Concerned about air quality in Cully?
The Cully Air Action Team, www.cullycleanair.org, is asking the Cully Association of Neighbors for a letter of support toward the regulatory effort known as Cleaner Air Oregon. Neighbors and community members throughout the state are currently providing testimony to this process. Information about Cleaner Air Oregon can be found at http://cleanerair.oregon.gov/
The Cully Air Action Team believe that our neighborhood’s proximity to industry has a negative impact on our health, and should be supportive of the changes slated to come with Cleaner Air Oregon. They have drafted the following letter for CAN board members to sign.
The recommendation to sign the letter will be voted on at the next general membership meeting, Tuesday June 9 from 7 to 9 a.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church, 6025 NE Prescott St.
The letter currently reads as follows:
May 23, 2017
Governor Kate Brown DEQ Director Richard Whitman
State Capitol Building 700 NE Multnomah St., Suite 600
900 Court Street NE, 160 Portland, OR 9723
Salem, OR 97301
Environmental Quality Commission Representative Tina Kotek
700 NE Multnomah St., Suite 600 900 Court St. NE, Rm. 269
Portland, OR 97232 Salem, Oregon 97301
Representative Barbara Smith-Warner Representative Tawna Sanchez
900 Court St. NE, Rm. H-275 900 Court St. NE, H-273
Salem, Oregon 97301 Salem, Oregon 97301
Senator Michael Dembrow Senator Lew Frederick
900 Court St. NE, S-407 900 Court St. NE, S-419
Salem, Oregon 97301 Salem, Oregon 97301
Port of Portland Director Bill Wyatt (and successor in June)
Portland International Airport
7200 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97218
Dear Governor Brown and state officials,
We, the Cully Association of Neighbors, are writing to you regarding the Cleaner Air Oregon regulation process. As concerned parents and residents of the Cully Neighborhood in Portland, OR, we want state leaders to enact and enforce strong regulations against all sources of air pollution, including both stationary and mobile polluters.
It is up to all of us to leave a healthy environment in which our loved ones and children may prosper. It is crucial that we start implementing rules today that will clean and protect the air that all of us share. These rules are desperately needed for all of Oregon, but especially for the Cully neighborhood, which has been disproportionately impacted by heavy air pollution for far too long.
Tackling this problem means that all sources of pollution must be targeted, with absolutely no exceptions for any one company or individual. The rules must be equitably coded and enforced. Our neighborhood is home to many companies that emit high amounts of toxic metals into the local airshed. The glass manufacturer Owens-Brockway, located at 5850 NE 92nd Dr., Portland, OR 97220, emits 250 lbs. of lead annually. In addition, the Portland Airport emits 200 pounds of lead annually. These levels of emissions are legal under current legislation, and they are excessive, and dangerous. We already know there is no safe level for lead in a human body, given its effects on development and health. Portland Public Schools shut off all of its drinking fountains due to detected lead levels. State rules need to include the emission of lead and all other toxic metals and pollutants by industry as part of what is monitored and reported through a variety of ways and processes.
The Cully neighborhood has much heavy truck traffic, making this issue even more concerning. Current regulations are too lenient, and allow heavy trucks without proper exhaust devices to spew diesel and Particulate Matter (PM.) into the air we breathe. These trucks roam day and night along NE Columbia Blvd, US Bypass 30, and several other major roads in our neighborhood. The Cully neighborhood is also in close proximity to Interstates 205 and 84, which contribute to Cully’s air. Therefore, to improve community air quality, we insist on stricter limits for all forms of toxic air emissions. Finding a solution to clean our air and not just maintain the state in which it is currently in requires action and enforcements on the state’s part.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and again we ask that you help us by supporting and enacting strong rules and regulations when the Cleaner Air Oregon regulation comes to a vote.
Sincerely,
Laura Young, chair
On behalf of the Cully Association of Neighbors