Screen Shot 2017-03-24 at 6.25.51 PM.png

A former Salem lead battery manufacturing plant became a multi-use commercial building without being decontaminated first, state officials say.

(Google Street View)

A seemingly innocuous change by state regulators allowed a former Salem battery manufacturing plant to be redeveloped into commercial space - including a cafe, gym, roller rink, brewery and batting cages - despite what turned out to be extreme lead contamination lingering inside.

Test results announced Friday revealed extraordinarily high lead levels throughout the building, prompting an immediate closure and raising questions about how businesses that attract children could've been allowed to move into a polluted industrial site where widespread lead contamination was evident for decades.

Until 2011, the state prohibited commercial use of the West Salem industrial property because of lead in the soil there. But when West Salem Storage LLC bought the parcel that year, its representatives asked the state Department of Environmental Quality to allow commercial use.

The state said that'd be fine. "I would like to clarify," Seth Sadofsky, a state environmental cleanup specialist wrote in November 2011, "that commercial ... uses are acceptable if done within a building and with no contact to soil."

The revelation, contained in public documents released Friday by the state, is just the latest example of Oregon's environmental watchdog missing an opportunity to keep the public safe. It comes 13 months after the agency faced widespread condemnation for moving slowly to address a Portland air pollution scare that led to the resignation of its previous director.

Lead has been a problem at 576 Patterson St. NW since at least 1985, records show, when a delivery truck exploded and released almost three tons of lead. Partial soil cleanups followed.

State environmental officials say it is the building owner's responsibility to make sure the inside of the building is clean and safe for occupancy. The state's oversight only stretched as far as the problems it knew about, the officials said: The soil contamination outside.

"We did not know anything about the lead dust contamination" in 2011, said Don Hanson, a Department of Environmental Quality cleanup manager.

When the owners recently asked the state to remove all restrictions on the property's use, potentially clearing the way for residential development, Hanson said his agency pushed for more detail about the condition of the building's interior, suggesting that the owners sample for lead on surfaces given the history of the toxic metal's use there.

The test results, announced Friday, are stunning. An electrical panel in a batting cage had 4,715 times more lead than federal standards allow in buildings that kids use. The floor in a brewery waiting to open had lead levels 50 times over the limit. Of more than 20 samples, only one didn't detect lead.

Federal health officials say no amount of lead is safe for young children, who are most susceptible to its irreversible, brain-damaging effects.

One business in the building, CrossFit West Salem, offered child care to its members, state officials said. A gym representative didn't respond to a call.

The state health authority said it is not aware of any cases of lead poisoning related to the building's contamination. The Polk County Health Department will offer free blood testing March 28 for children and pregnant or nursing mothers who visited the building.

Sean Blackburn, who is listed in state records as an owner of West Salem Storage, declined comment.

The situation highlights the dangers that redeveloped industrial sites can pose long after their original tenants have vacated. It's been so long since state workplace safety regulators inspected the plant that they've destroyed the record. (No violations were found in that 1994 inspection, a state spokesman said.)

And it underscores continuing gaps in Oregon's environmental regulations. A year ago, state leaders were forced to rely on two glassmakers to voluntarily halt their use of heavy metals that had been tied to spikes in Portland air pollution.

This time, too, regulators said the building owners voluntarily complied with a request to shutter the building.

"We encouraged the building's owner to close immediately, and fortunately, the owner acted without delay," Katrina Hedberg, the Oregon state health officer, said in a statement.

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657