Oregon Gov. Kate Brown acknowledged on Monday that the public had lost confidence in the environmental regulators who report to her and promised a fix for Portland's newly discovered air pollution hot spots.

"I want all Oregonians to know that I take these issues extremely seriously," Brown said, "and that I am establishing an open, science-based effort to begin to restore confidence in this critical area of government."

Yet even as the governor pushed for greater transparency from state environmental regulators in a Monday morning meeting in Salem, the agency continued to delay the release of pollution maps that could show other newly discovered hot spots, the latest example of information being slowly shared with alarmed city residents.

Brown, in a prepared statement, focused on shortcomings in law as well as on the swiftness of the state's response to the air pollution scare in Portland. She said state and federal regulation was "clearly inadequate to assure the public that their health is being protected."

Dick Pedersen, the state's top environmental regulator, sent Brown a letter in which he promised to begin tightening state rules that control industrial sources of toxic pollution, which go unregulated today. But his promise came with a major caveat: The agency needs money to do it, and the state Legislature holds the purse strings.

The governor said she expected "rapid action" from Pedersen's agency, noting that the Legislature and federal government would need to provide money. But she did not specifically commit to leading the effort to get it and set no deadlines.

Advocates questioned the aggressiveness of the governor's plan, saying deadlines for concrete actions were essential. They also noted that Brown's action plan listed both short-term actions already underway or long-term solutions that will require support of the state Legislature, which has rejected clean air fixes in the past.

"There's a huge risk putting this in the hands of the state Legislature," said Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a Northwest Portland nonprofit. "Even if DEQ and the governor are on the right side - you still have this whole other lift. That's no guarantee we actually get the program we need."

The state Legislature in 2015 stymied a plan to more tightly regulate the state's largest source of toxic air pollution: diesel engines.

As Brown outlined her plan Monday, a Portland stained glass manufacturer backtracked on its refusal to stop using a type of chromium to make glass after the governor intervened.

Bullseye Glass, a Southeast Portland glass company, voluntarily agreed to halt the use of trivalent chromium, which state regulators said could result in hexavalent chromium emissions during the manufacturing process. The carcinogenic form of the metal was made famous by the Julia Roberts movie "Erin Brockovich."

The decision, announced Monday by Brown's office, came three days after Pedersen made the request and was rejected.

Another Portland glassmaker, Uroboros Glass, immediately acceded to state demands to stop using all chromium late last week. But Bullseye issued a news release on Friday saying only that it would halt hexavalent use and calling the state's request "bizarre" and unfounded.

Chris Edmonds, a Bullseye spokesman, said Monday the company hadn't used any chromium since the state asked for the halt late last week.

Beyond asking for voluntary compliance, the state Department of Environmental Quality said it had no legal way to stop the company from continuing to use the metal, which adds color to glass.

In her statement Monday, Brown outlined the state's clearest plan to date for addressing the recent discovery of pollution hot spots in Portland. She asked regulatory officials to address potential problems in glass manufacturing while more broadly calling for tougher state and federal air pollution rules.

The federal Clean Air Act requires metropolitan areas with unsafe levels of major pollutants like ozone to clean up the air. The law doesn't require such regions to reduce smaller sources of hazardous pollutants like chromium, cadmium or arsenic. Oregon and other states do set safety goals for these airborne toxics, but the goals aren't binding.

Brown on Feb. 9 took the unusual step of ordering the top leaders of the Department of Environmental and Oregon Health Authority to respond to questions about the emerging pollution scare by week's end. She extended the deadline to Sunday when the agencies began scrambling to address the glass companies' use of products containing chromium.

The governor met Monday morning with the leaders of both agencies, a spokeswoman said. She urged them to make information available to the public as it becomes known, a problem that has plagued the state's response to date.

Environmental regulators suspected for months that unsafe levels of air pollution discovered by federal scientists in tree moss in Southeast Portland may have been connected to Bullseye Glass.

It took the Department of Environmental Quality five months to put an air monitor next to the facility.

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657