How should Portlanders stay cool during increasingly common summer heat waves? Some advocates say to look no further than the Willamette River, Portland’s natural backyard swimming pool and a resource more city residents should be taking advantage of. And while some Portlanders maintain a prejudice against the river that—literally and figuratively—divides the city, more and more people are turning their backs on the negativity, blowing up their pool floats, and cannonballing in.
At a party in Cathedral Park in late June, hundreds of people celebrated the opening of a new swimming dock right under the St. Johns Bridge. The dock project was led by the Human Access Project, an organization that aims to spread the good word about the Willamette River, and its debut was years in the making.
Portlanders can also be found jumping into the river from other spots, including the Kevin Duckworth Memorial Dock off the Eastbank Esplanade and Poet’s Beach, located on the west bank of the Willamette under the Marquam Bridge. The Human Access Project, which was founded by Willie Levenson in 2010, is largely responsible for the existence of both of these sites, among others.
Levenson is a self-proclaimed Willamette River “hugger,” fiercely passionate about making sure all Portlanders have access to the water. But he’s also aware of the challenges that have prevented Portlanders from enjoying the river over the years, including equity issues and the occasional toxic algae bloom. And Levenson, along with fellow Willamette River boosters, local government officials, and scientists, plan to get to the root of those problems.
“We have this emerging river culture now. People are beginning to rediscover the value of being able to ride your bike to the river, not having to take the car out of town to swim,” Levenson told the Mercury in a recent interview. “Public space brings people together and brings the best out of people, develops community…I’ve felt the dial move.”
“A swimmerless river”
At the end of the 19th century and through the early 1920s, the Willamette River was a beloved recreation spot for many Portland residents. Many people took canoes out to Ross and Swan Islands, both of which looked a lot different than they do now.
Portlanders enjoyed swimming at Bundy’s Baths, a swimming venue on the east bank of the Willamette near where Ross Island Bridge is today that catered particularly to girls and women. Windemuth— a floating swimming pool and dance pavilion in the middle of the river north of Ross Island— was another popular spot.
According to Doug Decker, a Portland historian who has detailed stories about the old Willamette River culture on his blog, the city’s river culture changed in the mid-1920s.
“By 1925, Portlanders abandoned the river because it had become the main receptacle for the city’s raw sewage, and due to heavy industrialization on this side of the river,” Decker wrote.
As Portland’s population grew, the city needed to find a new approach to handling sewage, and officials decided to route the city’s sewer lines right into the Willamette. Windemuth and Bundy’s shut down, and the city banned swimming in the river.
The Oregon Journal eulogized the Windemuth space in an article titled “The Swimmerless River,” published August 5, 1924.
“The great, the near great and the great unwashed have spent many a pleasant hour in the soft winds and the cool waters at Windemuth on hot summer afternoons…It was a wonderful recreational place, and the sentiment that clung around it will leave a touch of regret in hundreds,” the article reads. “Isn't man improvident, isn't he short-sighted, isn't he destructive, in turning this river wonder that God hath wrought, into a colossal sewer to carry to the sea material worth millions for keeping soil in its original fertility?”
If sewage and increased industrial pollution weren’t bad enough for the river, the Army Corps of Engineers built an artificial embankment along Ross Island in 1926, which obstructed water flow through the complex of three islands and created a stagnant lagoon. The Ross Island lagoon is now a hospitable breeding ground for harmful bacteria, made worse by the industrial contamination and the effects of climate change on water temperatures. This lagoon is the primary source of the cyanobacterial blooms that occur in the Willamette River nearly every summer.
But over the past 30 years, the tide has started to turn on several of the river’s issues. The city of Portland made major headway on the sewage front, completing the 20-year, $1.4 billion Big Pipe Project in 2011. According to the city, the project reduced sewer overflows to the Willamette by 94 percent, making the river “cleaner than it’s been in decades.”
