Tag Archives: Willamette River

Steel Bridge train derailment warning for future

The Portland region dodged a major transportation headache when the freight train that derailed crossing the lower deck of the Steel Bridge on April 29 did not damage it. That is especially true for the TriMet MAX light rail trains serving all three metropolitan counties. Although the bridge connecting East Portland to downtown was shut […]
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Summer steelhead numbers best in years for Santiam, Upper Willamette

Over the past few years, summer steelhead fishing on the North Santiam River has been so bad that longtime guide Mike Ferris decided to stay home and buy a lottery ticket. “I figured that I had the same chance of winning the jackpot as catching a steelhead,” he said with a laugh. This year, that […]
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Willamette River Is So Full of Trash the State Proposes to Regulate It Under the Clean Water Act

Only two other states have waterways dirty enough to have earned similar oversight, Willamette Riverkeeper says. The cumulative effect of trash washing into the Willamette River has earned the state’s signature waterway an ignominious distinction: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality proposes to make it just the third body of water in the nation to […]
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Oregon could place limits on river trash, ocean acidification

Trash dumped into stretches of the Willamette River between Salem and the Columbia River has gotten so bad that local agencies may need to come up with ways to address it, according to a state report published Thursday. The report uses data submitted by the nonprofit Willamette Riverkeeper, whose staff say the mounting trash pollution […]
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Portland Residents Demand Action to Avoid Toxic Catastrophe Along the Willamette River

More than 90% of all liquid fuel in Oregon is contained in aging tanks at the six-mile long Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub on the west shore of the Willamette River, and residents of Portland are demanding action to avoid a potential toxic catastrophe. The CEI Hub storage tanks hold all jet fuel for Portland […]
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A Once-Polluted Stretch of Riverfront Has Been Clean for Nearly 20 Years. Why Is It Still Off-Limits?

There’s not much activity on the 41 acres of Willamette riverfront property immediately upstream of the BNSF Railway Bridge in the University Park neighborhood.The beach and expansive uplands contain driftwood, migratory birds and, judging from tracks under a security gate, the occasional coyote—but no people. None legally, anyway. Source: A Once-Polluted Stretch of Riverfront Has […]
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Yes, much of the Willamette River’s algae woes can be traced back to Ross Island

The Ross Island lagoon isn’t the only source of harmful river algae near Portland, but it tends to be the leading culprit when summertime blooms appear. It’s become something of an unsavory summer tradition in Portland: Just when the hottest and sunniest weather arrives, emergency alerts go out from the city and the Oregon Health Authority, […]
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Portland’s Willamette Cove: Soil study says contamination is deeper than expected

Once it was an industrial workhorse. Now it’s a contaminated mess. And in the future, it could be a nature park. But a new study says the contamination runs deeper into the soil than anticipated. Willamette Cove is a 27-acre slice of land on the eastern bank of the Willamette River north of the Burlington […]
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Judge advances fight for right to Willamette River recreation

A civil rights lawsuit challenging Oregon’s rules for boating on the Willamette River inched forward Friday after a federal judge denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case. The peculiar civil rights case emerged in March 2023 in response to the Oregon Marine Board’s enforcement of Senate Bill 1589, a law passed in 2022 that amends […]
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Oil, Chemical Companies Pay Millions to Fix Portland Harbor

People who eat fish that live year-round in Oregon’s Lower Willamette River are taking a big risk, as these fish contain levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls high enough to harm health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been warning for decades. In November, the Justice Department added two settlements in federal court reflecting agreements among […]
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