The Willamette River is the most polluted river west of the Mississippi, with chemicals like lead, arsenic and dioxin being dumped into it every year, which is why OSPIRG (Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group) has made cleaning up the Willamette its top priority this fall.
OSPIRG is an organization that teaches students how to investigate problems and come up with practical solutions. The campus branch has several issues that it tackles every year.
This year, some of OSPIRG’s main concerns will include getting young people to vote, increasing awareness about homelessness and hunger in the community, and increasing awareness and protection for and about wilderness areas. Their main focus this year is the Willamette River.
“If people were aware of how toxic it is, I think they would be outraged,” OSPIRG board Chairwoman Vivian Vassall said.
Department of Environmental Quality environmental toxicologist Gene Foster said the group has collected data showing that in some areas of the river, more than half of the fish have skeletal deformities. He said this seems like a high incidence, and further studies are still being conducted.
About 75 percent of Oregon’s population lives on or near the Willamette River, yet some parts of the river are so dangerously polluted that warning signs are required to be posted to let people know they should stay away, Vassall said.
There is a five and a half mile stretch of river in the Portland Harbor that has recently been declared a federal Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA spokesman Bill Dunbar said that a Superfund area can be a contaminated site that has been abandoned or an operable site that poses enough threat to require immediate help from EPA.
By declaring a Superfund site, EPA can use political leverage to tell companies that played a part in the pollution to go in and clean it up, Dunbar said.
If the company refuses, EPA can charge them fees for EPA to go in and clean it up itself.
Because many people are unaware of the degree of pollution in the Willamette River, one of OSPIRG’s major efforts involved in the Willamette River campaign is to raise public awareness on campus.
One way is by getting students to sign an unofficial petition if they are concerned about the river that says they will keep this in mind when they vote for a gubernatorial candidate.
Vassall said she is surprised this is not a bigger issue for University students or gubernatorial candidates. She says the issue is important enough that candidates should be talking about it in their campaigns.
OSPIRG is trying to get the support of Oregon’s next governor by having the candidates sign a pledge saying they will commit to a river cleanup.
So far, neither major party candidate has signed on, but OSPIRG has spoken personally to at least one of the candidates to make him aware of the problem.
Vassall said that the candidates have acknowledged the problem, but have not publicly announced their specific solution to mitigate further pollution or to clean up past pollution.
Information about the Willamette River cleanup efforts is available at www.ospirgstudents.org.