An interesting story is playing out in Northwest Portland, where Oregon DEQ has seriously backpedaled on a statement it made about air toxins from the ESCO foundry.
According to the NW Examiner, DEQ told residents almost a year ago that air pollution from the foundry was “only a sliver of the area’s air pollution.” But now DEQ is saying that it’s much higher, and for people who live close to ESCO, 95% of the toxins they breathe come from the foundry.
Another surprising fact from the paper, emissions of lead from ESCO increased 32-fold from 2001 to 2007.
For more information see the NW Examiner website and look for the March edition. The story is on the front page and was written by Paul Koberstein of Cascadia Times. And a big thanks to Mary Peveto, who runs the PDXAIR blog. I came across this story because she was tweeting about it.
