The State of the River Report informs the Council, partner agencies and the community about progress made toward achieving the City’s river goals over the 07-08 Fiscal Year.

By ordinance, the Report must be submitted to Council each year and developed in collaboration with 7 bureaus: Environmental Services, Parks, Planning and Sustainability, Transportation, Development Services, the Portland Development Commission, and Water. [Ordinance 178960 (2004)]

I’d like to emphasize that this isn’t a report from one program or on one program. Rather it represents the efforts of the entire City as implemented by many bureaus and programs. And we’re very thankful to all of them for their hard work and for their contributions to the Report.

This report—the fourth produced since 2005—

•  describes over 30 river-related accomplishments and key actions,

•  measures impacts using over 20 progress indicators,

•  sets forth a future agenda of 17 river-related actions, and,

•  profiles a number of river efforts by upstream communities.

I’d now like to give you a very brief overview of what’s in the Report.

Accomplishments and key actions of note during 07-08 include:

•  The initiation of Grey to Green—an accelerated approach to implementing Portland’s Watershed Management Plan.

•  Portland’s natural area system grew substantially and strategically with the donation of a portion of Ross Island to the City.

•  Initial recommendations for the River Plan’s North Reach phase were completed.

•  the Harbor REDI program began with the goal to develop new approaches to riverside cleaning brownfields and making them available for redevelopment.

•  The location for a new bridge across the Willamette to serve the Portland-to-Milwaukie light rail was selected.

•  A design to redevelop the Centennial Mills site on the riverfront was chosen.

•  And the City and its partners inaugurated Portland’s biggest celebration of our rivers ever—RiverFest, which drew 4,000 people to the Willamette to experience its wonders and learn about its challenges. (Stay tuned for RiverFest 09, Aug. 20-23).

Some interesting progress measures include:

•  Water quality trends in general show significant improvement, especially in the City’s Willamette and Columbia Slough watersheds.

•  E. Coli levels in the Willamette River continue to decrease.

•  Salmon are returning to restored habitats, including in the Columbia Slough, Miller Creek and Johnson Creek.

•  The number of Portlanders living in close proximity to the river continues to grow, up 3 percent since 2000.

•  Over a mile of streambank along the Willamette and tributaries were restored during the reporting period.

•  Nearly 13,000 students participated in the BES’s Clean River Education Program—a 1 percent increase over the previous year.

Key future actions that are planned include:

•  The implementation of Grey to Green initiative’s considerable ramping up of watershed protection measures, including adding 3 acres of ecoroofs, installing 8 green street facilities, planting 5,000 trees, restoring 70 acres of native vegetation restoration and acquiring 46 acres of new natural areas

•  Completing the River Plan’s North Reach phase and initiate river planning for the Central and South reaches of the Willamette

•  Start of construction of the Portsmouth Force Main project, a key element of completing the East Side Big Pipe

•  Initiation of the innovative Tabor-to-the-River stormwater management project, the City’s first large-scale integration of green stormwater facilities with traditional pipe-oriented management.

•  (Office of Healthy Working Rivers0

Lastly, the efforts of our upstream neighbors are also vitally important to the health of the River here in Portland. Over 600,000 people live in Willamette River cities upstream of Portland—a population larger than Portland itself. What happens upstream is as important as what happens within city limits. The Report summarizes exciting developments in river restoration and revitalization in:

•  Milwaukie

•  Lake Oswego

•  Oregon City

•  Wilsonville, and

•  Salem

That concludes my summary of the Report, which we hope the Council will accept. I’d be happy to answer any questions.