The stormwater swales on a former landfill site owned by the Dharma Rain Zen Center are teeming with fungi.

Mushrooms sprouting from the planters designed to catch runoff as it flows off the Siskiyou Square site in Portland, near the intersection of Northeast 85th Avenue and Siskiyou Street, are no accident. Members of the Buddhist organization planted them to test the theories of mycoremediation. The technique uses fungi to filter pollutants commonly found in urban stormwater runoff, such as heavy metals and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons from vehicle fuel as well as E. coli and other bacteria.

The way fungi survive and propagate is ideally suited to filtering and breaking down contaminants, said Jordan Weiss, a Portland-based mycoremediation consultant. Mushrooms naturally release acids and enzymes that can break down toxins, he said. Planting fungi on a brownfield site has the added benefit of rejuvenating soil, Weiss added, fostering the return of native plants and wildlife.

“Once the fungus colonizes the soil, it unlocks valuable soil nutrients that kick-starts the soil-building mechanisms,” he said.

For the past two years, Weiss has contributed to the Dharma Rain Zen Center’s campaign to clean up and develop a nearly 14-acre portion of Siskiyou Square. He is leading efforts to plant mushrooms in a stormwater management system installed on the brownfield site, which once served as a rock quarry and construction waste landfill.

Although mycoremediation has been around for a number of years and was pioneered in the Pacific Northwest by Paul Stamets, an Olympia, Wash.-based mycologist, author and founder of mushroom cultivator business Fungi Perfecti, it hasn’t taken off in the Portland-metro area, Weiss said. But interest is starting to grow and he’s hoping to soon test the runoff passing through the planters on the Zen center property to confirm that the mushrooms are indeed filtering the stormwater.

“Mycoremediation, even though it’s been proven in a handful of research and demonstration projects, (is) still not widely accepted,” Weiss said. “It’s not common knowledge. It’s still kind of locked up in the mushroom books.”

In Washington County, Clean Water Services is tackling its own mycoremediation experiment. The water resources management utility for the Tualatin River watershed is partnering with Fungi Perfecti and Pacific University in Forest Grove on a pilot project to use fungi to filter out hydrocarbons from motor fuel found in street sweeper debris collected from throughout the county.

The 90-day pilot was launched last month. If tests later this summer prove that the technique is working, the agency could use mushrooms to decontaminate the mulch-like debris, making it safe for use as erosion control or a soil amenity, said Jared Kinnear, recycled water program manager with Clean Water Services. Currently, Clean Water Services pays to dispose of the leaves and other natural debris collected by street sweepers at a landfill that specializes in toxic materials, he said.

Mycoremediation appealed to the Dharma Rain Zen Center because the organization would like its brownfield cleanup effort to serve as a demonstration project, said Kakumyo Lowe-Charde, a priest and the center’s development director.

“We’re very interested in a pretty holistic scheme of going about this,” he said. “One of our goals is lessons learned are useful to other projects … The mycoremediation seems like a real winner there. We’d like to have some hard data that can help build our case.”

Since purchasing the property in 2012, the center has embarked on a series of environmental remediation efforts and completed the shell of a Zen temple and meditation hall. Plans for the site also call for constructing a preschool and restoring the surrounding natural area into a native oak savanna. Construction of a 31-unit co-housing complex on the site is scheduled to begin this fall, Lowe-Charde said.

The work has attracted the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which recently awarded the center a $200,000 grant to help cover cleanup costs.

Mary Vogel, principal of Portland-based sustainable urban design and planning firm PlanGreen, has long had an interest in mycoremediation and was happy to hear that it’s being incorporated in the Zen center brownfield cleanup. She’s hopeful that the technique will finally start to take off in the Portland-metro area.

“I’ve been waiting 30 years for mycoremediation to take hold in this community,” Vogel said. “It seemed like a no-brainer … We’re one of the leaders in stormwater (and) bioremediation, but we’re not using mushrooms.”

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The complexities of building atop a long-vacant landfill soon became apparent for the team creating a Buddhist retreat in Northeast Portland.

The Dharma Rain Zen Center will include a 6,200-square-foot meditation hall and eventually 31 apartment-like units on 14 acres of the 26-acre H.G. LaVelle Landfill site. Redevelopment of that brownfield is being overseen by the Department of Environmental Quality and posed a host of challenges.

