Oregon Public Broadcasting

Ten years ago a stretch of the Willamette River, which runs through the heart of the Portland Harbor, was designated a superfund site.

It's so large, it's one of only a dozen areas in the nation called mega-superfund sites.  And unless you've been paying close attention, it doesn't look like much has been done over the last decade.

But this week, a major study outlining exactly what toxins are where, and how dangerous they are, is being released.

Kristian Foden-Vencil talked to people who've looked at the study and files this report.

If you drive out of Portland toward Astoria, you can begin to get an understanding of just how big the Portland Harbor is.

The area contains a third of all the city's industrial land. There are about 1000 companies doing businesses here in everything from printing to storing gas.

At the Arco/BP gas terminal, Scott Vawter showed me how gas is stored on site in about a dozen cylindrical tanks.

Scott Vawter: "We're walking toward the Willamette River and what we see out on the river here is our fuel dock and currently we're unloading product from the fuel barge to one of the tank farms to store in a large tank so that we can then again load it out in one of the fuel trucks to go to the retail sites."

There's been a gas storage facility here since the 1940's -- a time when oil spills  weren't taken seriously. In fact, there's an oil slick lying just underneath the ground here -- it floats on top of the water table.

Tom Ganier of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, says ARCO/BP has built an impermeable steel wall to stop oil escaping.

Tom Ganier: "What we're looking at is a new vertical steel sheet pile wall which was constructed in 2007. And it provides structural stability for the whole bulk terminal but it's also inserted into the ground so that it prevents the petroleum products from migrating into the river." 

It's hard to tell whether the smell of gas here is coming from the oil barge or the old spill.  But pollution problems like this are multiplied dozens of times across the Portland Harbor.

Jim Anderson, who oversees the superfund site for DEQ, says that's why the new remedial investigation is so important.

Jim Anderson: "Well it's a major milestone. It's really the site characterization study and the risk assessment.  It tells us what the source is, what the nature is, what the extent of the contamination is in the Portland Harbor. And the risk that contamination poses to human health and the environment."

The document will be used over the next year to decide how things need to be cleaned up -- whether by dredging, capping-over, or what's called monitoring and storing in place.

Anderson has looked through the remedial investigation, and says the main problem for humans seems to be the heavy metals and PCB's that accumulate up the food chain and into the bass and carp that some Portlanders eat.

Jim Anderson: "I think a lot of immigrant folks and a lot of people who are disadvantaged socio-economically, depend on fish for protein."

The state has already issued a health warning, dictating how much Willamette River fish people can consume safely.

Across town at the offices of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, Chip Humphrey, has also cracked the cover the remedial investigation. He says pockets of toxic river sediment pose the main threat.

Chip Humphrey: "Pockets is a good description yes. So some areas show up toxic, some areas are certainly non-toxic."

Back at the Arco/BP terminal, DEQ's Tom Ganier, says the goal isn't to return this land to its pristine state.

Tom Ganier: "So a piece of property that's currently or in the future going to be a playground for children, will have different clean-up standards than an industrial site."

While a report  that  details the sources of harbor pollution might not seem like much after a decade of work on this superfund site, authorities say it's essential to the next step.

That step is called  the final record of decision.  It's expected in 2012 and will dictates how  the pollution needs to be dealt with,  and who will be responsible any further cleanup.