Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about HeronPark’s Plan to Reclaim Ross Island

“Non-hazardous” means the sediments do not meet the definition of hazardous waste under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards used for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site (PHSS). In general, that means the material would not need to be disposed of in a hazardous waste landfill, which is a specially permitted facility designed to accept hazardous materials.

Before any sediments are accepted, HeronPark will review the laboratory test results and supporting information for the material. For some areas of the PHSS, this review may involve several thousand individual prior test results. That review will determine whether the sediments meet the Ross Island facility’s acceptance criteria.

The main contaminants of concern for the PHSS are typically polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and certain metals. These contaminants attach to fine sediment particles and do not move easily through water. If sediments are accepted, HeronPark would place them in an engineered area in the existing deep pit under the Ross Island lagoon and cover them with an engineered cap of clean material to isolate the sediments and prevent exposure to aquatic life.

HeronPark will not accept sediments with more mobile contaminants, such as liquid petroleum hydrocarbons, even if they are classified as non-hazardous. Acceptance would depend on the test results, the facility’s criteria, and whether the material is suitable for the intended use.

Prior to any implementation, the detailed acceptance criteria will be submitted in a formal permit application to the Oregon Department of State Lands and Department of Environmental Quality. This permit process will be transparent and open to public comment. Only sediments that meet the permitted criteria will be accepted.

The reclamation plan will require prior approval from the Oregon Department of State Lands as part of the permitting process. The permit application from HeronPark will include a financial assurance plan that will include standard and financially reliable bonds that will assure that the reclamation will be completed and a post-closure trust will be funded. The post-closure trust will provide an endowment that will be sufficient to pay, in perpetuity, for monitoring and maintenance of the cap, continuation of mitigation of harmful algae blooms, and insurance to protect against changes in regulatory requirements, earthquakes and general liability. The financial assurance plan will be implemented prior to any placement of Portland Harbor Superfund Site sediments in Ross Island lagoon.

HeronPark’s reclamation of Ross Island is anticipated to begin in July 2029 and extend to 2040 to 2042. This is based on the schedule for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, which is determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the potentially responsible parties (PRPs). Commitments from the PRPs for the volumes of sediments that will be placed in the Ross Island lagoon are expected to occur in 2026 and 2027. The reclamation plan will be designed to accommodate these volume commitments in 2027. The reclamation design, financial assurance plan and other details about the reclamation will be submitted to the Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) as part of HeronPark’s application in 2027-2028.

The DSL evaluation of the permit application will involve a transparent public comment process. It is anticipated that the DSL permit will be issued, the financial assurance plan will commence, and the site will be prepared in the late 2028 – early 2029 timeframe to receive sediments in July 2029.

The regulatory review and permitting process will also include involvement of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Marine Board, the City of Portland, the USEPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

There is a possibility that the schedule could move faster and the placement of sediments and the reclamation could begin in July 2028, but this would depend on the schedules of the USEPA, the PHSS PRPs and the regulatory and permitting process aligning better than expected.

Yes. Implementation of the reclamation plan and construction of the cap will require clean “Class A” fill. This will likely come from navigational dredging in the Willamette and/or Columbia Rivers. Sediment/fill from other environmental restoration projects may be considered for placement under the cap in accordance with the fill quality requirements that will be established in the new Department of State Lands permit.

HeronPark anticipates closing on its acquisition of Ross Island in the 2027-2028 timeframe in association with the Department of State Lands permit process. Until then, the R.B. Pamplin Corporation remains the owner of Ross Island and remains responsible for it.

The reclamation of Ross Island will be self-funded by user fees paid by the responsible parties for the Portland Harbor Superfund Site. No taxpayer funds will be required. Furthermore, the reclamation of Ross Island will save taxpayers money because the State of Oregon, the City of Portland and the Port of Portland are potentially responsible parties for the superfund site cleanup. Sending the sediments to Ross Island will be less expensive than alternative sites further away.

HeronPark is engaging with public agencies about commitments to accept ownership of the completed nature preserve. A formal commitment is anticipated prior to HeronPark submitting its formal permit application to the Department of State Lands (DSL) in 2027-2028, and possibly sooner. The post-closure care trust that will be part of the financial assurance plan in the DSL permit application will provide an endowment that will avoid the future nature preserve becoming a liability and burden on any accepting public agency.

HeronPark’s application for a Department of State Lands permit, expected in 2027-2028, will require a fully transparent public comment process. Additionally, HeronPark is engaging with community groups to listen to the community’s priorities for the reclamation and future of Ross Island. Updates will be provided via this website. Feedback from all interested members of the community will help shape the final plan.

