Joe Dezso stood on the sidewalk Wednesday, arms crossed, looking at the excavator next door. Its jaws snapped a rhododendron trunk. Dezso's wife was inside, breastfeeding their five-week-old boy in the living room.

"Every move that he makes with that thing, he better make it very carefully," Dezso said, watching the hydraulic arm swing around for its next target.

Two months earlier, Dezso, 33, and his wife Jenny, 35, got a notice about the demolition.

The couple wanted to know: Would their baby, mere weeks from birth at the time, be safe?

They found that nobody – not the city, not the state, not the federal government – had the power to ensure the air around their home would be free from toxic lead dust released during the demolition. And the only guarantees they could find on cancer-causing asbestos in the air were not reassuring.

A bill in the Oregon Senate could change that.

Senate Bill 871 would give Portland and other cities more power than any state or federal agency to regulate lead in demolitions, and would give them significantly expanded authority to regulate asbestos. Both materials are common in homes built before the 1980s.

A 2015 investigation by the Oregonian/OregonLive found that only about a third of homes built during that era had asbestos removed before a demolition.

The issue is a pressing one in the midst of the current housing boom, with hundreds of homes demolished every year to make way for new ones.

Senate Bill 871 would give cities the power to demand proof from contractors that they've checked for asbestos and a written promise they plan to remove it. It would also create a system to regulate lead containment in demolitions – something that no laws currently address.

Portland supports the bill. The Bureau of Development Services would likely post the asbestos documents online for the public if the bill passes and the City Council approves changes to code, said senior analyst Nancy Thorington.

The Oregon Homebuilders Association isn't opposed, said spokesman Scott Barrie. But he said the group would like the bill to include a clearer definition of lead-containment standards, as well as assurances that contractors who follow proper procedures for lead won't have their work disrupted.

The Dezsos family hopes the bill will pass and help other families like theirs.

As the Dezsos did their research about demolition rules, they kept butting against one particular fact that perplexed them: The developer got a demolition permit without proving that he would contain lead and remove asbestos.

The developer, Ivan Primachenko, said in an interview that he followed all rules and removed asbestos and lead from the house before the demolition. He said his ability to continue to get work depends on him following the rules.

The Dezsos don't dispute that the developer took steps to contain the hazardous materials. But they assert none of it would have happened if they hadn't prodded the developer.

"As first time new parents, we were very scared," Dezso said.

Gaps in existing rules

In southwest Washington, inspectors can use documents to make sure that every single demolition has had asbestos tested for and removed.

Contractors must send air pollution regulators a report showing that they have checked for asbestos before every demolition, whether or not they find the substance. If the result turns out positive for asbestos, contractors must submit a plan for removing it.

Oregon only requires half of that information. An asbestos contractor must submit a report when removing asbestos for a demolition or any other project, but contractors don't have to routinely provide proof that they searched for asbestos.

As a result, nobody can systematically compare asbestos inspections to asbestos-removal plans.

A 2015 analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found that only about 33 percent of demolished Portland homes had asbestos removed. In southwest Washington, 56 percent of demolished homes had asbestos removed.

The bill, sponsored by Michael Dembrow, D.-Portland, would give cities the authority to demand contractors submit both asbestos inspection reports and a document saying they plan to remove all the asbestos they found.

Portland officials say they don't know whether they will cross-check the two sets of documents, but they hope to post them online for neighbors to monitor.

Dembrow's bill would also tackle lead for the first time.

State rules for containing lead during a demolition are a different story from those concerning asbestos: There simply aren't any. Contractors are under no obligation to do anything about the lead in homes that they demolish.

Dembrow's bill would change that, too. It would require the Oregon Health Authority to develop "best practices" for lead containment and a certification program for contractors who do demolitions. It would then require cities that give demolition permits to only give permits to contractors that've been certified through the authority. This would apply only to homes built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned across the country.

Barrie, the homebuilders association spokesman, said his group wants the bill to guarantee that city or state agencies won't hold up work to test for lead if contractors can show they've followed best practices.

Dembrow said the bill was an important step in protecting neighborhoods.

"Residents have really legitimate concerns about the effect of debris going into the air, but also probably actually even more problematic, drifting into their yards and their gardens," Dembrow said. "It makes people very nervous."

That was the case for the Dezso family in North Portland.

A demolition in North Portland

The couple's dismay was centered around one piece of paper in Portland's permit process.

The city requires developers to fill out a form asking if they've checked for asbestos and lead and taken measures to protect people from them.

But never has the department denied a permit based on what a developer wrote on that form, said a senior analyst with the Bureau of Development Services.

In the case of the house next door to the Dezsos, developer Primachenko checked the box marked 'Does not apply/other' when asked about asbestos and lead. Next to the box, he wrote: "Hazardous material survey to be completed prior to demo start."

Joe Dezso then spent hours at the Bureau of Development Services trying to understand how the city could've approved the permit.

"Finally, we had to accept it and move on," Jenny Dezso said.

The Dezsos found a piece of the house's siding that had fallen on their property, according to an email they sent Primachenko in March. They tested the siding for asbestos. The report from the testing company says the material was 35 percent chrysotile asbestos.

An email that the couple sent Primachenko on March 9 shows they sent him the results and asked that he check the house for lead and asbestos.

Primachenko said that he was already looking for a company to test the house. A report on file with the Department of Environmental Quality shows that the developer tested for lead and asbestos March 16.

Certified Environmental Consulting found about 1,500 square feet of siding and 75 feet of duct tape that contained asbestos, according to the company's inspection report. The siding also had lead paint on it, the report said.

State records show that Oregon Abatement, an asbestos removal contractor, told environmental regulators it planned to do the work. Primachenko provided The Oregonian/OregonLive with a report from the company saying all asbestos was removed on April 13, two weeks before the demolition.

Dezso says he believes Primachenko wouldn't have done the work without the added pressure. But, in the end, his gripe isn't with Primachenko.

"The problem is not Ivan," he said. "The problem is the lack of regulation."

Legislation has support

Dembrow's bill has a wide range of support, including from Portland, Multnomah County, neighborhood activists and a physicians' organization.

"What we're looking for is some kind of ability to essentially require responsible demolitions in the city," said City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly's chief of staff, Marshall Runkel. Eudaly is the commissioner in charge of the bureau of development services.

Runkel, citing The Oregonian/OregonLive's 2015 investigation, said that the city needs strive to implement the kind of system that southwest Washington has for verifying asbestos is removed.

"Industry in Washington has clearly figured out how to do business with a rational approach to regulation," he wrote. "We should emulate its approach."

Primachenko is also fully in support.

"For safety and for a safe environment, of course this is good," Primachenko said.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

503-294-7674; @fedorzarkhin