Diesel emissions remain a crucial part of air quality, toxics issues

Letters to the editor By Letters to the editor OregonLive.com
on June 01, 2012 at 6:00 AM

What is conspicuously absent from the editorial "Portland's dirty secret" (May 29) is any discussion of the effects of emissions from diesel engines. Once again, Oregon lags behind Washington and California in addressing an important air toxics issue.

Why move away from addressing diesel engine emissions? Just a few years ago, the Department of Environmental Quality's website showed that diesel particulates constituted the majority of health risks from air toxics in the greater Portland area. Why has that risk gone away? The importance of the risk from diesel particulates was diminished because the DEQ selected a health benchmark for diesel particulates that is significantly less protective of public health than that used by the states of Washington and California. As a result of this arbitrary selection, the development of the resulting health risks for air toxics in the greater metropolitan area was skewed away from looking at emissions from diesel engines. Why?

During the establishment of the health benchmarks (used to calculate risk from air toxics), the Port of Portland lobbied for no health benchmark for diesel particulates because of the complexity of the issue. Why? One answer could be that major sources of diesel particulates are railroads, barges, ships, large trucks and diesel-powered construction equipment, all of which use Port of Portland facilities. These emissions all come from industrial sources. The public driving less won't diminish this health risk. Furthermore, rail traffic is projected to increase dramatically, regardless of whether the Columbia River corridor is used to ship coal to Asia.

When you wipe the black grime off your windowsills and lawn furniture, think diesel particulates and respiratory disease.

It is a shame that, once again, an opportunity to address a major public health issue, diesel particulates, has been missed by the DEQ and The Oregonian.

Bob Amundson
Southwest Portland  
Amundson is a member of the Beyond Toxics advisory board.