The Port of Portland wants to change the law so it can keep dumping dredge waste in West Hayden Island’s natural area off Oregon's Columbia River
When the City of Portland pulled West Hayden Island from its list of lands to be developed over the next 20 years, it inadvertently created a problem for the Port of Portland.
West Hayden Island is the port’s preferred dumpsite for dredging sediment — essentially a storage plot for contaminated waste.
For Hayden Island residents and environmentalists who have long fought the port’s dumping practice, it was shaping up to be a victory.
But a bill moving through the Oregon Legislature would exempt the port from existing environmental protections that, for now, could make it illegal to dump dredging spoils on the island’s undeveloped natural area.
Before solid waste can be dumped onto land outside a landfill, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) rules require the waste to have what they call a “beneficial use.” According to DEQ Senior Policy Analyst Tom Roick, this means three things: The waste must not pose environmental or health risks, it must be characterized, and it must have a planned, productive use in its future.
“In the solid waste world, there’s a term called ‘sham disposal,’ which is where a party is basically just trying to find the cheapest way to get rid of a solid waste,” explains Roick, “and the productive use part of (the beneficial use criteria) makes sure that they are actually using it in a way that has some benefit.”
For years, the port has cited the future development of the West Hayden Island as a project in which the dumped sediment will be used, therefore fulfilling the productive use requirement. Dredging sediment is often used as construction filler.
But now that the island won’t be developed anytime soon, the Port of Portland can no longer cite its future development as a use for the sediment it stores there – sediment known by state regulators to contain low levels of PCBs, pesticides including DDT and heavy metals.
In order to be able to keep using the island as a sediment dump, the Port of Portland is supporting Senate Bill 412, which would exempt Oregon ports from the productive use portion of the beneficial use law by designating all dredging sediment productive, whether there are any plans for its future use or not.
Those opposed to the bill say this would render the word “productive” utterly meaningless.
An earlier version of the same bill would have exempted dredging material from all DEQ oversight, but after the state regulatory agency raised concerns, it was amended to exempt ports from productive use requirements only. DEQ is neutral on the bill.
According to Port of Portland spokesperson Steve Johnson, the site currently housing dumped sediment covers about 100 of the 826 undeveloped acres of West Hayden Island. The sediment, while in a designated area, is neither covered nor contained inside any sort of protective barrier.
“In terms of the environment,” says Bob Sallinger, conservation director with the Audubon Society of Portland, “it’s risk of exposure for wildlife; for fish. It’s risk of exposure for the community when this stuff blows up into the air and blows around. We think it’s really sad that the port is using this amazing wildlife area to dump contaminated sediment. We don’t need to spread more contamination around, we need to clean it up.”
The Oregon Senate voted 30-0 to pass the bill in April.
Environmentalists and Hayden Island residents who were absent from the bill’s first public hearing in March made their way to Salem Tuesday to testify at its second hearing, urging the House Committee on Energy and Environment to vote against giving Oregon’s ports an “automatic stamp” of approval on dumping dredging spoils.
Timme Helzer, a resident and business owner on Hayden Island for 14 years, testified he’s concerned the residents of a manufactured home park less than a half mile from the dumpsite are at risk from the contaminated dust that blows from the piles of uncovered sediment, calling the “health challenged” residents there “prisoners in their own homes.”
A representative for the Oregon Public Ports Association reminded the committee that ports contribute more than $600 million in tax revenue to state and local governments annually, and stated that the bill is “a simple fix to a complex and difficult challenge.”
The challenge, Port of Portland representatives say, is coming up with plans for using the dredged sediment.
West Hayden Island, itself, is the product of historical dredge-spoil dumping, although most sediment was deposited there before environmental laws requiring beneficial use were established in 2009. The Port of Portland now owns the land and has been dumping sediment at its placement facility there for more than 13 years.
Over time, the island has become a habitat of wetlands, meadows and bottomland hardwood forests. According to Sallinger, the natural area is home to a diverse population of wildlife, including more than 100 species of birds, and it provides crucial river habitat for salmon. On the northern flank of the island, at the edge of the port’s sediment dump, a pair of bald eagles routinely nests and raise their eaglets in a patch of cottonwood trees, he says.
According to DEQ’s Roick, the dredged sediment dumped upland on the island meets screening requirements for occupational properties. These requirements allow for higher levels of contamination than residential screening. He says it’s up to the Port of Portland to test chemical levels in the solid waste and report it back to DEQ.
“To my knowledge it’s sandy and silty material from the river bottom,” says Roick, “and yes, there are low levels of certain contaminants, like petroleum hydrocarbons, PCBs and there have been some pesticide detections, but they’re low enough that they’re below our screening levels for being able to put it upland and not cause an adverse impact.”
But to Sallinger, the real issue is the location of the dump. “It’s creating a contaminated solid waste dump in the middle of a natural area – this is not the right place for a port dump,” he says. “The whole purpose of having that productive-use clause in the bill in the first place was to ensure that people didn’t do exactly what the port is doing – that they don’t just dump their waste wherever they want and create these mini landfills without any productive benefits to the community.”
Despite years of push back from environmentalists and island residents, the port continues to use the island to store its waste, saying it’s low on options.
“Dredged material must be placed in a location pre-approved by numerous state and federal agencies,” says Johnson. “West Hayden Island is currently our only designated upland location for appropriate dredged material generated from berth maintenance.” While most of the dredged sediment is clean enough to be disposed of in water or used as “beach nourishment,” since 2013, the port has sent 2,000 cubic yards to landfill, and about 3,000 cubic yards of less-contaminated sediment to upland storage on the island, he says.
Based on the port’s beneficial use applications, DEQ estimates that about 200,000 cubic yards of sediment have been deposited at the West Hayden Island Placement Facility in recent years.
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