Ted Wheeler talks with Editorial Board

Oregon Treasurer and Portland mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler criticized state environmental regulators' delay in notifying city residents that they were breathing dirty air.

(File/The Oregonian)

Oregon Treasurer and Portland mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler sharply criticized the state's environmental regulator Tuesday, saying its handling of toxic air pollution in Southeast Portland lacked urgency and leadership.

"What we are learning from Flint, Michigan, where the water is unusable because of high levels of lead, is that bad things happen when regulators are asleep at the switch," Wheeler said in a news release. "It's unconscionable that Oregon regulators knew about the air pollution for three years, but didn't seem to make any real attempt to locate the source."

Wheeler's comments added to a growing chorus of criticism of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's delay in notifying Portlanders they were breathing air that was far more dangerous than anyone suspected.

The environmental agency is participating in a meeting to answer residents' questions tonight, Feb. 9, at Cleveland High School from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"DEQ regrets that there are many inaccuracies in his statement and we're following up with Ted Wheeler's campaign," said Marcia Danab, an agency spokeswoman.

Asked whether the agency could specify what Wheeler had gotten wrong, Danab replied: "We can't at this time."

Danab said she was rushing to tonight's meeting.

As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last week, the agency learned about two toxic air pollution hot spots in the city last May. The largest was near Bullseye Glass, a Southeast Portland glassmaker at 3722 SE 21st Ave. A second was found between Interstate 5 and the Fremont Bridge, near another glassmaker, Uroboros Glass.

Federal researchers analyzing moss samples from nearly 350 trees citywide found concentrations of metals so alarming they felt compelled to notify state environmental regulators right away. They were worried enough to circumvent their traditional process, relaying the information before it had been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

But it took five months for the agency to deploy an air monitor next to the largest hot spot and another three months to get testing results back. The agency didn't alert the public until hours before the Portland Mercury broke news of the discovery Feb. 3.

Since then, the Department of Environmental Quality, which enforces the federal Clean Air Act, has struggled to answer some questions. The agency took four days to acknowledge that federal scientists had delivered the testing results eight months before they were made public. It hasn't articulated an exact plan for investigating the second hotspot, between the Fremont Bridge and Interstate 5.

While agency employees have said they have little legal recourse to halt the use of cadmium in glass production, the two glassmakers in or near the hot spots almost immediately suspended using the metal after the news became public, raising questions about whether residents could've breathed cleaner air months sooner.

Wheeler said the agency didn't act with enough urgency. "Some in state government said they were glad the emissions had stopped - glad isn't good enough," he said in the release.

Environmental advocates have long complained about the agency's complacency in cleaning up Oregon's dirty air. Regulators have known for a decade that Portland's air contained unexpectedly high levels of cadmium pollution, but have taken few concrete steps to reduce it.

Advocates say the latest problem is part of a systemic failure.

"There is a pattern of inadequate regulatory oversight," said Mark Riskedahl, executive director of the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. "The public right to know in a situation like this has to be elevated."

Cadmium is just one of many air pollution problems the agency has been slow to fix. A 2015 investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive found the agency failed to live up to its promises to reduce cancerous diesel pollution in the air.

Unlike neighboring West Coast states, Oregon has invested almost no money in getting old, dirty school buses off the road, leaving tens of thousands of children with greater chances of getting cancer in their life just from breathing the air on the bus each day.

California air regulators have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on cleaner buses. Washington regulators invested tens of millions.

The Oregon agency has spent less than $1 million in the last decade.

The agency's slow movement on diesel has left the state lagging its neighbors in fixing one of its most life-threatening air pollution problems.

When a proposal came before the state Legislature in 2015 to tighten diesel regulations, the Department of Environmental Quality didn't take a formal stand, instead declaring itself neutral.

Advocates say they are running out of patience with the agency and its director, Dick Pedersen.

"This is near criminal incompetence," said Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a Northwest Portland nonprofit. "If this was a baseball team, I'm pretty sure we'd have a new manager by now."

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657