This is video I shot on my cell phone
of Marine Drive in Northeast Portland.
If you've driven here lately,
or ridden your bike, you
know the area is jarring.
Same goes for nearby
33rd. So our team
at the story kept it simple.
Tuesday morning.
We met Jim Carr and Mark Blanchard,
two viewers who had written
in with specific concerns.
It's my car in your waist. If not, we'll
start with car. He wanted to
meet at well 15 near NE 185th.
Clearly a city, well, a
city well, and part of Portland's
drinking water infrastructure.
It's one of many along the. Marine Drive
area. Here car is a retired Portland Parks
employee with a background in horticulture.
His fear what's growing around the well.
Just outside that chain link fence,
a large homeless camp with cars and RV's
sitting in inches of mud you have. Vehicles
that are being stripped down.
You have the antifreeze.
All the fluids from the vehicles.
All of that is now migrating
down into the watershed.
In other words, car worries,
those fluids and perhaps even human
waste could eventually make their
way into Portland. Drinking water
for us to just look the other way
and say that yeah, OK, that's OK.
It's only for awhile,
but is it really only for a while?
A Rep for the city?
Assured KGW the drinking water is safe.
Adding the aquifers that
feed this well are solid and
nearly 200 feet below ground.
Car thinks officials should
take this more seriously.
Which way you get ahead.
Mark with that.
Mark Blanchard showed up.
We were number 2 Blanchard
suggested we follow him on his
bike to the spot that strikes
him most, so we headed
West toward I 205.
This is what that area looks like.
Cars tents a burned out RV
wrapped in plastic. Why did you?
Car coming in behind it, by the way.
We started to interview
Blanchard when this happened.
As born and raised here.
So I've written this multiple
times and I just I kept seeing
it getting more and more extreme
Blanchard wanted to meet here
for two reasons. First, safety
I've had it where I've been on
the path and actually had a
car coming at me on the bike
path. The second reason Blanchard
said Portland struggle with
rising crime and an overwhelmed
police Bureau seems undeniable.
Here. Recently, someone stole
his sister in law's car.
She found it.
He says in this camp it was stripped.
And totaled
it wasn't the police that were
able to get that. It was like a
Good Samaritan finding it out here
Tuesday. Both men were adamant they
don't blame the chaos along Marine
Drive on the people living here.
Most they believe are struggling.
One man near I-205 told me off camera.
He's shocked by how rampant
the crime is down here.
He also said he's a prophet and built
Portland with his mind back at 12:15.
Another man camping here told me he works.
And can afford an apartment,
but he has a record possession
of a stolen car, so no landlords,
he says, will rent. To him
were not happy when people just dump
stolen cars here in the first place. Derek
was the only person
comfortable talking to us.
He says people live out here along
the river in the elements because
it's a community they feel safe
with each other and they know
people don't want them near homes
and businesses were humans. And
we don't appreciate.
Being talked to like we're trash,
so we're just trying to survive
just like everybody else.
We're just having a little harder time.
So as you can imagine,
I had a lot of questions for city
and local leaders after being
out on Marine Drive yesterday.
First up, let's talk about the drinking
water issue that has to be jarring to hear.
So Commissioner Mingus Maps is in
charge of Portland Water Bureau
and he sent us a long email.
His staff definitely wanted
to talk about this.
It said in part, Portlanders can rest
assured that their water is safe to drink.
We are not currently operating the
Columbia South Shore Wellfield
but it stands ready in case
winter storms stir up any issues.
In the bull run,
then he added that said,
we protect our wells from whatever may happen
above ground through a variety of methods.
The aquifer is where we
get the water are deep.
Well, 15 for example,
is 195 feet below ground.
The wells are built from solid
material to keep out contaminants.
That being said,
specific to clearing any of those
camps at all 'cause we get questions
about it all the time from those
of you who drive or bike there.
That answer was a little less clear.
We got long winded emails from both
the city and the Port of Portland
who both have land out there and
both said that clearing these camps
legally is really messy because again,
multiple agencies owned land along
Marine Drive, including the city ODOT,
the port of Portland.
Plus you have private owners.
But to sum up, how tough this is?
I sent them these photos.
That we showed you at the top of the
show they were actually from Mark Blanchard,
the cyclists who you met in the story
and the city said, hey, you know.
The land in those photos that looks
like the port of Portland land.
That's not our land.
The Port of Portland said hey,
the land in those photos that
looks like the city's land.
That's not our land.
Neither mentioned any plans to
clear camps or had time at this
point for interviews.
Alright.