THERE AREN’T a great many instances where a $746 million price tag looks like a bargain. But last week, when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) slapped that number on a long-awaited proposal for cleaning up Portland’s toxic, fish-contaminating harbor, it had all the trappings of a door-buster special.
Consider: The City of Portland had recently pegged the price for cleaning up a century of wanton dumping in the Willamette at between $800 million and $2.5 billion. And just last year, the EPA had floated a very similar plan that would have cost $1.5 billion.
But there it was. On Wednesday, June 8, EPA officials in Washington, DC, and Seattle matter-of-factly stated their plans for cleaning up the Willamette had been slashed nearly in half over night.