Joshua Cohen is a Principal at Fat Pencil Studio
One hundred years ago, Portland's popular Windemuth swimming platform, located in the Willamette River just north of Ross Island, was permanently closed due to water polluted by raw sewage. Today this problem is largely solved thanks to twenty years and more than $1 billion invested in new infrastructure to remove stormwater from the city's antiquated combined sewer system. Thanks to the efforts of the nonprofit Human Access Project (HAP), Portland residents are returning to the river in droves, at beaches and docks from Sellwood to the new and improved dock at Cathedral Park in St Johns.
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Understanding the City Conveyance System
A detailed video that explains Portland's stormwater drainage system.
Unfortunately, gravel mining and climate change have brought a new type of pollution to the Willamette River: toxic cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae) blooming in the stagnant water of Ross Island Lagoon. At the peak of summer, these toxins leak out into the main channel, turning the water green and keeping people and pets out of the river, when we most need a cooling dip. Fat Pencil Studio is supporting HAP's efforts to address the issue. We created a 3d model using publicly available elevation and bathymetry data to show the Ross Island lagoon as it exists today, and to depict a possible solution: dig a new channel through the southern embankment to promote water flow through the lagoon.
With this project, I feel like we are on the front lines of climate change. My hope is for young people to see that we have the guts to take this thing on... and that some things are fixable.
Willie Levenson, Human Access Project