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A view of Bullseye Glass in Southeast Portland.
(Google Streetview)
Oregon environmental regulators have suspected for months that unsafe levels of cadmium and arsenic air pollution in inner Southeast Portland may have been connected to a glass manufacturer there.
They were confident enough that they put an air monitor next to the business, Bullseye Glass, in October.
But they didn't tell the public until Wednesday, just hours before a freelance journalist for the Portland Mercury reported that recent monitoring found significantly elevated levels of the two carcinogens in the air near SE 22nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard.
The test results, which the state received Jan. 20, showed average arsenic levels 159 times higher than the state's safety goal; cadmium levels were 49 times higher. The concentrations are cause for concern, the Department of Environmental Quality said in a statement.
At the state's safety targets, called benchmarks, each pollutant would be likely to cause one more case of cancer in every million people. But at the levels found, the metals would be expected to cause cancer in 208 people in every million - if they were exposed to the same amount throughout their entire life.
Bullseye Glass announced via Facebook Thursday that it had immediately suspended using the two heavy metals, which make colored glass.
"The owners and employees of Bullseye Glass care about the environment and our neighborhood and take this matter seriously," the company said in its announcement.
As neighbors, parents and advocates began processing the revelation, many shared the same frustration: Why didn't anyone tell us sooner?
"I want to scream into a pillow," said Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a Northwest Portland nonprofit. "Our public health is in the hands of this agency that doesn't seem to be aggressively trying to protect it."
Marci Pelletier, who said she regularly brings her children to her membership-based clothing store on SE Powell Boulevard, Shwop, said she's now nervous to have them come in. She questioned the state's response. "Just from a responsibility standpoint, it seems like they should let us know as soon as they know," she said.
Regulators with the Department of Environmental Quality say initial indications they'd found a toxic hotspot were based on a new form of testing and they needed firmer data before taking action.
For a decade, the source of unusually high levels of cadmium and arsenic in Portland's air has been a mystery. The city's air contained more of the cancer-causing pollutants than anyone expected to find. But the specific sources weren't clear.
One breakthrough came sometime recently from a novel source.
U.S. Forest Service researchers, studying the concentrations of metals in tree moss, found two hotspots, said Sarah Armitage, an air toxics specialist with the Department of Environmental Quality.
It isn't clear when the discovery was relayed to the state. Armitage said she believed the samples were taken in December 2013.
The highest concentrations were found in Southeast Portland, prompting air monitoring throughout October to verify the findings. The state received those results Jan. 20, Armitage said, giving it enough confidence to make the Wednesday announcement.
Armitage said the state had waited for the results of the air monitoring before drawing any conclusions. Though she suspected the glass business, Armitage said she wasn't sure simply based on the moss study.
"We didn't know how mosses correlated to air," she said. "This is a developing area of science. We've never used moss for screening anything. DEQ has no history of using plants to find pollution."
Even if the state hadn't made a definitive conclusion, it still could've clued in the public, said Peveto, the clean air advocate. "That's what's so backwards about this," she said, "that they tell the community last."
The state is now sounding a warning for another neighborhood. The moss study also found high concentrations of metals between Interstate 5 and the Fremont Bridge, Armitage said, where two small glass manufacturers operate. She said the state didn't yet know whether those businesses were contributing to the pollution levels found there.
"That will be the next area for this rapidly evolving investigation," Armitage said. "Our first priority is getting more data around the Bullseye site."
Eric Lovell, president of one of those small manufacturers, Uroboros Glass, said his company hadn't used arsenic in decades because of concerns about its toxicity. He said years ago the Department of Environmental Quality had cross-checked dates of his firm's cadmium use and found no overlap with spikes detected on a nearby air monitor at Harriet Tubman Middle School.
Indoor air monitoring hasn't found any problems, Lovell said. The company's emissions aren't monitored, he said, because it doesn't use enough cadmium to need an air pollution permit.
The type of pollution now causing concern in Southeast Portland has long fallen through a regulatory gap that neither federal nor state lawmakers have addressed.
While the federal Clean Air Act requires regions with unsafe levels of major pollutants like ozone and nitrogen oxide to clean up the air, it doesn't require them to reduce smaller sources of hazardous pollutants like cadmium or arsenic. Though the state of Oregon has to set safety goals, it isn't legally required to meet them.
"The problem is that benchmarks are not any kind of regulatory standard," said Linda George, an atmospheric chemist at Portland State University who studies the city's air pollution. "They're just what we know is a problem. There's no regulatory teeth in it. That is a failure of our air quality regulatory system nationally."
The Bullseye facility's air pollution is regulated by the Department of Environmental Quality. But even if the company polluted at unsafe levels for neighbors, the agency says its hands are tied.
"They're in compliance with the permit," said David Monro, a Department of Environmental Quality air quality manager. Monro said he inspected Bullseye this week and found nothing amiss.
The state Department of Environmental Quality and Oregon Health Authority both said they are working to map the risks associated with the Southeast Portland pollution. George, the PSU professor, said the pollutants don't travel long distances. "Within a city, they'll be in a mile or two radius of the source."
David Farrer, an Oregon Health Authority toxicologist, said the agencies were now investigating whether the October monitoring results were representative of Bullseye's historic emissions.
Those who are concerned about exposure should contact their health care provider, Farrer said.
-- Rob Davis
rdavis@oregonian.com
503.294.7657