The Portland Harbor Superfund Site Sustainability Project: Introduction

ABSTRACT This article introduces the Portland Harbor Superfund Site Sustainability Project (PHSP) special series in this issue. The Portland Harbor Superfund Site is one of the “mega‐sediment sites” in the United States, comprising about 10 miles of the Lower Willamette River, running through the heart of Portland, Oregon. The primary aim of the PHSP was to conduct a comprehensive sustainability assessment, integrating environmental, economic, and social considerations of a selection of the remedial alternatives laid out by the US Environmental Protection Agency. A range of tools were developed for this project to quantitatively address environmental, economic, and social costs and benefits based upon diverse stakeholder values. In parallel, a probabilistic risk assessment was carried out to evaluate the risk assumptions at the core of the remedial investigation and feasibility study process. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:17–21. © 2017 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC) Key Points The Portland Harbor Superfund Site Sustainability Project (PHSP) developed a framework to quantitatively evaluate the sustainability of remedial alternatives proposed in the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) feasibility study (FS) for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site (“Site”), Portland, Oregon, USA, in terms of environmental quality, economic viability, and social equity. The Site encompasses 2167 acres over 10 miles (River Miles 1.9 to 11.8) on the Lower Willamette River, in urban Portland, Oregon; USEPA remedial alternatives (A through I) were designed to address PCBs, PAHs, dioxin, pesticides, and metals contamination in sediment, tissue, and surface water. The remedial alternatives in the proposed plan A through I range in cost from US$642 million to almost $2.2 billion to remediate 201 to 776 acres using a combination of dredging, capping, enhanced natural recovery (ENR), and monitored natural recovery technologies; the PHSP evaluated Alternatives A, B, D, E, I, and F. Selecting a sustainable remedy requires that diverse stakeholder values and priorities are considered, thereby balancing the need to spend money wisely, preserve the regional economic base, restore and protect environmental endpoints as well as human health, use, and access.