This story has been updated with a response from the Department of Environmental Quality.
After Gov. Kate Brown issued an unprecedented order Thursday requiring Southeast Portland's Bullseye Glass to stop burning toxic metals in unfiltered furnaces, state officials said the decision was based on a crucial new piece of data -- a one-day spike in airborne lead detected at a daycare center.
One day was one too many, they said, pointing to the potent neurotoxin's harmful effects on children's developing brains. The levels found at the Children's Creative Learning Center, a state health official said, were capable of permanently lowering a child's IQ.
"This situation with vulnerable children in close proximity clearly called for urgency," said Lynne Saxton, the Oregon Health Authority director. "This reinforces how important it is to take immediate action to protect public health if emissions become dangerous."
It marked a dramatic shift for regulators who for months have ignored the discovery of lead in Southeast Portland's air.
Monitors had already found a one-day spike of lead - nearly four months ago. And they did not act, excluding lead from subsequent rules meant to control Bullseye's toxic pollution.
Air testing released in early February found a concentration of lead Oct. 29 that was 1.6 times above the state's short-term safety goal. The state acted Thursday after finding a single reading 2.7 times higher than the standard.
Advocates said the latest action shows the state's hardening resolve with new leadership at the Department of Environmental Quality. Its former director, Dick Pedersen, resigned March 1. The agency's interim leader, Pete Shepherd, has been on the job just more than a month.
Mary Peveto, president of Neighbors for Clean Air, a Portland advocacy group, said the governor's order wasn't just a break from how environmental officials acted in February. It's a turnaround from how dismissively the agency has handled air pollution concerns for more than a decade, she said.
"The system was a sham," she said. "This is setting an earth-moving precedent. This is a massive shift in terms of what the state is now saying is actionable."
Despite neighbors' calls to immediately shut down Bullseye in February and prohibit using any heavy metals without pollution controls, the state continued allowing the company to use lead, cobalt and a handful of other toxic metals.
The environmental agency instead limited restrictions to a few metals found above long-term safety goals - levels that would increase someone's lifetime cancer risk.
Neighbors said the state's bifurcated decision - condoning some toxic metals but not others - was unsettling.
"We were terrified, knowing that they were continuing to pollute," said Jess Beebe, a nearby resident whose blood testing has found above-average lead levels. "It warranted the strong action that Kate Brown took. I wish she had done it earlier."
The delay had consequences. One parent, Amy Bacher, said she withdrew her son from the daycare because of her continuing concerns about the air there.
"If they'd acted strongly and quickly, we may have made a different decision," Bacher said. "We had a lack of faith in the state's ability to protect him from these toxics."
State regulators adopted rules in April prohibiting Bullseye and other glassmakers from burning arsenic, cadmium, nickel and hexavalent chromium without filters. The rules didn't address lead.
The Oregonian/OregonLive in March questioned top state regulators about why lead wasn't included.
Leah Feldon, now a special adviser to Shepherd, said then lead and other omitted metals had not been documented at levels of concern. The monthly average in October was within long-term safety goals.
Feldon said Sunday the state didn't act the first time because it hadn't yet adopted short-term safety goals. The state began using them in late March, after receiving the October results.
"Since we defined a 24-hour health standard for the metals," she said in an e-mail, "the agencies have been consistent in saying we will take immediate action if levels exceed 24-hour standards."
Subsequent tests have found lead concentrations that approached the state's short-term limit but didn't exceed it.
That changed Thursday, when regulators received results of air tests from May 9, when they say Bullseye used more lead than was typical and the wind was blowing toward the daycare.
"We learned that the standard for lead had been exceeded," Feldon said, "and we took immediate action."
Monitors found 416 nanograms per cubic meter, only at the daycare, not at three other nearby monitors. An even higher concentration, 669 nanograms, was found at the daycare May 10. The state found 248 nanograms in October. The state's long- and short-term safety target is 150.
Bullseye questioned whether it was the source. In a Friday statement, the company said the governor's order would eliminate 80 percent of its production and force layoffs starting Monday. It lashed out at the Department of Environmental Quality.
"Their actions show that, rather than helping a business operate in the cleanest manner possible," the company said, "they would prefer to simply close us down."
-- Rob Davis
rdavis@oregonian.com
503.294.7657