DEQ to test for heavy metals at 6 Central Oregon facilities

In response to air quality concerns about factories in Portland, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday that it will inspect metal emissions in more than 300 industrial facilities across Oregon, including six in Central Oregon.

The department provided a list of facilities that are permitted to release a mix of heavy metals that have contributed to air quality concerns, as part of the Cleaner Air Oregon regulatory reform project. In Central Oregon, those companies include Bend Plating Inc. in Bend, Bright Wood Corp. in Madras and Contact Industries Inc. and Ochoco Manufacturing Corp., both in Prineville. Interfor U.S. Inc., a lumber company with an office in Gilchrist, is also on the list, as are two meter stations in Bend and Madras that are part of the 1,353-mile interstate natural gas pipeline operated by Gas Transmission Northwest LLC.

According to a letter from the Department of Environmental Quality that was sent to Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday, the agency compiled a list of 316 facilities that are authorized to emit metallic compounds from a variety of sources, including a list of companies operating under Title V of the federal Clean Air Act, which requires major sources of air pollutants to have an operating permit.

Brian Boling, laboratory program manager for the Department of Environmental Quality, said there is not necessarily a health concern, or even an elevated risk to air quality across Oregon, but air quality concerns in industrial parts of Portland suggested the need to gather more information on emissions statewide.

“We want to see what the data tells us,” Boling said Friday.

For the Central Oregon companies that are scheduled to be inspected, however, the upcoming tests are just another state-level inspection among many.

“Our doors are always open to the (Department of Environmental Quality),” Robert Reiten, president of Bend Plating, said Friday.

Reiten added that the company, which uses metals such as copper, nickel, chrome and zirconium to plate and finish a variety of products, occasionally receives unannounced inspections from the department. He said the inspections take place in the company’s 3,000-square-foot plating facility on SE Bridgeford Boulevard, and can range from a couple of hours to multiple days. However, Reiten said he was confident his facility was not responsible for any increased emissions.

“We’re a decorative shop, we’re not a big industrial company that’s putting out higher levels of emissions,” Reiten said.

Keith Eager, HR manager for Contact Industries, was also unconcerned. He said the company, which is based in Portland but operates a manufacturing facility in Prineville for its wood finishing business, registered for a Title V air permit to emit sawdust, but subsequently changed its emission methods. While he said it was cheaper to keep the permit than discontinue it in case the company changed its emission methods once more, it is rarely needed.

“We’re down the street from the Chamber of Commerce, so we certainly don’t want to cause any problems for the community,” Eager said.

While the inspections will affect companies across the state, they will be occurring due to ongoing concerns about the air quality in Portland. DEQ installed four air quality monitors in Southeast Portland in February surrounding Bullseye Glass, which has been at the center of air quality concerns in the city. The department added four more in north Portland in March, and switched over to collecting data 24 hours a day.

The monitors, which test for 10 different emissions from heavy metals, revealed concentrations of arsenic and hexavalent chromium — a metallic compound made famous by the movie “Erin Brockovich” — that were consistently higher than the state’s target concentration.

Hexavalent chromium dust can irritate the respiratory tract, causing congestion, asthma, chronic bronchitis and other conditions, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a federal health agency.

Jonathan Modie, an Oregon Health Authority spokesman, said the 50-day average of hexavalent chromium in Southeast Portland reached more than three times the target amount, though he emphasized that all metal emissions remained below levels that would prompt short-term health concerns.

“There is no immediate health risk,” Modie said. “That said, we want to find out where the increased emissions are coming from.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7818,

shamway@bendbulletin.com