Given the news of water problems in Flint, Michigan, and our own local issues with emissions from a couple of glass manufacturing sites in Portland, a review of Portlanders’ efforts to address management of hazardous materials—primarily asbestos and lead dust—during house demolitions seems appropriate.
In mid-2014, a number of Beaumont-Wilshire residents researched the rules and regulations protecting the public’s health from exposure to hazardous materials during single-family residence demolitions. To their shock and amazement, it was discovered that the responsibility was so divided between numerous agencies that little to no accountability existed. Adding to the problem were confusing lead-based dust requirements coupled with weak asbestos regulation compliance, leaving the public to cope with potential exposure risks. But in December 2014, the Beaumont-Wilshire-launched United Neighborhoods for Reform (UNR), with support from demolition/development reform-minded neighborhoods throughout Portland, took the initiative to present a resolution addressing the growing loss of viable housing in many neighborhoods, including a key provision that called for the bolstering of safeguards regarding hazardous materials at demolition sites:
“Measures to protect Portland residents from lead, asbestos, and other contaminants resulting from demolition/development by requiring surveys for these materials and an approved plan for lawful removal and disposal before issuance of demolition permit.”
In addition, citizens lobbied and received support from State Senator Michael Dembrow to sponsor Bill SB705 requiring asbestos surveys to be performed prior to demolition on single-family residences (which had been previously been exempted from survey requirement). Temporary rules went into effect on January 1, 2016 with permanent rules now under consideration by the state’s Environmental Quality Commission.
Meanwhile, back in April 2015, due in large part to UNR’s growing influence, Portland’s Bureau of Developmental Services (BDS) initiated new rules on notification of demolitions and a requirement that contractors adhere to state and federal rules on hazardous materials inspection (albeit via self-certification). Nonetheless, in a series of Oregonian articles analyzing DEQ-supplied data in late 2015, it was revealed that compliance to asbestos rules was only confirmed in about 35% of Portland demolitions. (Separate UNR analysis of data put this figure as low as 5% in some inner neighborhoods.) Since then, UNR has been urging the City Council to adopt what many residents consider to be common-sense step forward: requiring contractors to provide proof of compliance prior to issuance of a permit…but so far without success.
Also presented in testimony before the City Council in support of the UNR resolution were results of numerous scientific studies defining the amount and distance that lead dust can travel from a demolition site. Two relatively simple actions were shown to drastically reduce the concentration and spread of lead dust: adequate wetting of debris during the entire demolition process and partial deconstruction of high-concentration elements (trim, doors, windows). A first step forward came in mid-February with the passage by City Council of a UNR-supported resolution calling for the drafting of an ordinance requiring a house or duplex built before 1916 to be deconstructed by hand instead of demolished by heavy machinery, thus preserving usable materials and preventing release of airborne contaminants. (Although two-thirds of the homes destroyed in Portland are built after 1916, the Council seems receptive to a gradual broadening of the deconstruction requirement.).
Today, interagency cooperation and communication plus verification of compliance and inspection at demolition sites, key necessities in protecting the public health, are still woefully short of the mark. Thus, UNR and concerned residents throughout the city and state continue demanding that the responsible parties live up to the trust placed in them and holding them accountable when they abuse that trust.