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The
Environment The Columbia Slough is a complex and integral part of the Columbia River system. Among its numerous functions, the slough is employed by nature as a storage reservoir for spring run-offs and a vast habitat for dozens of fish and wildlife species. Beginning with the earliest white settlers in the area, the Columbia Slough environment has been altered and utilized for human needs. Activity on and around the slough has fundamentally changed its relationship with the Columbia River, seriously degrading the slough’s health. Efforts to address the quality of the slough environment have resulted in enormous clean up costs, political stagnation, and indecision over how best to go about cleaning the slough. The area’s future health remains in doubt. The first time I went out to the slough understanding what the problems were it was striking to me because in the trees were these buzzards. What I know about buzzards is they don't hang around healthy stuff. They hang around where dying is happening, where death is around. That was indication to me about the condition of the slough and at times when I was asked to talk about it I'd always relate that story and challenge people to get involved before the buzzards were on Portlandia [a statue in downtown Portland]. I saw that as a indication of what was coming. Richard Brown, social and environmental activist Years ago there was little pollution regulation. In many cases, small firms and industries dumped waste directly into the slough causing serious environmental damage. Small businesses along the slough probably devastated it. Because I don’t think, they really understood the impact of those various things on the water. It was just water so people just dumped stuff in the water. I think that in that regard they destroyed the slough. Probably not even realizing they were destroying it. And by destroying the slough then you destroy access of people from this area to get to the slough because what would have brought them down there is now dead or dying. The fish disappear, the water levels drop, and as a result of the flood and how they controlled the water you get more algae in there. You get less oxygen. So you know as we have industrialized that whole Columbia Slough area it makes it tougher for the slough to survive. Ed Washington, former Vanport City resident and Metro Councilman Because of pollution, activities such as swimming and fishing are now unsafe. There are people who catch and eat fish from the slough despite safety warnings. Many of these people are minorities or recent immigrants who supplement their diets with slough-caught fish. Below. The Columbia Slough near 47th St. Photo by George W. Weatheroy, Columbia Slough Oral History Capstone Student
During the winter, airplanes at Portland International Airport are de-iced with ethylene and propylene glycols, commonly known as anti-freeze. The de-icing fluid from the airport drains into the slough. Glycol removes much needed , oxygen from the water. Current plans allow for the collection and treatment of the concentrated glycol, thereby meeting EPA and DEQ regulations, by 2003. The pilot's eventually the one who determines whether or not his plane gets de-iced. It's his call. It's his liability. It's in his hands he's the one flying you. It's the same as you having a passenger in your car. You're responsibility is to make sure they put on a seat belt, and to make sure you're car's safe to drive. Same with a pilot, so he's the one who actually controls the de-icing. Years ago it used to be better safe than sorry. Pilots say I'm sitting here ready to take off, de-ice me again and just say hey, keep throwing that stuff on here because that's the safest thing I can do. With no concern about what was being thrown down and where it was going. Went down the drain. Where'd it go? Columbia Slough. Tim Hayford, former manager of the Multnomah Drainage District (1980-1999) Sediment contamination is a serious issue. There are questions about how bad the contamination is and what to do with the sediment. Cleaning up the slough and the sediments is complicated due to costs and environmental concerns. There is no clear answer. The real question is that you can study anything for a long time but the reality is how do you clean it up? I mean it's going to take money to clean it up, it takes time. I still think that that's probably where everybody is on the Columbia Sough. What do you do with it? Do you try and contain it? Pretty hard to do. Do you try and remove it? What's the good and bad? How much environmental damage do you do in the process of removing it etcetera? Tim Hayford |
We
need to show how the impact of the environment affects
your life and it may not be anything that you can
measure. It may not be anything that you can see today
but we can look at fish and we can find that fish
have lesions on them. Well, the only thing fish do
is swim in water-that's the environment. If we find
that there's a extraordinarily high number of fish
that have these problems we've got to assume that
the environment is causing it and if we're eating
the fish, if we're swimming in the water, if we're
drinking the water then there's no reason to think
that its not going to affect us in some way. We may
not have lesions but we've got to realize that it's
going to affect us in some way. Richard
Brown, social and environmental activist
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