The Portland park bureau is doing asbestos testing now?
The Parkrose K-Mart store had become a pretty depressing place, even before it closed. I remember going in there for something, maybe 10 yerars ago, and thinking how run-down the whole place looked and felt. When the store closed and sat empty, the scene became even more of a downer as the building became covered in ugly, inane graffiti. Then the squatters moved in, homeless drug addicts no doubt, and last week they managed to burn the place down.
There was a lot of wicked smoke from the fire, and neighbors started getting worried about what they were breathing. I don't blame them.
But that is where the story got bizarre as well as bleak. The smart new guy at the Weed fills us in:
Last Thursday, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality put out a press release saying, “Debris at Luuwit View Park has already been tested and identified as containing asbestos.”
That round of testing was done by Portland Parks & Recreation, DEQ spokesman Harry Esteve says. Parks tested nine samples, and one of them came back with a high level of asbestos. Newer analyses of both air and debris done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are showing much lower levels of the carcinogen.
“Preliminary results are showing little to no asbestos,” Esteve says. DEQ expects to have final results as soon as today, he adds.
Wait, the Portland parks department has equipment and personnel sitting around that can collect nine samples of material and test them for asbestos at a moment's notice? Really?
You talk about your mission creep. When Commissioner Dan Ryan and the bureaucrats come around asking for a property tax levy for basic park maintenance, I'll keep that in mind.
How convenient for the owners. They needed it torn down but who has time for that whole process of permits, recycling, DEQ red tape and hazardous materials abatement. Just let the taxpayers cover it with another mysterious fire...
ReplyDeleteNothing to see here folks move along.
DeleteThe story in the WW says the demo permit had been granted. The owners were waiting on the building permit to be granted before proceeding with the demo. Of course, the City was dragging its feet on that for .
DeleteIt appears to me that the owners were playing by the rules. The City was not. Meanwhile the place became infested with drug addicts (that the City surely knew about but ignored). One of them lit a fire and burned the place to the ground. The owners are still on the hook to clean up the considerable mess that's left.
I thought the indigenous name for Mt. St. Helens was “Loowit”. So which is it “Luuwit” or “Loowit”?
DeleteGood luck collecting on an abandon building fire in Portland.
DeleteLouwala-Clough
DeleteOn top of all that, if they did do testing, they botched the job. Both the DEQ & the EPA (agencies with far more experience at this), contradicted Parks' assessment straightaway. Just reason #173245 to NOT vote for any bonds or tax levies. Even when Portland has the money, they waste it.
ReplyDeleteYes, and the Water Bureau is now in charge of processing building permits. In Portland, anything can happen!
ReplyDeleteWonders never cease.
DeleteYa just can’t make this stuff up.
The entire worry over asbestos from the fire is concocted nonsense. There is no record of any asbestos illnesses from any incidental exposure to asbestos. Not even from any residential construction or demolition. Let alone from blowing next door.
ReplyDeleteALL of the history of Asbestosis has been from industrial level exposures. Factories, shipyards etc where workers have long term daily exposures. All of the municipal panic over the minor presence of asbestos in some old building materials has been a foolish farce.