$1.1 Billion Superfund Clean Up Approved for Portland Harbor

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is raising the price of cleaning up the Portland Harbor Superfund Site from $746 million to $1.05 billion in a final plan that calls for more dredging and capping of contaminated soil along a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River," reports Cassandra Profita.

"The final plan adds about 100 acres of dredging and capping to the proposed plan released last year. It includes dredging about 3 million cubic yards of contaminated soil from the river and capping a large swath of the riverbank by covering it with clean material," adds Profita.

Port of Portland officials released a statement criticizing the plan [pdf], saying those cost estimates are likely to increase to $2 billion.