Officials agree that the way rivers are treated must be changed to restore steelhead
By Jonathan Brinckman and Michele Parente of The Oregonian staff
The addition of Portland-area steelhead trout to the list of federally protected species reveals that a city with a national reputation for environmental initiatives has fallen short, Portland's top political leaders agreed at an unusual meeting Tuesday.
And it has jolted the city into examining virtually every aspect of its business: from issuing development approvals to fungicides used in parks to how it gets its drinking water.
The crash of steelhead populations, by an estimated 90 percent over 10 years, shows a failure to protect the region's waterways, commissioners said.
"We generate great press in the rest of the country about how well we protect natural resources," said Commissioner Charles Hales. "If we're so successful, why do we have an endangered species right here in our front yard?"
Commissioner Erik Sten, who convened the meeting to help the Portland City Council grasp the impacts of the fish's listing under the Endangered Species Act, said Portland has treated its waterways more as open sewers than as natural resources.
The March decision to list steelhead as an endangered species gives Portland residents the impetus to change the way they treat their rivers and streams, Sten said.
But city, state and federal officials delivered a clear message to assembled commissioners: Restoring healthy populations of steelhead to Portland's rivers and streams will require enormous effort.
"This is going to be an expensive and long-term process," said Jim Martin, Gov. John Kitzhaber's salmon adviser.
No one, though, could tell the commissioners exactly what those costs will be.
City officials have compiled a list of 38 current activities that will, from now on, be viewed through the prism of how it impacts the steelhead. The list includes:
• A plan for a floating walkway in the Eastbank Park project along the Willamette. Because the walkway could create good habitat for fish that are eat young steelhead, that walkway could be scrapped.
• The Lents Revitalization Plan in Southeast Portland. Portland Development Commission's long-held strategy to locate big industrial plants along the banks of Johnson Creek would be shelved. New development in the neighborhood would be encouraged only in inland areas and the banks would be protected as flood lands and natural riparian areas.
• Parks maintenance. The use of pesticides and herbicides will be reviewed, as will how storm water is drained through the hundreds of acres of city parkland and golf courses. Parks that line waterways may be redesigned to include trees and vegetation along the banks instead of grass.
More important than calculating the exact costs of remedies, Sten said, is figuring out what steelhead need to thrive in the region's rivers and then devising ways to make sure they get it.
Steelhead are found in the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland's central waterways. The city will have to increase efforts already under way to prevent untreated sewage from polluting those waters.
Steelhead spawn in Johnson Creek, which winds through Southeast Portland and Gresham; and Tryon Creek, which runs through Southwest Portland to Lake Oswego. The city will have to protect the riverbanks so trees can keep the streams cool enough for young fish and ensure that housing construction does not deluge streams with sediments that bury the gravels used for spawning.
Steelhead also spawn in Bull Run, the stream in Mount Hood National Forest that feeds reservoirs providing drinking water to 800,000 area residents. Protecting that waterway will mean cutting its contribution to the region's drinking water system. Water use will either be curtailed, or costly ways to find additional water will be required.
Tuesday's briefing offered the sharpest examples to date of how the listing will generate sweeping and profound changes in how Portland does business.
Over the coming months city officials will scrutinize nearly every policy -- major and minor -- and are preparing for a probable overhaul in everything from decades-old practices to plans still on the drawing board.
Little the city does is expected to remain unchanged, from how roses in city parks are treated for fungus to planned development projects in the River District and North Macadam.
"We're going to be looking at everything we put out there, from the way the city reviews building plans to planning for future development, including projects close to streams and rivers or projects even miles away," said Dean Marriott, director of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services.
The goal, commissioners said, should be to combine efforts to protect steelhead with efforts mandated by the Clean Water Act to clean up Portland's most polluted waterways.
The Clean Water Act, for example, is driving a $1 billion public works project to separate sewage lines from storm-water drains and prevent raw sewage from flowing into the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
Marriott said Portland, in an effort to combine the goals of the Endangered Species Act with the Clean Water Act, should continue to address the bacteria in the rivers brought by sewage. But it also must work to lower water temperatures and toxicity levels, two potentially bigger threats to steelhead.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for Portland," Sten said. "No city in the country has ever restored an endangered species. We can do that."
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