Oregon officials have given a clean bill of health to an industrialized island in Portland’s Willamette River.

Efforts have been underway to clean up Ross Island since 1999. State officials now say the island is clean. That follows a preliminary finding a few months ago. Jennifer Sutter has managed the challenging cleanup project for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

“I think there were probably times when it seemed like the project would never end, and now that it has, it’s sort of taken me by surprise ‘yes, we actually did it,'” Sutter said.

Sutter says the state discovered contaminated sediment in the Ross Island lagoon, and other areas in the 1990s. Since then, Ross Island Sand and Gravel has spent millions on the cleanup. Sutter says the company will still have to spend at least nine-thousand dollars a year to monitor and maintain the sediment caps, and other cleanup steps.

The city of Portland obtained an uncontaminated portion of Ross Island, a few years ago. City officials say a long-term planning effort for that area should be rolled out “very soon.”

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