PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) - In 2010, a small part of the Willamette River's edge south of the Hawthorne Bridge was a wasteland of concrete chunks. Now, it looks more like a beach.
"There was a beach waiting to happen but it was just littered with concrete chunks so over the last three years we've moved more than 140 tons of concrete by hand and the result is that we've created a new beach," said Will Levenson with the Human Access Project.
He wants the city of Portland to follow his organization's lead and develop more beaches, swimming areas and other water recreation spots in downtown.
It's possible now because the Willamette River is cleaner because of the city's $1.4 billion Big Pipe project.
Since that project was finished in 2011, the combined storm water and sewer runoff volumes dumped into the river have been reduced by 94%. Samples taken from eight different downtown locations for E.coli are monitored regularly and all are consistently within the state standards for water pollution.
"It takes a lot of creativity in Portland to view the Willamette River as a river because it is so heavily urbanized," he said. "You have seawall, you have riprap, there's very little opportunity to get to the water's edge to even recognize that it is a river."
Many downtown beaches still have boulders and little to attract people. Levenson hopes to change that.
"Thirty years from now there's going to be 15 to 20 awesome places to swim in downtown Portland," he said. "Portland's summertimes are about to be transformed. It's going to be magical to watch it happen."
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