Class-Action Suit Filed Against Bullseye Glass

A class-action lawsuit on behalf of at least seven residents of Southeast Portland was filed Thursday in Multnomah County Court against Bullseye Glass.

Since it was first disclosed in early February that scientists had discovered "hot spots" of chemicals such as arsenic and cadmium and that the chemicals had been linked tentatively to Bullseye, there has been a torrent of disclosures about what the state's Department of Environmental Quality knew and when.

The head of DEQ resigned earlier this week, citing "health concerns."

The suit, filed by the Seattle based firm of Keller Rohrbach, was first reported by Willamette Week and OPB.

"Bullseye had been using the neighborhood's air and backyards as a dumping ground for the arsenic, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and other toxins it sends up its smokestacks," lawyers write in the suit.

"Notwithstanding the fact that Bullseye uses thousands of pounds each year of these toxic heavy metals in its glass furnaces, it has decided not to install any pollution control technology to capture these pollutants.

"It freely sends waste from its furnaces into the air of Southeast Portland."

A call to Bullseye was not immediately returned.

Since the hot spots were disclosed in February, Bullseye has stopped the use of arsenic, cadmium and chromium hexavalent.

Officials with the Department of Environmental Quality had maintained that they only became aware of the issue when notified by scientists from the U.S. Forest Service who had discovered high levels of metals in the moss in the area.

Bullseye also claimed to have been surprised by the findings.

Those claims, though, has been challenged by documents released by DEQ showing they had been aware there could be problems for at least 30 years.

The suit points out that Bullseye had "lobbied EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to create an exemption for glass makers of its size" so they could avoid complying with a rule that would have limited emissions.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.