Editing Willamette River (section)

==Pollution==
[[File:FleetWeekRoseFestival.jpg|thumb|340px|alt=The Tom McCall Waterfront Park|The [[Tom McCall Waterfront Park]] is named after the Oregon governor who led a cleanup of the river.]]
Since as early as 1869, with the introduction of a federally funded "snag puller" designed to keep the waterway clear, human habitation has affected the [[ecology]] of the river basin. Domestic and industrial waste from the cities built up along the river "essentially [turned] the main-stem river into an open sewer by the 1920s."<ref name="Oregon Encyclopedia" /> The construction of large federal dams on the Willamette's tributaries between 1941 and 1969 damaged the spawning grounds for spring [[Chinook salmon]] and [[Rainbow trout|steelhead]].<ref name="Oregon Encyclopedia" /> <!-- 1-2 more sentences summarizing changes in more recent decades? -->

A 1927 [[City Club of Portland]] report labeled the waterway "filthy and ugly" and identified the City of Portland as the worst offender. The Oregon Anti-Stream Pollution League brought a pollution-abatement measure before the [[39th Oregon Legislative Assembly]] in 1937. The bill passed, but Governor [[Charles Martin (Oregon politician)|Charles Martin]] vetoed it. The [[Izaak Walton League]] and the Oregon affiliate of the [[National Wildlife Federation]] countered the governor's veto with a ballot initiative, which passed in November 1938.<ref name="Oregon Encyclopedia" />

Governor [[Tom McCall]], shortly after he was elected in 1966, ordered water quality tests on the Willamette, conducted his own research on the water quality, and became head of the [[Oregon State Sanitary Authority]]. McCall learned that the river was heavily polluted in Portland. In a television documentary, ''Pollution in Paradise'', he said, "The Willamette River was actually cleaner when the Oregon Sanitary Authority was created in 1938 than it was in 1962."<ref name="Williams, p. 131">Williams, p. 131</ref> He then discouraged tourism in the state and made it harder for companies to qualify for a permit to operate near the river. He also regulated how much those companies could pollute and closed plants that did not meet state pollution standards.<ref name="Williams, p. 132">Williams, p. 132</ref><ref name="Sarasota">{{cite news |title=Oregon Sets Pace in Improving Environment |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8pscAAAAIBAJ&dq=tom%20mccall%20willamette%20river&pg=7577%2C366713 |access-date=July 17, 2011 |newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune |date=April 17, 1973 |agency=Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service |location=Sarasota, Florida |page=20A}}</ref>

Despite earlier cleanup efforts, state studies in the 1990s identified a wide variety of pollutants in the river bottom, including [[toxic heavy metal|heavy metals]], [[polychlorinated biphenyl]]s (PCBs), and [[pesticide]]s along the lower {{convert|12|mi|km}} of the river, in Portland.<ref>{{cite web |title=Portland Harbor Cleanup Sites |url=http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/cu/nwr/portlandharbor/docs/PortlandHarborMap.pdf |publisher=Oregon Department of Environmental Quality |date=February 17, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930213739/http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/cu/nwr/portlandharbor/docs/PortlandHarborMap.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2011}}</ref> As a result, this section of the river was designated a [[Superfund]] site in 2000,<ref name="van der Voo">{{cite news |url=http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=88851 |title=History of a Superfund Cleanup Bid |last=Van der Voo |first=Lee |work=Portland Tribune |date=July 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032118/http://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=88851 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> involving the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]] (EPA) in cleanup of the river bottom.<ref>{{cite web |title=Portland Harbor Superfund Site |publisher=Oregon Department of Environmental Quality |url=http://www.deq.state.or.us/nwr/PortlandHarbor/ph.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061216212032/http://www.deq.state.or.us/nwr/PortlandHarbor/ph.htm |archive-date=December 16, 2006}}</ref> The area to be addressed stretches from the Fremont Bridge almost to the Columbia – spanning nearly 11 river miles.<ref>U.S. EPA, Record of Decision, January 6, 2017, p. 88</ref> Reducing risk from the pollutants in this stretch will involve removing contaminated sediment from the river bottom and efforts to contain contaminated sediment by placing clean sediment on top (known as "capping").<ref>U.S. EPA, Record of Decision, January 6, 2017, p. 144</ref> Pollution has been exacerbated by combined sewer overflows, which the city has greatly reduced through its [[West Side CSO Tunnel|Big Pipe Project]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Willamette River: A Renaissance in the Making |url=http://www.americanrivers.org/assets/pdfs/reports-and-publications/chapter_6e1f9.pdf |publisher=American Rivers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411155812/http://www.americanrivers.org/assets/pdfs/reports-and-publications/chapter_6e1f9.pdf |archive-date=April 11, 2016 |page=140 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Farther upstream, the pressing environmental issues have mainly been variations in pH and dissolved oxygen.<ref>{{cite web |title=Processes Controlling Dissolved Oxygen and pH in the Upper Willamette River Basin |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |year=1994 |url=http://or.water.usgs.gov/pubs_dir/Pdf/95-4205.pdf |access-date=February 12, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222135305/http://or.water.usgs.gov/pubs_dir/Pdf/95-4205.pdf |archive-date=December 22, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Willamette is nevertheless clean enough to be used by cities such as Corvallis and [[Wilsonville, Oregon|Wilsonville]] for drinking water.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Mark |last1=Knudson |first2=Libby |last2=Barg |title=Drinking the Willamette: the Power of Public Education |url=http://www.pnws-awwa.org/uploads/PDFs/conferences/2008/Drinking%20the%20Willamette.pdf |publisher=Pacific Northwest Section of the American Water Works Association |access-date=December 24, 2012 |page=2 |date=May 1, 2008}}</ref>

Since pollution concerns are primarily along the lower river, the Willamette in general scores relatively high on the Oregon Water Quality Index (OWQI), which is compiled by the [[Oregon Department of Environmental Quality]] (DEQ). The DEQ considers index scores of less than 60 to be very poor; the other categories are 60–79 (poor); 80–84 (fair); 85–89 (good), and 90–100 (excellent).<ref>Oregon Water Quality Index, p. 6</ref> The Willamette River's water quality is rated excellent near the source, though it gradually declines to fair near the mouth. Between 1998 and 2007, the average score for the upper Willamette at Springfield (RM&nbsp;185, RK&nbsp;298) was 93. At Salem (RM&nbsp;84, RK&nbsp;135), the score was 89, and good scores continued down to the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland (RM&nbsp;13, RK&nbsp;21) at 85. Scores were in the "fair" category farther downstream; the least favorable reading was 81 at the Swan Island Channel midpoint (RM&nbsp;0.5, RK&nbsp;0.8). By comparison, sites on the [[Winchuck River]], the Clackamas, and the North Santiam all scored 95, and a site at a pump station on Klamath Strait Drain between [[Upper Klamath Lake]] and [[Lower Klamath Lake]] recorded the lowest score in Oregon at 19.<ref name ="OWQI 7-10">Oregon Water Quality Index, pp. 7–10</ref>