Although some people knew about the Slough’s toxicity, in the 1980s no community fishing prevention measures existed. In 1991, Northwest Environmental Advocates filed suit against the city of Portland to stop combined sewer overflows into the Columbia Slough. At the same time, the organization charged Oregon institutions with environmental injustice, drawing attention to Slough pollution through Riverwatch trips, news coverage, and the above Toxic Waters Map.
Well, one of the problems with the slough. . . is the fish is contaminated and there is a certain amount of human health risk to people who eat large quantities of fish many times a week and for many, many years. Many people who tend to eat this fish tend to be from immigrant communities — a lot of Hispanic communities, Eastern European, especially a lot of Russians and some Romanians, [and there] used to be a lot of Southeast Asians. . . and still are a lot of African-Americans who fish from the slough, and the thing is they don’t fish for recreation, they fish for subsistence and most of them are low-income families, people who need this inexpensive protein source for their families.
Chee Choy, Bureau of Environmental Services
North Portland neighborhoods have the highest minority populations in the city. People from many different groups — Russian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Hmong, Hispanic, African American, and others — live on or near the Portland peninsula. Studies in 1996 showed that 15.5% of those fishing on the Columbia Slough were African American, 20% Caucasians of eastern European descent, 55% other Caucasians, 4% Asian, and 4.5% Hispanic. While the minority population fishes for subsistence, most non-European Caucasions fish recreationally, usually throwing carp back into the slough. However, Russians for example, prize carp, eating the skin, fat, innards, and heads of the bottom feeding fish. Years of raw sewage and industrial pollutants including lead, mercury, chlordane, and PCBs have made the Columbia Slough one of the most contaminated waterways in the state of Oregon, and eating fish from this waterway is dangerous.
