One of the largest employers in the Portland Harbor says it will appeal the city’s new plan to help restore the Willamette River.
The Portland Tribune report that Gunderson, a maker of rail cars and marine barges, filed a notice with Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals. The company tells the Trib the plan isn’t balanced enough toward business interests.
See Portland Tribune: River Plan challenged
Portland’s City Council got plenty of advice, but no consistent message, from people testifying Wednesday night about a plan to restore the North Reach of the Willamette River. Businesses worried about how much it will cost and urged the council to move slowly. Environmental groups said the time for action is now.
Running from downtown to the Columbia River, the North Reach is the industrial heart of the city. A busy harbor, generating billions of dollars worth of business, and providing some of the best paying jobs in Portland.
But it’s also something of an environmental mess. The North Reach has suffered from years of pollution and habitat degradation that put this stretch of the Willamette on the Superfund list. Endangered salmon, steelhead and other species either live here or migrate through the area.
Cruise the Willamette downstream from central Portland and you’ll soon realize this is not the wild river our city founders knew. Shipping terminals, cargo vessels, scrapyards, oil tanks, warehouses and gazillions of imported cars line the riverbank. This area, as city officials like to describe it, is a working river. An important area for business and for jobs.
But it’s home to wildlife as well. Herons, sea lions, otters and fish spend some or all of their lives here. Fall salmon numbers in the upper Willamette system have been surprisingly robust, giving hope that the endangered fish might be making a comeback. For that to happen, salmon and steelhead have to migrate at least twice through the dirtiest section of the Willamette. The working part of the river. A Superfund site.
Soon, the Portland City Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to reconcile all these different demands. Two of Portland’s best known environmental groups, Willamette Riverkeeper and the Audubon Society, are concerned over industry attempts to weaken some of the environmental protections in the plan. Those industry objections led Mayor Adams to cancel a public hearing that was scheduled for last month. It could also be the reason why Thursday’s planned hearing was put off as well.
