Columbia Slough Student Work -- future

The Future of the Columbia Slough
by Summer 2000 PSU Capstones Class

Whether it’s a river, lake, pond, or stream, most waterways are utilized in a variety of capacities. The Columbia Slough is no different. The slough has contributed to the development of numerous communities in Portland. As the history of Portland goes, so goes the history of the Columbia Slough. The slough has provided Portlanders an environment conducive to many different kinds of industry. From sawmills to slaughterhouses to shipyards, all have been found at one time or another near the slough. The lands around the waterway, enriched with minerals deposited by flooding, routinely yielded good fruits and vegetables. Truck-farming, a favorite along the slough in the early 1900s, gradually gave way by the 1980s to bigger industries like Portland International Airport.

The land surrounding the Columbia Slough has changed with the times as well. People filled in swampy areas to reclaim the land. With the invention of the automobile, it was necessary to construct bridges and raised roadways to handle increased traffic. Numerous dikes and dams were built to protect against floods, but that also caused lakes to disappear. As more and more people moved to the area, they claimed land around and from the slough.

The Columbia Slough also infiltrates the memories of people who grew up in the area. Many recollect playing along the slough as children, catching frogs and exploring. Some Portlanders met their future spouses along the slough while still others raised their children there. Some people even remembered ice skating on the frozen slough in the winter.

Recreation is yet another role of the Columbia Slough. Fishing and swimming were common activities when Portland was younger and the water quality less compromised. The Oregon Health Division advises people not to use the waterway for either activity due to contamination by chemicals such as PCBs and pesticides, as well as the presence of raw sewage (overflow).

Sign warns against combined sewer overflows on the Columbia Slough. Photo by George W. Weatheroy

What will become of the Columbia Slough in the future? If the question is asked, be ready for a variety of opinions according to one’s perception of what the Columbia Slough has been and should be.

One prominent opinion is the slough should be restored to its natural state. Many people seem to value the presence of a natural waterway within the city of Portland that can provide a haven for recreators and wildlife alike.

I’ve always wanted to see the slough, that part that’s left, that we try to save it, restore it to as much as its natural state as we could. Make it viable for fish and wildlife. Keep chemicals out of it…Try to figure out do we need to pull some of the sediment…do we need to clean? Do we need to take the sediment out of it? I think we need to make sure it can flush itself; has an adequate supply of water. The limited wildlife- the owls, the raccoons, the coyotes and those kinds of things, the red-tail hawks- make sure we keep them there. So I would say it’s not going to be like it was in the early 1900s. Let’s make sure that we keep what we have. That’s what I think the future should be, and a place where people can actually canoe on it, float down it. Ed Washington, former Vanport resident and Portland Metro councilman

Some feel that the slough should be used for education. Beginning in 1999, the City of Portland's Environmental Services began offering free educational programs to area schools. The goal is to teach students about water quality and what they can do to protect their watersheds. Whitaker Ponds, part of the Columbia Slough, is home to a new environmental education center as well. In August of 2000, construction of an observation gazebo was near completion on the bank of the ponds off of 47^th Avenue, near the nature center.

Observation gazebo on Whitaker Ponds,
under construction, August 2000.

Observation platform on Whitaker Ponds, August 2000.

Columbia Slough Watershed Building, August 2000.
Above photos by Geoff Wetherell, Columbia Slough
Oral History Capstone student

What would a restored slough look like? Sloughs are naturally slow-moving waterways and are sometimes stagnant. Modification of the slough for aesthetic or environmental purposes is complex.

My feeling is that what you’re going to see the slough in the future is how you manage it may be probably not the most aesthetic, but probably from a water quality, natural standpoint would be the most natural and probably the best in that. I think that’s always been a problem with the Columbia Slough is looking at it aesthetically. What is it that you want to see? Tim Hayford, former manager of the Multnomah Drainage District, 1980-1999

Others believe the best thing for the slough is to let the current of the Columbia River clean it out.

All they have to do is just open it up there (at the east end) to wash it (the pollution) on out to the ocean. Bill Miller, long term St. Johns resident

Many people feel the best future use of the Columbia Slough is recreation.

They intend to use the top of the dike (near Denver Avenue)…as part of their forty-mile loop…the jogging path that they’ve got planned. George Mitchoff, long-time Portland resident

The Slough is cleaner today than it was 50 years ago, but it is still a polluted and controversial waterway. No matter how it is viewed, the Columbia Slough's future remains unclear.