Despite UP’s ‘green’ efforts, a danger lurks in the air from transportation, industry pollution
By Rosemary Peters Editor-in-chief peters12@up.edu
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, you will have potentially breathed in fumes of 19 different chemicals.
The amount you inhale depends on your location, time of day, weather, wind pattern and other factors, but one fact remains: You are breathing in toxic emissions.
All 19 of these toxic emissions can cause respiratory problems.
Eighteen of these toxic emissions are known or suspected carcinogens.
Sixteen are neurotoxins and can lead to neurological issues.
According to the EPA's most recent National Air Toxic Assessment (NATA), an assessment that contains 2005 emission data for 177 pollutants, two main sources of these toxics are mobile sources and industry.
These sources affect students, staff and faculty at the University, despite UP's best efforts to live and promote a green and sustainable lifestyle.
What is three miles east of I-5, a few hundred feet south of the maritime vessels in the Willamette River and surrounded by several miles of train tracks?
If you answered the University of Portland, you're right.
Despite its picturesque setting on the bluff overlooking the Willamette River, UP's location puts it in a hotbed of air pollution from transportation sources such as maritime vessels and trains.
And don't forget to include the cars, motorcycles, minivans, sport-utility vehicles, trucks and buses taking the pedal to the metal on nearby streets and I-5.
In 2005, Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) completed the Portland Air Toxics Study (PATS), an air quality modeling study projecting air toxic concentrations for Portland up to 2017.
"We used economic growth factors that we get from the Metro economist. Consumer products, industrial growth, transportation, shipping - anything that would affect emissions," Sarah Armitage of the DEQ said. "From there we got estimated emissions for what's in the air in 2017."
DEQ's study showed that 15 air pollutants were above the health benchmarks, with eight being more than 10 times higher than health benchmarks: benzene, 1,3 butadiene, diesel particulate matter, formaldehyde, cadmium, 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, naphthalene and acrolein.
These substances, excluding acrolein, are known or suspected to cause cancer. Three of these pollutants - benzene, 1,3 butadiene and diesel particulate matter - are largely coming from the transportation sector.
"If you are within 500 meters on either side (of a freeway) there are a lot higher levels of toxic air pollutions," Armitage said. "And North Portland does have a freeway running through it."
The EPA estimates that mobile air toxic sources, such as cars or trains, account for nearly half of all cancers attributed to outdoor sources of air toxics.
The cancer issue is a significant concern for North Portland residents, as Multnomah County's air is the seventh most carcinogenic air out of the 3,000 counties surveyed in 2005 for the NATA report. Portland's air, which contains 14 carcinogens including some from mobile sources, could cause 726 extra cases of cancer for residents of Multnomah County, according to the DEQ.
In addition to containing carcinogens, Multnomah County's air is the worst in the U.S. for contributing to citizens' respiratory problems, according to the EPA.
Respiratory problems from mobile sources are largely due to a person's exposure to tiny particles called fine particulate matter. According to the EPA, diesel engines (diesel being the dominant fuel used by the commercial transportation sector) are one of the largest manmade sources of this particulate matter.
In fact, several types of diesel engines, according to the 2008 National Emissions Inventory, power the majority of commercial maritime vessels like the ones in Willamette River.
According to Armitage, diesel particulate matter was taken into account in the PATS study.
"We tracked who goes in and out of the port and the type of ship and the estimate of what they're burning while they're there, up and down the river," Armitage said. "There is some influence from shipping. They're not a huge influence on the air toxics of most concern, but the closer you get, the more impact there would be."
This increases health concerns for UP as its location along the Willamette River exposes students, faculty and staff to these maritime vessels' diesel exhaust every day.
Cancer and respiratory risks aren't only coming from air toxics from the transportation sector. The DEQ says higher concentrations of air toxics are found in areas with industrial activity.
The closer an individual is to an industry, the more exposure he or she will have to those industries' pollutants. This potentially makes the proportion of the overall air pollution he or she is experiencing from industry significantly higher than pollution from transportation sector, traditionally the larger part of an individual's exposure to air pollution.
With industrial business stretching from Swan Island to Kelley Point, there are 15 industries in the 97217 and 97203 area codes that have the potential to contribute to the University's air pollution problem, depending on daily factors such as weather and wind patterns, EPA documents show.
"Each industrial facility has a unique profile on what they emit and when they emit," Armitage said. "They are unlike other types of emissions."
There are approximately 1,400 Oregon companies that have air permits through the DEQ. These companies, including 24 near the University, are required to report to the EPA estimates of how many toxic chemicals they release as part of its Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program.
The latest report (2010) shows that industries near the University are expelling considerable levels of carcinogens, neurotoxins and emissions that increase a person's risk of respiratory problems.
Over 328,000 pounds of various toxins were emitted by companies in the North Portland neighborhood in that time. However, it should be noted that all companies in the 97203 and 97217 area codes reported to the EPA that their estimated emissions were disposed of on-site.
To track locations nationwide where dangers from air pollutants appear greatest, USA Today worked with researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute and used an EPA mathematical model called Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) and emissions data from 2005 to create "The Smokestack Effect," a measure of air toxicity in relation to public and private schools across America.
"The worst ranking schools were in North Portland," Mary Peveto, a co-founder of Neighbors for Clean Air, a nonprofit organization that fights for reducing industrial pollution, said.
Schools in North Portland ranked in the 1st through 5th percentiles, making their air some of the most toxic in the nation.
University of Portland does not appear on USA Today's Smokestack Effect, but the public school nearest UP, Astor Elementary School on Yale Street and Van Houten Avenue, is ranked in the 5th percentile nationally. Only 5,493 of the 127,809 schools included in the model had worse air, according to the 2005 NATA data from the EPA.
According to USA Today's model, manganese and manganese compounds, a neurotoxin, account for 85 percent of overall toxicity at Astor Elementary.
The study showed polluters most responsible for Astor Elementary's toxicity include Columbia Steel Casting Co Inc., Oregon Steel Mills Inc., Esco Corp, Bulk Transportation Portland Terminal and Crown Food Packaging.
The state of pollution in Portland leaves many asking what is being done about the situation.
According to Armitage, after spending a few years defining the air pollution problem and its sources, in August 2009, the DEQ conve ned the Portland Air Toxics Solutions Advisory Committee. The purpose of the committee is to recommend strategies for an air toxics reduction plan.
"We worked with the committee to see what would be feasible for reduction. We prioritized key categories and key recommendations for each category," Armitage said. "We're moving ahead in that way, but it's very slow and we are very resource challenged."
In May, the DEQ will start a public comment period to collect input from Oregonians about its plans, which may consist of regulatory and voluntary measures to reduce the air toxics causing the most health risk in the Portland region.
Air pollution by 2017
Using Department of Environmental Quality data, in March The Oregonian mapped the risk of air toxics by census block for the Metro area. The school icon represents the approximate location of the University of Portland. The map shows DEQ's estimates of average pollution in each census block by 2017 compared to benchmark health goals known as "ambient benchmark concentrations." Pollution less than 10 times the benchmarks is good; levels more than 100 times above the benchmarks raise concerns. The University is in the range of 100-150.
Pollution from industry
Each industry that emits over a pound of any chemical must report it to the EPA. The EPA calculates how these chemicals spread over every square kilometer. The distance each plume travels depends on height of the smokestacks, weight of the chemical, local topography and velocity of the chemicals.
Most of the chemicals fall very close to the plants, but some can travel for miles. The direction of the wind can also have an affect of where the chemicals fall.
Each square mile can experience pollution from several industrial sources.
