Reinstating the Superfund
Portland Harbor was added to the EPA National Priorities List in December 2000. The Site is located along the Willamette River from downtown Portland, Oregon to the Columbia River. Initial study focused on a heavily industrialized 6.2-mile section of river between Swan and Sauvie Islands.Portland Harbor is contaminated with metals (such as mercury), pesticides, herbicides, and other heavy metals and toxins.
Congressman Blumenauer monitors the state of the Portland Harbor site and meets regularly with stakeholders, including businesses, Tribes, environmental groups, local government, and federal agencies to discuss the ongoing progress. To help communities like Portland clean up hazardous waste sites, Congressman Blumenauer has introduced the “Superfund Reinvestment Act, ” H.R. 564. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program was created in 1980 to provide money to clean up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites where the party responsible for polluting was out of business or could not be identified. Before it expired in 1995, the money for the Superfund came mainly from taxes on the polluters themselves. Because Congress has not reauthorized the tax, the burden of funding cleanups of toxic waste sites now falls on the shoulders of taxpaying Americans. Reauthorizing the Superfund tax would ensure that polluters – not the American public – pay to restore public health. In addition, Congressman Blumenauer's proposal to reinstate the Superfund taxes was included in President Obama's FY 2010 Budget.
In almost four decades of public service, Earl Blumenauer's innovative accomplishments in transportation, planning, environmental programs and public participation have helped Portland, Oregon earn an international reputation as one of America's most livable cities.