Trash like this, off the Dave Clark Path, is a continuing problem along Oregon riverbanks. (Photo 1-28-2025)
A state senator from Port Orford has an answer to the problem of vagrants leaving trash behind when they leave their camping spots along Oregon rivers: Make the state clean it up.
Glancing through the hundreds of bills introduced in the 2025 Oregon legislature, I came across Senate Bill 359. It was sponsored by Sen. David Brock Smith, a Republican, and is pending in the Senate’s Committee on Energy and Environment.
Legislative proposals now come with a digest or summary in plain English. For SB 359, the digest says, “This Act says that any person can file a complaint for the DEQ to take action if homeless persons are putting waste into state waters.”
There is also the traditional, more formal summary:
“Authorizes any person to submit a complaint to the Department of Environmental Quality if the person reasonably believes that a camping site of homeless individuals is causing the discharge of wastes into state waters. Directs the department to remove individuals from the camping site and clean the camping site as necessary to protect state waters.”
This is not an entirely new idea. Back in 2022, Willamette Riverkeeper petitioned the Environmental Quality Commission and the DEQ to regulate trash along the Willamette and its tributaries under federal law.
The Portland-based group wanted the state agency to make rules declaring riverside trash to be a violation of the federal Clean Water Act. The implication was that riverside landowners such as cities would be held responsible for continuous cleanup, subject to the DEQ’s fines if they failed.
Nothing has been heard of this petition since.
As for SB 359, I doubt that the DEQ wants to be saddled with the direct responsibility of cleaning up the stuff that people leave along the Willamette. If the bill gets a hearing — which I don’t think is likely — we’ll see what the agency says.
In the meantime, the never-ending task of cleaning up after unauthorized campers along the river is left to city crews and brave volunteers, just as it has always been. (hh)
A closer look Tuesday at the stuff left under the boardwalk of Albany’s Dave Clark Path.
This is public land, so let the finger pointing start amongst several government bodies.
In other words, nothing will get done by any of them.
Except where the river bank is privately owned. Then the owner should expect the full force and weight of federal, state, and local government to punish immediately without mercy.
We’re living in an alternate universe, the Democrats are pushing for unsupported density growth and the Republicans are pushing to protect the environment. I guess the McCall Republican is making a comeback.
You’re wrong. There is a shortage of housing compared to demand.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/28/oregon-needs-to-build-29500-more-homes-each-year-chief-economist-says/
Here is just a snippet from the OPB article:
“Years of underproduction. Building permits peaked in 2005, when developers pulled permits for more than 31,000 homes, then plummeted with the 2008 housing crash and recession. About 7,000 homes were built statewide in 2009, and while homebuilding slowly increased heading out of the recession before falling with the COVID pandemic, it hasn’t returned to 1990s levels. Simultaneously, Oregon’s population grew by nearly 11% between 2010 and 2020 — outpacing all but 10 other states and netting Oregon an extra seat in Congress. “
America we can’t house our homeless, but migrants are the problem.
So much for limiting statewide spending as GOP gadfly Brock proposes the State should pick up trash. It begs the question: has Brock proposed any legislation to alleviate the number of homeless persons? Spend state dollars on providing housing, not on garbage collection following the logic that if fewer people are living under bridges, perhaps the garbage piles would be reduced. Once again, Brock and the GOP are putting the cart before the horse. Brilliant as usual. Perhaps a tariff could be helpful.
Actually Hasso, Willamette Riverkeeper provided the State of Oregon data on the massive amount of trash (*from a variety of sources) it cleaned up along the river with many partners. The State decided to add trash to the 303d list under the Clean Water Act. Now there will be a push to create a trash standard. So, contrary to your statement above, actually quite a bit has been heard about this since their petition to the State. There are clear numerics, and a clear description of the problem. In this case (and we are not talking about stuff that floats downstream and lands on the shoreline), folks who allow the problem to be created on their land would have liability for the situation. Thanks though for the dig on Willamette Riverkeeper’s thoughtful work.
Sorry, it wasn’t meant as a dig. I just had not heard or read of any “rulemaking” on the subject of homeless-caused trash since Riverkeeper announced its petition.
That pile looks to me as if it had been left, possibly by someone who had been living under the walk way. It isn’t scattered enough to have been washed in.
The issue is stuff that is left, not anything that is “washed in.”
Seems to me, rather than having DEQ do the cleanup, having the State/DEQ pay Cities/Counties to have the clean-up done by themselves or contractors would be faster and cheaper.
How about Community Service of picking up trash, cleaning graffiti etc. by those caught committing such offenses? Failure to show up at the designated time will be treated as failure to appear with another week tacked on to the original disposition.
BAD BEHAVIOR must be penalized severely enough to act as a REAL deterrent. I’m not talking about mental illness as such, however, it also has to be addressed as a matter of the public good. Maybe “enforced meds” for people that “conform” when actually ON their meds?
Jurisdiction is the key word here, I talked to a city official recently and asked who’s jurisdiction is between the north Albany road intersection and a 100 yards west ,on the river bank where aprox 12 people live , he told me Benton county, yet as I’m sitting there Albany police dept coming from Corvallis way stopped a lady and gave her a ticket, seems like it’s all albanys jurisdiction , second thing go down independence hwy from hwy 20, the trash is unbelievable, and republic services want to expand the coffins butte site, hasso please ride your bike out there