Questions linger at Minto-Brown site
DEQ says it won't step in until Boise sells its property
March 7, 2007
Environmental questions still loom for Boise Cascade's 310 acres on Minto-Brown Island.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality won't deal with the island property until Boise sells it, said Angela Obery, the project manager for the regulatory agency.
The island property contains lagoons once used to treat waste piped from a downtown pulp mill that the company closed in 1984. It is within a flood plain and can't be developed.
Environmental testing in 1999-2000 found small amounts of dioxin and hazardous metals at the site, including arsenic and lead. At that time, the DEQ concluded that the chemicals and metals posed no threat to human health or the environment. That judgment was based in part on the premise that the property would stay in Boise's hands and remain off-limits to the public.
However, the idea of opening the dormant site to public access could raise new environmental concerns and questions.
City planners and recreational enthusiasts long have dreamed about a bridge that would span the Willamette River Slough and provide a public gateway to the northernmost tip of the island. That would provide bicyclists, joggers and nature-lovers with quick access from Riverfront Park to the 880-acre Minto-Brown Island Park, just south of Boise's island property.
The pedestrian footbridge idea was embraced by the Urban Land Institute panel, which suggested that Boise Cascade donate its island property to the city.
Boise nixed the land-gift idea. Instead, the company opted to market its island property with the 13-acre riverfront parcel as a proposed package deal.
agustafs@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6709