40 yrs. after smelter closes, DEQ tests for lead, upsetting residents
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PORTLAND, Ore. - Residents near a closed-down metal smelter are concerned and angry after lead contamination was discovered there.
Multnomah Metal Co. Works went out of business in the mid-1970s and today there's no sign of it to the naked eye in the Johns Landing neighborhood.
State scientists with the Department of Environmental Quality are trying to figure out if the lead in the soil is a health concern. But some who live in the neighborhood wish the state had never gotten involved and everyone just left it alone.
The lead came from the small smelter that used to sit where a duplex now stands, and it melted all sorts of metals. It was in business for 65 years before shutting down in 1975. Then it was demolished.
Geologist Ken Cameron and project manager Scott Manzano are taking preliminary soil readings at 20 properties over two days using a hand-held X-ray gun. The instrument analyzes frequencies in light and will tell scientists the lead level in the soil.
According to the DEQ, lead levels over 400 parts per million are a cause for health concerns. At the former smelter location the scientist measured levels of 1000 parts per million. Next door, they found the levels were between 200 and 600 and a block away levels were between 200 and 500 parts per million.
"We're seeing pretty high concentrations at the property (duplex) itself, but then when you move immediately away (there's) significantly less concentration," said Manzano.
Several neighbors said they're concerned about what happens to their property values when prospective buyers learn about the lead. Some neighbors also said there's some bad blood between people who want the DEQ to step in and others who wish the contamination wasn't brought to the state's attention.
Dawn Lewis lives in the house that sits on the old smelter site. Like several other neighbors she said she thinks DEQ should have left the lead issue alone after so many years have gone by.
"I think it's a lot of wasted money, and I think a lot of homeowners are losing their equity in their homes," she said. "You'd have to literally ingest the lead and we're not eating the lead."
According to the DEQ, cleanup could include removing soil or it could be as simple as covering it with a thin barrier-like landscaping tarp.
"We're assuming there're some properties that may have to have some action and DEQ would plan to pay for it," Manzano said. "If we can't afford it, we'd ask EPA to help us with that."
DEQ will announce a cleanup plan in September.
I'm going to guess that if you don't eat the dirt, you'll be okay.
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The DEQ is just trying to justify their existence.
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 @feministdolphinbuddha Who are "You people"? Are you talking about people who have lived long enough to have grown up in a home with lead paint? Or perhaps living with DDT? ( an excellent pesticide that was outlawed because people created false reports about it's effect?) Or any of the other "horrible, dangerous poisons" that have existed for eons?
Or could it be you mean "You People" as the ones who don't need the government to follow around behind them, or lead them around telling them that every little thing in the world is harmful or bad or could be bad, if you are a rat and fed a millions times the exposure that a person would get in their lifetime.
How do you think previous generations ever lived long enough to have kids, or grandkids, the foundation of today's generations, if all of these horrible things weren't pointed out to them by the government?
Some neighbors also said there's some bad blood between people who want the DEQ to step in and others who wish the contamination wasn't brought to the state's attention. Those who wish that the contamination wasn't brought to the state's attention are clearly victims of lead poisoning. No other excuse for their complete stupidity.
I was raised in California. In a little town called Alviso at the bottom of San Francisco Bay, they found that the natural levels of Asbestos was so high that it exceeded the EPA standards. The schools had to pave over all the grass so that the children playing at recess wouldn't "disturb" the dirt.
Don't eat the dirt.
If they test the soil anywhere, they will find lead contamination...the lead in auto fuel is the same chemically, and all the cars up until unleaded gas produced a continuous stream of it. They did not say the went 5 miles away and checked, nor alongside of the roads, though most of that from cars has probably washed away by now. Good the neighborhood knows though, so they can get the kids and themselves to wash thier hands more often. Playing in contaminated dirt, or handling anything with lead, then eating without washing is the most common way of getting lead poisoning.
Superfund site... "Billions could be up for grabs in Superfund cleanup" "The EPA has studied harbor cleanup issues since 2000, when high contaminant levels led the agency to label it a high-priority Superfund site. The agency is set to release its final recommendations in 2013." Only 13 years to release a recommendation? Sounds like government. http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2012/05/04/billions-could-be-up-for-grabs-in.html?page=all
Gosh, if I was a home buyer, I would want to know of potential health risks to my family. Â Lead in soil is *probably* not a huge deal - it has the potential to be ingested if a child plays directly in the dirt, or if you plant a garden there, but in a duplex environment, that is not so likely to happen. Â Still, I would want to know. Â It's one thing if no one is aware of it, but quite another if people know of the lead but don't disclose it because of concern for property values.
Not enough regulation just what the Republicans don't want.
"State scientists with the Department of Environmental Quality are trying to figure out if the lead in the soil is a health concern. But some who live in the neighborhood wish the state had never gotten involved and everyone just left it alone."
