Failing grade for air quality at local schools [updated]

Sarah Mirk has a report in this week's Portland Mercury about how the city has made it onto another national list, only one far less pride inducing than being honored as a bike-friendly or livable city like the Rose City has in the past.

Portland, in a USA Today study of air quality in America's public schools, had several of its schools score in the top 1-3 percentile for toxicity. (Whoa, USA Today doing solid investigative reporting? I'm surprised they didn't just resort to a pie chart. I'm also thinking of a Simpsons parody of a typical USAT headline: "America's favorite pencils: #2 is #1.")

"Citywide," Mirk writes, "the amount of benzene (a cancer-causing chemical found in gasoline) is 26 times the safe standard set by the state's environmental quality experts."

"This is a picture of a city that has sacrificial zones of toxic air quality," Mary Schlick Peveto told Mirk. Peveto started the group Neighbors for Clean Air after her daughter's Northwest Portland School, Chapman Elementary, was found to have dangerous indoor air quality. 

Chapman is listed in the 2nd percentile, meaning only 1 percent of American schools have worse air quality.

The schools on the list scoring even worse, in the 1st percentile, are: Arts, Communication & Technology School on N Center Street in Portland , Clarendon Elementary on N Van Houten, George Middle School on N Burr, Two Rivers Community School on N Central, the Spanish-English International School on N Central, and the perhaps ironically named Pursuit of Wellness Education & Recreation School also on N Central.

Schools besides Chapman in the 2nd percentile: Abernethy Elementary on SE Orange Street, the Class Academy on NW Vaughn (like Chapman, it's close to Esco), Metropolitan Learning Center on NW Glisan, Portsmouth Middle School on N Willis, The Emerson School on NW Park, 

Schools in the 3rd percentile: De La Salle North Catholic High School on N Delaware Avenue, Duniway Elementary on SE Reed College Place, Holy Cross Area School on N Bowdain, James John Elementary on N Charleston, Open Meadow Middle School on N Emerald, Peninsula Elementary on N Emerald (these two are clearly affected by the industrial area below the bluff), Portland International Community School on SE Oak (too close to the Central Eastside Industrial District), Sitton Elementary on N Smith, Ball Elementary in Beaverton. 

In the case of Chapman, research by Neighbors for Clean Air found that the ESCO steel plant five blocks from the school had doubled its emissions of metals into the air from 2002 to 2007, although it violated no laws. Neighbors for Clean Air also told Mirk they have gathered 1,200 signatures demanding the factory install the best air filtration technology available.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, the state Department of Environmental Quality only has one toxic air quality monitor covering the entire city of Portland. News about city-wide air quality could actually be a lot worse, and we don't know it because we're not investing in the research to find out.

Local outrage over Portland's surprisingly poor air quality, in schools or elsewhere, isn't going unnoticed. Last Friday, six state representatives and senators held the first meeting of the newly formed Portland Air Quality Workgroup.

"But even if Neighbors for Clean Air succeeds in rallying Portland to clamp down on industrial pollution," Mirk adds, "a bigger source of benzene will still be riding high: the car-clogged freeways that cut through town cause 42 to 56 percent of the benzene in Portland's air. In Northwest, cars create 50 percent of the air's cancer-causing benzene and factories like ESCO only 16 percent, according the DEQ."

The article concludes by looking at the idea of reserving a small percentage of new highway construction budgets to go into a health care fund for those living near those highways. If that were to happen, it could set a new precedent for looking anew at curbing the health effects of automobiles and sprawl.

Comments

[Craig Williams]

Here's the USA Today link: http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/search/OR/~/portland/~/name/~/1/

[Craig Williams]

Trying again: http://tinyurl.com/mo5259

[Dan]

This is a very important topic. Thanks for writing about it! I am especially concerned as well about the lonely air quality monitoring device. In 2002, a warehouse containing monitors and computers being held for recycling burned and there was terrible acrid smoke all throughout downtown NW Portland. I was with my child and we quickly left the area. I tried to track the exposure information but the Oregonian reporter did not get very far in pursuing the story.

[Dan]

Here are the schools in Multnomah County in the 1st percentile: http://content.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/search/OR/~/Multnomah/~/rank/~/1/

[Dan]

sorry - here is the Multnomah schools link made smaller:
http://tiny.cc/Ww2lb