Yes. HeronPark is reaching out to tribal governments that have ancestral rights related to the Willamette River and/or are interested in the future of Ross Island along with members of the tribal community in the Portland metropolitan area. This consultation process will help guide the plan for reclaiming Ross Island and managing its future. 

Transporting and placing Portland Harbor Superfund Site sediments in Ross Island will reduce air emissions, especially harmful diesel particulate matter (DPM) emissions, by over 99% in comparison to transporting the sediments to alternative sites in Eastern Oregon. This is because: 1) Ross Island is approximately 1/20th of the distance; 2) the sediments will be transported to Ross Island by tugs/barges, which emit less than 1/10th of the emissions of trucks and/or rail transport per ton-mile; and 3) HeronPark intends to utilize tugboats that have special, high efficiency DPM filters, plus electric utility boats.

The deep pit under the Ross Island lagoon currently has steep underwater slopes -- as much as 20%. HeronPark’s reclamation plan will make these slopes much gentler and more stable, even when a major earthquake happens.  Additionally, the financial assurance plan will provide adequate funding to repair the cap if it is ever damaged by an earthquake.

Groundwater migration will be a topic addressed in HeronPark's formal permit application to the Oregon Department of State Lands and Department of Environmental Quality in the 2027-2028 timeframe. This topic will be informed by a prior site investigation of the lagoon which found that groundwater at Ross Island generally moves upward toward the lagoon. This means contaminants are not expected to move downward into the underlying groundwater layers beneath the site. In other words, the lagoon is the water body that groundwater naturally discharges to, not the underlying aquifer. The report also concluded that this groundwater pathway up into the lagoon does not create an unacceptable risk based on the investigation results. This conclusion was supported by a flux chamber seepage study, which used chambers placed on the lagoon bottom to measure groundwater movement, and by groundwater level measurements during tidal monitoring, which showed that groundwater was moving upward toward the lagoon. These findings indicate that the deeper aquifer beneath the site is not expected to receive contaminants from the impacted sediments. Another key consideration is that the Portland Harbor Superfund Site sediments that would qualify for acceptance would contain relatively non-mobile contaminants that tend to adhere to the fine grained sediments (see the FAQ about the definition of non-hazardous).

The cap of clean sediments that will be constructed over the sediments from the Portland Harbor Superfund Site will be engineered to prevent contaminants from migrating upward into the Ross Island lagoon.

HeronPark envisions limited docent-led public visits to Ross Island when it is safe and when operations allow. The reclamation will coincide with the placement of sediments in the Ross Island lagoon during the dredging window for the Portland Harbor cleanup, which is primarily between July 1st and October 31st of each year to comply with state-required in-water work windows. This limited dredging window avoids impacting migratory fish. During the placement of sediments, it will be unsafe for the public to visit. Outside the dredging window, HeronPark plans to conduct other reclamation activities, such as removal of the former sand and gravel equipment and debris, removal of invasive species and planting of native plants. HeronPark anticipates that there will be intervals during winter/spring when it will be safe for docent-led groups to visit the island and observe the wildlife, habitat and reclamation progress.

Public access to the completed nature preserve will be managed by the public agency that becomes the owner of the preserve.

Yes. HeronPark anticipates a year-round staff. During the July to October dredging window, the staff will be primarily engaged with managing the secure placement of sediments in the Ross Island lagoon. In other months, the staff will focus on removing the old sand and gravel mining and processing infrastructure and the industrial debris on Hardtack Island. The staff will also be involved in managing and implementing habitat restoration activities. HeronPark will seek to hire locally, provide training, and engage with local community colleges and universities to facilitate internship and degree programs that lead to careers in environmental restoration and environmental engineering.

The reclamation plan will be designed to handle bigger floods and hotter summers that may come with climate change. 

The cap of clean material that will be constructed over the Portland Harbor Superfund Site sediments will be designed to protect it and the underlying sediments from scour during future floods. The resilience of the cap will be aided by the top of the cap being at an elevation below the river bottom. This, and the configuration of the island surrounding the cap, will help protect it from flood scour. Additionally, due to its lower elevation, the cap will gain natural deposits of clean river sediments over time, adding more protection. The cap design and its protection from future floods will be a topic addressed in HeronPark's formal permit application to the Oregon Department of State Lands and Department of Environmental Quality in the 2027-2028 timeframe.