Before work could begin, the project team had to figure out how it would build upon a mountain of unstable soil that included roughly 2 million cubic yards of solid waste. Typically, pilings would be driven deep into the ground for support, said Gant Enderle, principal of B&G Builders – the project’s general contractor. That approach was used to build a Home Depot store on a former landfill site in Oregon City, he said.

“It took a bit of work to try and figure out what the best approach was,” he said. “We could have sunk piles down into terra firma, but it would have cost a lot of money.”

The project team, including Tigard-based GeoDesign Inc., looked at several options and eventually settled on one that required pouring 10 feet of dirt interspersed with a specially designed, mesh “geo-mat” fabric. The test took three months and the dirt only settled about three inches during that time, Enderle said.

Developers also have taken special steps to meet DEQ requirements that the threat of methane release be eliminated, said Mike Coenen, an associate engineer for GeoDesign.

The hazards of methane gas appear only when it is allowed to accumulate, according to Coenen. That made design of building ventilation systems critical.

“What we’ve done is to incorporate features into the design of the building that do not allow it to accumulate,” he said.

GeoDesign raised the foundation of the meditation building, essentially putting it on tiny stilts to ensure sufficient air space will be available for ventilation between the floor and the ground, Coenen said. The building will have sub slab vents allowing natural ventilation and preventing methane buildup.

For the development’s smaller buildings, GeoDesign used a passive venting system so that methane can disperse, he said.

CWK2 designed a pressurized sanitary sewer pump system, rather than a gravity sanitary sewer, to keep utilities closer to the surface, Enderle said.

“With a pressurized system, you don’t have to slope it; it is easier to access and fix,” he said. “The trade-off is you have to replace it every 25 years.”

Special considerations also were made to ensure water from the site will not enter the landfill. In a typical development, water would be treated on site before going into the city’s sewer system. At the Dharma Rain site, the water must be kept at surface level so that it can be treated off-site, Coenen said.

“We have to line our stormwater swales and treat the water above ground,” he said. “Then it goes down off-site.”

Dharma Rain’s development team, in its due diligence phase, worked closely with the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services to get a pair of grants – one for $50,000 to pay for an environmental site assessment and one for $200,000 to pay for cleanup, said Jenn Bildersee, coordinator of the Portland Brownfield Program.

The grants, which came from the Environmental Protection Agency through BES, helped clear the way for Dharma Rain to purchase the property in 2012, Bildersee said.

“The grant is for innocent purchasers who did not cause the damage and gives them liability protection,” she said. “This helps so that people don’t have to be afraid to purchase a contaminated site as long as they take appropriate steps to clean up the site.”

Dharma Rain also got support from the Madison South neighborhood. Volunteers contributed thousands of hours to clean up the site, said Kakumyo Lowe-Charde, the nonprofit’s development director.

“This has been a site that has been an eyesore for the community and a haven for drug use and prostitution,” he said. “Neighbors were eager to take an active role.”

Financing for the project came in part from the sale of Dharma Rain’s three buildings in the Hawthorne neighborhood. The organization has moved its operations into temporary facilities until construction is completed.

Additional financing will come from the sale of membership interest in the development, which includes the right to rent one of the apartment-like units that will be constructed next summer. Twenty-five memberships have been sold, Lowe-Charde said.

Dharma Rain Zen Center, first phase

Address: 8500 N.E. Siskiyou St.

Owner: Dharma Rain Zen Center

Project cost: $5 million

Construction start date: August 2014

Anticipated completion date: February 2015

General contractor: B&G Builders

Architect: Howells Architecture + Design

Engineers: CWK2 (civil), Horn Consulting Engineers (structural), GeoDesign Inc. (geotechnical)

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For years, Siskiyou Square, a 27-acre site at Northeast 82nd Avenue and Siskiyou Street, has languished as one of the largest undeveloped land parcels in Portland.

Developers resisted its potential because parts of the former landfill site are seismically unstable, and a methane distribution pipeline lies underground. In 2006, a Canadian real estate firm proposed to build a big-box store, but residents thwarted the bid when they discovered it might be a Walmart.

