Bullseye Glass has filed a $30 million lawsuit against Gov. Kate Brown and her top environmental regulator, claiming they conspired to launch an unprecedented crackdown on the Southeast Portland art glass maker to mask the state's own lax record of environmental protection.

The low-profile company was caught up in an environmental and political furor in 2016 when its air emissions were linked to elevated levels of certain toxic metals in inner Southeast Portland. Local residents were warned not to eat vegetables from their gardens.

"No Oregon business has ever been treated the way Bullseye was treated," the company claims. "Bullseye was shut down, and its goodwill and good name were irreparably damaged, by defendants' actions."

Besides Brown, the defendants include Richard Whitman, director of the Department of Environmental Quality; Pat Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority; and the Multnomah County Health Department.

Allan Garten, a former federal prosecutor who came out of retirement to represent Bullseye, said the company was always in compliance with its air emissions agreement with the Department of Environmental Quality. But Brown and Whitman, the DEQ director, needed a political win and saw Bullseye as a convenient scapegoat, the lawsuit alleges.

Bullseye claims Brown, Whitman and others leaked questionable data to the news media, setting off an environmental hysteria.

Brown, through a spokeswoman, declined an opportunity to weigh in on the allegations. "We cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation," said Kate Kondayen, Brown's press secretary. "However, Governor Brown is dedicated to ensuring clean air and water for Oregonians."

The Oregon Health Authority also declined to comment. Whitman could not be reached.

Bullseye is now attempting to turn the tables and put the state's environmental program on trial. "This case is about abuse of governmental power," Bullseye states in its complaint. "It is about Oregon's government coddling huge industries with deep pockets and political ties, and allowing them to dump hundreds of millions of pounds of industrial pollutants and hazardous substances into Oregon's air. And it is about how Oregon's government — when its lax enforcement and history of neglect got exposed —rushed to judgment and irrationally turned the full weight of its administrative and punitive powers on a small business, not the real polluters."

Environmentalists may well agree with Bullseye on some of those points. But some opponents argue the suit is just a ploy to distract from the company's own actions.

A group of neighbors who've filed their own civil action against Bullseye claim they've gained evidence in the discovery process that proves the company "knew the metals it used to create colored glass were harmful to human health (and) knew the emissions from the furnaces in which it melted those metals created toxic emissions, and (until very recently) decided to do nothing about it."

Bullseye officials point out they've spent $1.5 million upgrading their factory which has nearly eliminated cadmium, lead and other toxic metals from its emissions.

Rather than make common cause with other businesses regulated by the state, Bullseye calls out by name five other Oregon businesses that it claims have dumped tons of pollution into the state's air and water with little if any repercussions.

Bullseye devotes 15 pages of its 88-page complaint to the environmental records of Esco in Northwest Portland, Hollingsworth and Vose in Corvallis, and Amerities of The Dalles. In each case, Bullseye claims, their inauspicious environmental records have been met with kid-glove treatment from the Department of Environmental Quality.

In the case of Bullseye, which claims its emissions were a small fraction of the three larger companies, the state's response was much different.

The public firestorm began when researchers found high levels of heavy metals in certain mosses in Southeast Portland. Suspicion quickly focused on Bullseye's factory.

Bullseye claims it agreed early in 2016 to install state-of-the-art emissions controls. But negotiations dragged on for months. The Department of Environmental Quality informed Bullseye it would now be subject to federal rule 6S, which governs allowable emissions at large glass factories.

Years before, Bullseye had been granted an exemption from the rule due to its relatively small size. It was state regulators who suggested the company seek the exemption.

Nevertheless, in April 2016, the state threatened to fine Bullseye $1.5 million for not complying with the federal rule since 2010.

On May 19, the state issued a cease and desist order prohibiting Bullseye from using eight different metals. It effectively shut down the company.

Bullseye owners and the state finally reached a deal on June 6, 2016.

In May, the Multnomah County Health Department recommended and offered free lead testing for children and pregnant women within one-half mile of Bullseye. All of the 192 people tested had normal levels of lead in their blood.

-- Jeff Manning