.

Then Dames & Moore did two reports in 1990 and 1991. First report summarized it all with "Based upon our visual observations, there appears to be widespread contamination of subsurface soils by some form of hydrocarbon product.", Then their 1991 report has "As indicated in the lab results, STP-1[test hole] had greater than 50 mg/kg of TPH." Dames & Moore's reports were more concerned about the hydrocarbons (oil) on the site than other toxins. The site is over 10 acres and over 40 ft deep in the center over a creek that flows from Council Crest. Heck, there could be radioactive material dumped illegally from OSHU on the site.

These reports weren't too thorough and were just looking for a pass for the City who was anxious to sell it for $200,000. But that deal turned out to be a land swap for a few acres on the cliff side of Rocky Butte.