The Portland Harbor is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund Site, and will eventually be cleaned up after years of planning and sampling. The study is expected to take until 2009. The Willamette River may be reasonably clean by 2015 or so. We try to expedite the process, and promote a thorough cleanup.

CAG Mission Statement

To ensure a Portland Harbor Cleanup that restores, enriches, and protects the environment for fish, wildlife, human health, and recreation, through community participation.

The Portland Harbor CAG is comprised of individuals from neighborhood associations, environmental, health, recreation, and business groups, and concerned citizens. We have worked closely with the community, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Oregon's Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Lower Willamette Group (LWG), the City of Portland, the Port of Portland, and the Tribes affected by the Superfund site.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named more than 80 companies as Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs). The Lower Willamette Group (LWG) is an organization composed of 14 PRPs (including the Port of Portland, and the City of Portland), who are committed to paying for their share of the cleanup. The ten original members of the LWG are paying for the pre-cleanup study of the harbor; they have already spent millions of dollars analyzing the complicated situation of what's in the harbor, and how to best get the Portland Harbor clean again. At the same time, the City of Portland, and especially the DEQ are workiing on upstream sources of contamination, so that the river won't become foul again.