But the , a Soto Zen Buddhist organization running out of space in Southeast Portland, is looking to build a new facility on 13 acres of the square. Members of the organization said a proposed light footprint would suit the site and that the development would be better than a larger one because water runoff and trees could be preserved.

“It’s not a simple piece of land to work with, but we are thrilled to find it,” said Sallie Jiko Tisdale, a teacher at the center and a member of its development committee. “Buddhists believe how they live today affects tomorrow, so we practice a kind of carefulness of how we behave. In that, how we build and how we live on that land is going to be a direct religious expression.”

Preliminary designs for the project, which will go before the during a pre-application conference early next month, show that the new facility would include a temple, a large vegetable garden, a playground for children and multiple residential units. All of the single-level buildings would be composed of wood.

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde, the organization’s development director, said the buildings could be constructed more easily and for less money than larger ones because of small foundations.

“The bigger the building, the more expensive the foundation is necessary to hold it in place as the land settles around it,” Lowe-Charde said. “We are going to have really light buildings, and we can do a much simpler foundation that adapts to the landfill that doesn’t necessitate putting 80-foot piles through the solid rock below.”

To meet environmental quality standards, gas barriers would be installed below the buildings to prevent methane from reaching interiors. Additionally, perforated horizontal pipes would be placed beneath the buildings to ventilate accumulated gas and prevent gas pressures from elevating.

Seismic instability, however, is a real hindrance, Tisdale said.

“You can only do certain kinds of construction on the property and you can only put weight on certain parts of the property; it limits the kind of building that can be done,” she said. “People get scared from something like methane pumps, but if you know what you’re doing and go through 30 years of (U.S. Environmental Agency) reports like we are, everything should be green-lighted.”

Tisdale added that the organization would try to preserve the open green spaces of the square, which is near Rocky Butte.

“We really like the land as it is in its native state and space,” she said. “We believe we are not separated or disconnected from our environment or each other.”

The center has engaged in multiple meetings with neighborhood groups. The South Madison Neighborhood Association, which opposed the big-box store proposal in 2006, believes the project will be a positive contribution to the area.

“The vision they have would blend nicely with that piece of land,” said Dave Smith, the association’s chairman. “Putting in low buildings, plantings and walkways would be a more positive use than the proposed previous use for it.”

Both Tisdale and Lowe-Charde said the center’s existing facilities, on Southeast Madison Street between 25th and 26th avenues, are too small. They believe the proposed project would provide the appropriate amount of space for the center’s diverse set of programs – ranging from seminary training to children’s classes. The square also would provide space for residential units, so that the center’s members could live closely together.

“We have all this energy and we’ve been waiting for a space to put it in,” Lowe-Charde said. “This gives us room to continue growing and diversifying.”

If the $3 million to $4 million project were approved by the city, Lowe-Charde said it would be broken down into phases, with construction starting in summer 2014. He also believes more development would occur after its completion.

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Azmat Hussain, president of the Save NE 82nd Avenue Coalition, wants to see a development explosion along Northeast 82nd Avenue, just not literally.

Near Madison High School, though, there’s the vacant 26-acre Siskiyou Square, a former landfill used for the removal of construction waste until it closed in the early 1980s. The Oregon State Department of Environmental Quality has warned property owner Mike Hashem that elevated methane gas levels on the site pose health risks.

The current gas extraction and monitoring system on the property is outdated, said Bob Schwartz, a DEQ manager. He is concerned the gas could wander offsite, collect in contained areas such as electrical boxes, and explode.

Hussain said news of the methane levels has worried property owners and may hinder new development.

“There’s interest from developers,” he said, “but there are some who are worried because it used to be a landfill.” He mentioned Goals Soccer, a soccer field developer, and the nearby USA School of Wrestling.

Pamela Penrose, development director of the USA School of Wrestling, said that she’d like to see more development along Northeast 82nd Avenue. She welcomes a monitoring system that would keep track of the methane levels, to make sure the gas doesn’t spread off site.

DEQ and Hashem tested for methane at the property’s southern line, and in the confined spaces of utility vaults and in the crawl spaces beneath some of the 10 buildings closest to the landfill on the north side of Northeast Knott Street.

They found elevated levels of methane gas at the southern edge of the property. The gas’ pressure was low, but Schwartz said it would still pose an explosion risk if not monitored.