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The same people who wish DEQ had never gotten involved would be the first to scream if they or their children suffered medical problems due to lead. Then it would be the government did not do enough to protect us.
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If buyers performed due diligence prior to buying and/or building then the environmental assessment should have revealed the prior history and triggered a soil analysis.
Wonder when the DEQ will get around to testing the Willamette river for raw sewage, everytime it rains......  Problem i see it is the picking and choosing of the projects they take on. Often times the DEQ and particualrly the EPA is used for political reasons.
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I am in favor of revoking all powers of the EPA - they are indeed a rogue agency.
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 @Quaoptic Equally bad???  Are you taking the position, that knowing that the soil your home is built on is contaminated, is bad? Or am I just misunderstanding your point?  Because knowing the soil is contaminated prior to purchasing a home seems like a reasonable request to me.  If you are angry that you bought it and didn't know, shouldn't you sue the company that bought the polluting company and outsourced their jobs to a more friendly country like china?
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 @Quaoptic I mean if you know it is contaminated and still want to buy it, then okay, but at least you know the risk you are taking...Isn't that fair?
Next up - DEQ will petition for more money to sample dirt from areas closed 60 years ago. Â
@SerenityWow Nothing could be as poisoned as your view of reality...
And thats just sad...
 @cptmac11  @SerenityWow I do not equate critical thought process to poisoned reality.  The Oregon DEQ ppm listed do nto remotely jive with the EPA standards which allow for up to 1200 in yards other that specific children's play areas (where they eat dirt). Â
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I am very much pro-environment, but I am also anti-inflated government.  I see this as an attempt by the Oregon DEQ to implement a standard higher than federal while sending alarmist public waves in an attempt to make the public think they are mitigating some false risk.  Lead paint was banned in 1978 which means some of the houses on that spot could conceivably be filled with lead already.  BTW - lead is still used in road paint which means those flakes all over the road which get in the run off are going directly into the river and ultimately settling in our own little Superfund site that is the Willamette.  From my view it would do a heck of a lot more mitigation to a heck of a lot more people to find a way to stop that.  I only hope some privately funded company succeeds in finding a lead free road paint option as I am sure the government would be more than happy to use it one technology catches up to the need.  EPA standards:http://epa.gov/lead/pubs/leadhaz.htm Â
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The entire waterfront area is contaminated with heavy metals. Everybody knows that.
 @portlandborn83 @Rob C I think you have some misplaced anger going on here.  You really should be mad at the corporations who poisoned  the soil to begin with. Granted the testing should have happened 40 years ago, but you should be happy to at least know the potential hazards present on your property, and any prospective buyer from you.  The next person buying the land from you should know the hazard before making an offer on the property in all fairness don't you think?  And as for the government run healthcare, most seniors like their Medicare, and I personally think it should be for all citizens. And the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare, has NOTHING to do with healthcare, it is about INSURANCE!!!  Please read a newspaper and stop watching just the one source of TV news you do... I can only guess its FOX...
@B-Man.......nice guess, but not always FOX. I don't have the time or inclination to tell you about the fraud I experienced with Medicare in caring for my Mom. And by 1972 (40 years ago) we knew the dangers of lead. Apparently Oregons DEQ didn't get the message.
 @Rob C We knew the dangers of Asbestos too, but that didn't stop the company my dad worked for from killing him with their toxic crap. Takes 30 years for the Cancer to rear its ugly head and then just 5 to kill...Company says they didn't know... Fraud can be found in any system or program either private or government. As long as people are part of the equation, the potential for fraud, waste or abuse exists.
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I can understand the pain of fraud your family experienced with Medicare, so I ask you, based on your experience, would you scrap it for everyone else and have people make their own way, or try to make it better for everyone else?
@cvyoung But thats a republican party platform....
To ensure that "fly-by-night" agents do saturate an area, collect premiums and then disappear.
@Rob C You probably wouldn't want to unregulate insurance at the state level. There are lots of checks and balances in the system, and most of the regulations are recommended by the National Insurance Commission and are pretty well uniform across the nation. Why can't an agent write a policy without being licensed in the state? To ensure that "fly-by-night" agents don't saturate an area, collect premiums and then disappear. To be licensed, you need to take a test to prove you know at least the basics, and have a "clean" Background Investigation. No Felons need apply, and most infractions of the insurance codes can result in a felony conviction, effectively ending your career.
@B-Man .....damn good question. I mean that. My first inclination is to eliminate the old and arcane state laws that regulate insurance. I'm sure you're aware that even travel insurance underwriters can't write the same policy state to state. Same with health insurers. So, I'd let any health care provider the license to write policy's in any stae and make it a competitive process.
Ya, its pretty sad it took 40 years for them to test this site for the first time. Â They are testing 20 sites total. Â I bet there are many more places where the soil doesn't have lead but some other contaminant. Â Come on DEQ do your job!
Another bang up job by a government bureaucracy. 40 years? Amazing! Let's let government run healthcare.