Riverfront can provide jobs and habitat

Readers’ Letters

, Jul 23, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

JIM CLARK / Tribune File Photo

Canada geese make themselves at home in the lagoon at Swan Island on the Willamette River. Some letter writers say that economic uses of the waterfront must receive consideration, along with environmental restoration.

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Several of Bob Sallinger’s comments about the Port of Portland in his July 9 Post Script article, “Industry must do its share in cleaning river” require a response.

The Port of Portland agrees that new initiatives are necessary to protect and restore our natural areas. Our actions to develop and manage our marine and aviation facilities beyond what is required by regulation and our leadership role in efforts to clean up the Willamette River demonstrate this.

The focus of the North Reach River Plan is to examine riverfront development regulations in the working harbor and look for ways to preserve and enhance quality jobs and watershed health. We support the plan’s basic premise that new fees from business expansion or new business location will help fund watershed improvements. Our point is that in order for both jobs and environmental quality to benefit, these new fees must be reasonable; otherwise, there will be neither adequate funds for restoration nor jobs to strengthen the city’s economic base.

The major thrust of Mr. Sallinger’s criticism is our alignment with private businesses through the Working Waterfront Coalition. The port’s mission, mandated by state law, is to promote the maritime, shipping, and commercial interests of the harbor. It is therefore our charge to be a public advocate for efforts that lead to long-term sustainability of the working harbor, and to encourage private investment there so the city remains competitive in this dynamic global marketplace. Naturally, we work with a broad variety of stakeholders, including private businesses, to achieve these public goals.

We will continue to support ways to encourage water-dependent industrial growth in the right places, supporting mechanisms to fund restoration. “Smart” industrial growth — within the city, near freight corridors, done in a green manner, affordable for business — should be the future of our city. More collaborative work on these issues is needed. Let’s take the time to get it right — for all involved.

Tom Imeson

director of public affairs, Port of Portland

Northeast Portland

Coalition must restore remnants

I appreciate Bob Sallinger’s Post Script commentary asking for a balanced view on industrial partnership in restoration of the North Reach (Industry must do its share in cleaning river, July 9).

As a neighbor and citizen of North Portland living near the sites being discussed, I would like to add that our industrial neighbors are as diverse as us (residential) neighbors. Some have understood the problem of the environmental crisis and have acted as willing partners in trying to help the community meet the current need for restoration.

However, to our industrial (Working Waterfront) Coalition partners I would say: What part of “crisis” do you not understand?

The time of doing “business as usual” is no longer. The dumping of massive amounts of chemicals into the Willamette River doesn’t work for us anymore.

The need for river bank restoration on key sites is necessary if we hope to meet the current wildlife crisis. The crisis is particularly acute among river species, but also is now affecting land species, which are declining too rapidly. Restoration on site is something we need from them to help the North Portland community respond to current needs. We must also ask them to clean up as they go and pay to play.

One of the outstanding things about the St. Johns neighborhood is that people have a great sense of ownership and a good connection to nature. We ask the same of our industrial coalition partners. Please own what you do because it affects other areas of the community. If that model is too strenuous for you, please understand that no trade off is worth further environmental degradation to the North Reach where we live and raise families.

We enjoy and want to be stewards of the rich natural resources of this community, and their significant decline over the last number of years cannot continue. What we have left are remnants.

We’re asking you to participate in creating, enhancing and restoring these remnants to meet the crisis. We’re asking you to partner with us as conscious citizens of the North Reach.

Barbara Quinn

chairwoman, Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association

North Portland

Plan must preserve economic future

Bob Sallinger is right (Industry must do its share in cleaning river, July 9). Unfortunately, he misunderstands industry concerns about the River Plan recently endorsed by the Portland Planning Commission. Simply stated, this plan will discourage precisely those kinds of investments that Portland’s infrastructure-rich harbor is designed to house — and those investments necessary to clean up the river.

To quote Portland State University Professor Carl Abbott, “Portland is one of a handful of U.S. cities whose riverside location is nearly as important to prosperity and growth today as it was a century ago.”

The harbor provides tens of thousands of jobs. It is the location from where Oregon manufacturers and agricultural businesses ship their goods. It is here, too, that Oregonians import necessary raw materials and consumable goods that enrich our daily lives.

Yet, the River Plan proposes a regulatory process and fee schedule that has already prompted one river-dependent business to table its expansion plans; we fear others will do the same.

What is missing from the River Plan discussion is that waterfront industrial businesses will likely pay millions in their respective restoration obligations under the Superfund.

What also is missing is the recognition that most businesses have already changed their practices by investing in on-site stormwater treatment facilities and reducing or eliminating storm water discharges altogether — a crucial investment toward river cleanup and habitat improvement.

Finally, the reported “promise of $586 million” in infrastructure is not a promise at all, but simply a list of the priority projects that have been identified by various public and private entities for planning purposes. Many of the improvements will have to find funding from revenues created by actual users’ fees paid for by businesses and individuals when they purchase fuel or develop property.

By the city’s own admission, the River Plan is complex. That is why members of the Working Waterfront Coalition have participated for more than nine years in discussions about how best to achieve our collective vision of a prosperous working harbor and enhanced natural environment.

We must insist that our actions today honor our historic foresight, meet our environmental responsibilities and also preserve our economic future.

Alan Sprott, Vigor Industrial LLC

Bob Short, CalPortland Co.

Ann Gardner, Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc.

Working Waterfront Coalition

North Portland

Sallinger needs to look at big picture

In the guest article by Bob Sallinger, “Industry must do its share in cleaning river” (July 9), is Mr. Sallinger reading the same River Plan as everyone else?

In his article, Mr. Sallinger tells us: “The city is installing a new streamlined process to ensure the local, state and federal environmental mandates are coordinated and complementary.” Apparently, he has not applied for a city of Portland building permit to develop industrial sites. The process is very complex, requiring various land-use studies and environmental mitigation, all of which significantly increases the cost of developing a commercial or industrial site within the city of Portland. The River Plan will not simplify the process; rather it will become even more complex and costly under the River Plan.

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