The McCormick and Baxter Creosoting Company Superfund Site is an incredible example of derelict urban space. It is a postapocalyptic wasteland of the highest order. It is an abandoned indistrial zone of more than 50 acres that has been declared a Superfund clean-up site because of creosote and heavy metal pollution.
If you’ve never visited, and you live in Portland, you really should. There is no security, and people are often wandering around. It’s great for urban mountain biking or just exploring.
Be careful though!
The soil and water are still toxic, so don’t take your dogs. Not to mention the fact that it’s just illegal to be there. But no one seems to care.
Information about the McCormick & Baxter Creosote Superfund Site from the EPA:
The McCormick & Baxter site is located on the northeast shore of the Willamette River in north Portland. The legal address is 6900 North Edgewater Ave., Portland, Oregon 97203, and DEQ’s Environmental Cleanup Site Information (ECSI) number for this site is 74. The site includes about 43 acres of land and about 15 acres of sediments beneath the Willamette River.
McCormick & Baxter Creosoting Company operated between 1944 and 1991, treating wood products with creosote, pentachloro-phenol, and inorganic (arsenic, copper, chromium, and zinc) preservative solutions. Historically, process wastewaters were discharged directly to the Willamette River, and other process wastes were dumped in several areas of the site. Significant concentrations of wood-treating chemicals have been found polluting soil and groundwater at the site, and in river sediments adjacent to the site.
From 1942 to 1990, McCormick & Baxter treated utility poles and railroad ties with creosote, pentachlorophenol (PCP), and arsenic compounds. Waste oils generated from the wood-treatment processes were disposed of in unlined ponds and concrete tanks on-site. Surface water runoff from the site was discharged to the slough until 1978, when it began to collect in two storm water collection ponds.
In 1983 and 1984, a consultant to McCormick & Baxter found that soils throughout the site were contaminated with arsenic, chromium, copper, PCP, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are constituents of creosote. Soil contamination extends to depths of 40 feet below ground surface (bgs) in some areas. The consultant’s sampling in 1984-88 indicates that the shallow aquifer beneath the site is contaminated with many of the same substances to a depth of 175 feet bgs. Beneath the site, the shallow aquifer is interconnected with the deep aquifer. The deep aquifer within 4 miles of the site provides drinking water to approximately 97,000 people.
what’s that big red dome right next to the site? presumably a sports stadium. Just interested thats all.
That big, red dome is the arena at University of Portland.
I was part of the Greenpeace team that did an action at this site in 1988. We were protesting the use of pentachloraphenol to treat poles (which lead to the formation of dioxin). It was one nasty place. I was one of the people who chained up (with an appropriate gas mask) at the entrance of the treatment tank. If you look around in some deep, dark corner, you’ll find a video of the action. Supposedly, its been cleaned up and they have a park there, though you’ll never find me visiting it. Thanks for the site.
I’m a graduate student at Brown University working on the Superfund Basic Research Project Outreach Core. One of the community groups I work with is the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC). In the middle of the Woonasquatucket River is a dioxin contaminated Superfund site, attributed to the waste water of a series of chemical companies and a incinerator-based drum reconditioning facility sited along the river from the 1950’s- 1970’s. Currently the EPA is trying a new approach with this site, and hosting a series of dialog meetings with community groups, potentially responsible parties (PRP’s), and consultants so that theoretically everyone has a chance to present their needs and desires, and support for each of the various remediation alternatives, of which there are many currently on the table. What I am attempting to do is contact as many people as possible who have dealt with dioxin contaminated sediment Superfund sites in their communities. Is there or was there ever such a community group that formed around trying to get the McCormick & Baxter site cleaned up? I was intrigued by the comment posted above about Greenpeace action taken at the site. If someone could contact me with any information about community action around this site, I would be grateful
[...] May 27, 2008 by seanmorr Sunday I took part in the PDXStrobist(A Flickr group for Photographers) Group’s monthly shoot. This month we headed down to the Superfund site in North Portland. Wow was it cool…total industrial wasteland covered with graffiti. We had some models along as well. It was awesome and I got some great photos. I also took a bunch of Holga photos, and will get the film back in a week or so…I can’t wait for those. Here are a few of my Favorites. [...]