If you’re wondering why Albany’s Bryant Park is still closed to motor vehicles weeks after the annual flooding has subsided — and even if you’re not wondering about that — it’s because the cleanup is not complete.
For no particular reason, my bike ride along the Albany riverfront Saturday took me to Bowman Park, where the only thing to see was the rain-swollen Willamette River.
Watching the dismantling of the Van Buren Bridge in Corvallis may give some people the idea or hope that Albany’s Ellsworth Bridge may some day be replaced as well. But that’s not likely unless a huge earthquake levels Albany’s downtown first.
Several times a week I take the bike along the Dave Clark Riverfront Path in Albany. That’s what I did again on Sunday because I wanted to take advantage of the weather, which was exceptionally fine.
Sunday was an unusually mild and pleasant November day in these parts, and the bike and I paid a visit to Simpson Park.
It’s not just the South Santiam River and the Albany-Santiam Canal that are running dirty brown these days. The Willamette River water is almost as muddy as the canal.
Cities face new mandate on river trash
As if cities like Albany don’t have enough to do, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is proposing to list sections of the Willamette River as “impaired” by trash. This will trigger new regulations under the federal Clean Water Act, and cities likely will bear the brunt of a new mandate.
Tags: DEQ, environmental Quality, homeless camps, river trash, vagrant camps, volunteer cleanups, Wilalmette Riverkeeper, Willamette River