EPA 'remains committed' to working with DEQ, tribes on Portland Superfund cleanup

Broadway Bridge to Kelley Point Park.City leaders and state officials said the EPA's draft plan as written could open the door to selective river sampling, which could provide an inaccurate baseline level of contamination, a move they contend was designed to delay the project and benefit a select handful of polluters.Willamette River Superfund cleanup faces delayBut Pirzadeh said Thursday the EPA has not made a final decision on how to proceed with the cleanup and additional testing of the contaminated site. The letter stated that the tribes, DEQ and other long-term federal partners on the project will have until Oct. 24 to respond to the draft plan delivered to those groups on Oct. 6."I believe we do have a mutual goal of moving the process forward expeditiously to allow work in the river to commence as soon as possible," she said in the letter.Sen. Jeff Merkley, who sits on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said in an interview Thursday that it's time to move forward with the cleanup plan."We've spent an incredible amount of money working out a plan," he said, "and at some point, you have to actually execute the plan and I think now is the time to execute the plan and get it done."If the EPA delays cleanup, he warned, it "may not be done in our lifetimes."The Portland Harbor Superfund drama comes as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has vowed to speed up cleanups nationwide, pledging to create a top 10 list of projects and streamline the process.In January, while still under the Obama administration, the EPA released the long-awaited final cleanup plan for the Superfund site, the culmination of a 17-year effort.The 2,535-pag... (OregonLive.com)