Thursday January 18, 2024
Public News Service —
Advocates are making slow but steady progress to clean up a portion of the Columbia River named a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Toxic pollution dumped by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for more than 40 years at Bradford Island contaminated fish in the area, which are used as sustenance by the region’s Indigenous people.
Rose Longoria, regional Superfund projects manager for Yakama Nation Fisheries, said the contaminated site has been known for two decades, but only recently got Superfund listing.
“If it wasn’t for Yakama Nation, Bradford Island would not be on the National Priorities List,” Longoria pointed out. “And even now, I believe that if it wasn’t for Yakama, no one else would be pushing as hard to get this site the attention that it needs.”