December was number one in the record books for rainiest months in Portland and Vancouver. But on its way to the top, it left number two all over the beach at Frenchman’s Bar.
Jeff Mize, public information outreach manager of Clark County Public Works, said county parks staff found grease balls and human waste on the beach at Frenchman’s Bar Regional Park on Dec. 17 after someone complained to the county health department.
“Warning signs were posted as a precaution, but there are not a lot of people on the beach or in the water this time of year,” he wrote in an email.
In years past, other, more problematic materials like tampons, needles and condoms have been known to wash up after big rainstorms.
Mize said the feces and grease were the extent of the human waste found. The crews that investigated it didn’t specify how much was on shore.
“Syringes are particularly troublesome since they can become buried, only to be found by a child playing in the sand in the summer,” Mize wrote.
Clark County did not investigate the source of material. In the past, the prime suspect has been the city of Portland’s sewers, which after heavy rain can overflow into the Willamette River and downstream into the Columbia. Frenchman’s Bar park is less than two miles from the mouth of the Willamette.
No one from the city of Portland was available to comment, as the city’s offices were closed Monday due to the severe weather conditions. The Portland Tribune reported on Dec. 18 that the previous day’s rains caused the city sewer to overflow in a few places and ultimately send the material into the Willamette River. In older Portland neighborhoods, sewage and stormwater run in the same pipes.
Over the course of about 20 years, the city of Portland took steps to reduce the frequency and intensity of sewer overflows. The city’s website says since the program was completed in 2011, overflow events to the Willamette have been reduced by 94 percent. Prior to the work, there was an average of 50 overflows on the Willamette per year; now, that is down to an average of four each winter and one overflow every third summer.
“We have seen a noticeable decline in sewage and related material that washes ashore at Frenchman’s Bar Regional Park since (the project’s) completion,” Mize said.