"It was a wonderful recreational place, and the sentiment that clung around it will leave a touch of regret in hundreds." – The Oregon Journal, 1924
As far as the algae blooms are concerned, Levenson is spearheading a project to build a channel through the Ross Island lagoon, allowing fresh water to flow in and break up the bacteria. The Human Access Project has teamed up with Oregon State University scientists for the rehabilitation project, and recently received a $150,000 grant from Multnomah County for their plan, with more government funding in the works. It’s a big project, though. Levenson says he doesn’t expect construction to get underway for several years.
“This is complicated but solvable. It’s not an option not to solve it, and it won't be solved without intervention…if we put a channel in, it will solve Portland’s harmful algae bloom problem on a macro level,” Levenson says. “We will not have a situation where the harmful algae bloom consumes the lagoon and then spreads from Sellwood to Cathedral Park and makes our entire city unswimmable and unfishable.”
Levenson says knowing the history of the river is important because “there’s a clear connection between 1924 and today.”
“When the algae bloom came last summer, the Willamette was a swimmerless river. I felt a sense of loss in Portland. To me, that represents that people are loving the river…there was some degree of validation that people are starting to see the value of this,” Levenson says. “You can’t feel loss unless you love something.”
Portland’s modern river culture
While Levenson and his team continue to try to solve one of the main culprits of the Willamette’s algae problem, he and other river lovers aren’t just waiting around until then— and they’ve found a captive audience of swimmers all over the city. The well-attended Cathedral Park dock opening in June was a prime example of how eager Portlanders are to enjoy the river, and local government officials are happy to encourage their renewed interest.
The new, $900,000 Cathedral Park dock—partially funded by an American Rescue Plan Act grant—was constructed in a partnership between Human Access Project and Portland Parks & Recreation. Before they embarked on the project, the Cathedral Park beach was covered in hundreds of tons of strewn concrete, which volunteers helped remove. Now, North Portland has a clean, sandy beach to enjoy, right in the shadow of the iconic St. Johns Bridge.
At the opening day celebration, Portland city leaders thanked Levenson and the volunteers for leading the charge to rehabilitate the beach.
“When it comes to the river, [Levenson] doesn’t take no for an answer,” Commissioner Carmen Rubio said. “I want to thank [everyone] who ensured we have a new generation of swimmers to take advantage of this beautiful and safe river.”
Levenson sees the Cathedral Park project as a way to increase equitable access to the Willamette River, creating new recreational opportunities for people who live in the North Portland peninsula, which is home to some of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods. But, he says, there’s still work to be done.
“[The dock] is going to become a place in North Portland that people are going to want to go. It will draw people,” Levenson says. “But it’s not going to be as nice as Sellwood [Riverfront Park], which is an equity issue. And it’s going to be a challenge to Portland Parks & Recreation to bring Cathedral Park to the level of Sellwood. But people in North Portland should demand it.”
Down in Portland’s central city, dozens of people gather weekly for Duckworth Summer Wednesdays, a swimming party at the Duckworth Dock on the Eastbank Esplanade. The event is hosted by the Human Access Project, Lloyd EcoDistrict, and BikeLoud PDX, who encourage Portlanders to bike to the river every Wednesday evening during the summer.
taylor griggs
To those who may still be hesitant to dip their toes in the river, Levenson says it’s important to be alert and “know the science of what you can and can’t do.”
“But the fact of the matter is, in today’s modern world, we’re surrounded by a certain amount of toxins,” he says. “Science says it’s perfectly safe to swim in the Willamette River, and people should know that.”
Overall, though there’s still work to be done, Levenson sees the current citywide enthusiasm for the Willamette River as a major victory and turning point.
"Science says it’s perfectly safe to swim in the Willamette River, and people should know that." – Willie Levenson
“Fourteen years ago, nobody would have even talked about swimming in the Willamette unless you were a complete lunatic,” Levenson says. “The way to undo this cultural zeitgeist that says ‘If you touch the Willamette, your skin will flake off or you’ll grow horns,’ is to have people experience being near the river, on the river, in the river, and then go back to tell their friends…that’s the work of cultural change.”