In February, the DEQ told Hashem that he’d have to clean up his site. Schwartz said there have been some problems in making the site comply with DEQ regulations. The problems sprang from questions of ownership.

Hashem said he has flirted with selling the property a number of times over the years, including to a Canadian developer interested in bringing Wal-Mart to the site in 2006. Public outcry derailed that idea. DEQ did not want to require Hashem to install a new system for monitoring the methane if he was going to turn around and sell the property without doing so, Schwartz said.

Hashem said that now the entire site could be split up into smaller parcels.

But the property hasn’t sold, and now the DEQ is requiring Hashem to install a new methane monitoring and extraction system. The extraction system acts as a vacuum, sucking up excess gas from beneath the soil beds. The upgrades, Hashem said, are expected to cost more than $100,000, money he said he doesn’t have.
Hashem said he’s done plenty to assuage the fears of the neighborhood, including testing the land and agreeing the monitor the site.

“We’ve done everything responsible we can do,” Hashem said. “So what more can we do?” He called those who are turning the methane levels into an issue “self-promoters.” He has committed the money, however he can get it, to pay for the monitoring and extraction system.

Interest in the property continues, despite the gas levels, according to Dennis Randazzo, the broker for the land. The interest, in part, comes from the property’s sheer size, the largest plot of undeveloped land in the city.

“There’s nothing new or dangerous there for anyone to worry about,” Randazzo said.

Les Allan, a principal with a Pasadena, Cal.-based soccer field development firm called Goals Soccer, is looking to develop a portion of the property. The project would include 10 to 12 soccer fields, a full-service concession area and locker rooms.

His project would require only a small portion of the overall property, about four to five acres. But the gas levels worry him.

“I will not buy a site that has excess costs unrelated to soccer,” Allan said. He doesn’t want property that may expose the fields’ users to health problems, and he doesn’t want to pay for an expensive cleanup. “We can’t afford to do that; we’re in the soccer business.”

Goals Soccer would be able to fit so many soccer fields onto such a small amount of acreage, Allan said, because the fields, intended for games of five-on-five, would be about half the size of a typical field.
He said he loves the site and thinks Portland potentially is a huge market for soccer. He said his project could draw about 150,000 users per year.

Other developers have expressed interest in nearby properties, which also may be affected by the methane levels.

Across the street, the USA School of Wrestling wants to build an Olympic-level training facility for wrestlers, Penrose said. It has gotten support from Commissioner Nick Fish, who has also supported the Goals Soccer proposal.

Hussain’s organization plans to educate the community on the effects of the methane levels.

Citing health concerns over Hashem’s land, the Save N.E. 82nd Coalition, in cooperation with the Madison South Neighborhood Association, is sponsoring a town hall meeting to discuss the property’s public health and safety issues. The meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 19 at Banfield Pet Hospital Corporate Headquarters, 8000 N.E. Tillamook St.

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Mike Hashem, owner of the 26-acre Siskiyou Square on Northeast 82nd Avenue near Madison High School, says he’s willing to do whatever he can to take care of elevated methane levels a methane gas leak on his property.

A Department of Environmental Quality study completed less than a year ago revealed on Hashem’s property line, located near adjacent properties. The agency has now asked Hashem to install a new methane gas monitoring and extraction system.

Coincidentally, Hashem’s actions coincide with renewed interest from developers.

Hashem has owned the former landfill for 14 years, and has come close to signing development deals in the past. (Wal-Mart expressed interest in the property in 2006 — a development proposal the property’s broker Dennis Randazzo characterizes as “infamous” due to the rancour it created at the time.) Now, smaller developers have expressed interest in the property, but the methane gas leak is creating a stink.

“We’ve done everything responsible we can do,” Hashem said. “So what more can we do?” Though he wants the property to seem attractive to prospective tenants, such as Pasadena-based Goals Soccer, he’d rather not spend the $200,000 necessary for the upgrades to the site – money he says he doesn’t have right now.

is a company that specializes in developing soccer facilities. The company’s owner, Les Allan, has been eyeing four to five acres of Siskiyou Square for the past year. But he says he’s worried about the methane gas leak, even if he doesn’t think it will affect his project.

But before too much work can be done on the project, the Save NE 82^nd Avenue Coalition will hold an informative community town hall to discuss the leak. The townhall will take place on August 19.

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