The algal bloom that forms each summer around Ross Island in the Willamette River south of downtown Portland is expected to be especially bad this year.
A potent combination of high temperatures early in the season and ongoing drought made worse by limited snowpack have water already hitting 67 degrees Fahrenheit in the Willamette, perfect for the growth of a thick layer of toxin-producing algae atop the stagnant waters of the Ross Island Lagoon.
It’s a problem that’s gone on for decades in the lagoon, a manmade U-shaped barrier to water flow that once supported the Ross Island Sand & Gravel company, and that has become more of a stagnant pond in the river. The algae produce cyanobacteria that can cause headaches, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and fever if inhaled or ingested.
Oregon State University and the nonprofit advocacy group Human Access Project have a solution that could end the algal bloom in the next four to five years: Dig a channel through the lagoon and let the river water circulate again.
But the project, which would cost roughly $20 million, hasn’t gained traction in the Legislature. A proposal to allocate $1 million to the Human Access Project and OSU for planning died in the state Legislature last year, though its chief sponsors, Democratic Reps. Rob Nosse of Portland and Mark Gamba of Milwaukie, said they would try again in 2027.
Willie Levenson, founder of the Human Access Project, has already spent two years seeking donations and grants to undertake research and planning with Desirèe Tullos, a civil engineer and researcher from Oregon State University.
State agencies responsible for testing the water and issuing public health advisories when it’s unsafe to swim say they are not responsible for executing long-term changes to the lagoon.
A new proposal from private investors to fill the lagoon with sediment from a superfund site downriver would not be complete until 2040 to 2042, according to the developers’ website. If that plan moves forward, the public could still expect the harmful algal blooms to continue for another 14 to 16 years.
“A speculative 10- to 20-year fill concept should not become Oregon’s default answer to Ross Island,” Levenson said. “The state of Oregon has a moral obligation to lead a fix. The governor’s office should designate a lead, set a timeline, identify a funding path and make restoration of flow the state’s organizing objective for Ross Island.”
‘Jurisdictional puzzle’
Spokespeople for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of State Lands and Gov. Tina Kotek’s office said they have received the OSU and Human Access Project research and proposal. None expressed any disagreement with the research laying out the issue or with the proposal.
In short, it would involve digging two 15-foot wide channels through the lagoon, each costing roughly $10 million, to ultimately restore the river’s natural flow through what were multiple islands a century ago. The restored flow would flush out the harmful cyanobacteria and algae forming in the lagoon each year.
“There are a lot of competing funding priorities, and the Governor appreciates Human Access Project’s advocacy regarding the harmful algal blooms. She agrees it’s a problem that needs to be addressed,” Kotek spokesperson Luke Harkins said in an email.
Harkins said the governor is in contact with relevant state and federal agencies and stakeholders to “ensure both short-term and long-term strategies are being considered for the health of the lagoon.” But when pressed about what those solutions are and what the short and long-term timelines are, Harkins did not provide any details. He said questions about funding for the Human Access and OSU plan should be addressed to the state Legislature.
The Ross Island Sand & Gravel Company and its owner, Robert Pamplin Jr., owe the Oregon Department of State Lands nearly $14 million in fines for failure to restore the lagoon. Department spokesperson Antony Sparrow said the agency is engaged in enforcement efforts.
Company general manager Randall Steed did not respond to a call or email from the Capital Chronicle.
Michael Loch, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said the agency will continue to enforce environmental laws and address harmful algal blooms “within our statutory authority.” It requires Ross Island Sand & Gravel to test water biweekly for algal blooms between July 1 and Sept. 30 and report the results.
The agency’s statewide harmful algal bloom program has four permanent employees and one seasonal field staffer responsible for all monitoring, lab analysis and response across Oregon.
“Given the number of recreational water bodies and surface drinking water sources susceptible to algae blooms in Oregon, these resources are not sufficient to support routine statewide monitoring,” Loch said.
Human Access Project this year submitted for the third time a request for project funding from the billion-dollar Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, made up of revenue from a 1% tax on large retail businesses in the city. Algal blooms emit methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas fueling climate change, which the fund is supposed to target.
Chenoa Philabaum, a spokesperson for the fund, said it’s competitive and rejection doesn’t mean a project isn’t important.
‘What confidence should we have?’
Levenson said the entire thing has become a poster child for bureaucratic failure.
“Every agency can accurately describe its limited role, but the public is left with no lead agency, no timeline, no funding path and no solution,” Levenson said. “If every agency remains inside its narrow statutory lane, the result is continued inaction. The public experiences Ross Island as part of the Willamette River, not as a jurisdictional puzzle.”
If the algal bloom, expected to hit its peak by August, does exceed previous years’ blooms in size or impact, Levenson won’t be there to see it.
He’s taking a break from the river he’s dedicated the last decade and a half to restoring, and going on a sabbatical, “chasing swimming holes around the globe,” he said.
Among the last projects he saw through was a study from ECONorthwest commissioned in part by Human Access Project that estimates Willamette River-related activity and recreation by generate more than $120 million in spending annually. It also found that the figure could grow if the river was in better health.
“If Portland cannot solve a clearly man-made ecological wound in the heart of its own river, what confidence should we have in grander waterfront ambitions?” Levenson asked.
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