Media Contact: Gregory Sotir, Cully Air Action Team-CAAT, gsotir@cullycleanair.org

June, 30, 2022 After six long years, the Cully Air Action Team (CAAT) is pleased that Owens-Brockway Glass Plant #21 has decided to install filters at the facility off NE Killingsworth by I-205 freeway. Oregon has regulatory environmental laws in place for a purpose, and that purpose is to protect the health and safety of Oregonians regardless of economic status, race, or zip code. CAAT is pleased that Oregon DEQ exercised the regulatory options that pushed Owens-Brockway to install filters for the first time in the company’s 66 year history. CAAT is also happy that union jobs will be preserved at the plant because union jobs mean stable homes in a market that is pricing out local residents. We applaud Owens-Illinois for making the right decision at the Owens-Brockway facility to protect the health and well-being of the community, its own workers, and the local flora and fauna.

CAAT continues to encourage Owens-Brockway to install the best available heath protective control technology and have independently determined that technology to be industrial CCF (ceramic catalyst filters). These filters will capture ambient metal emissions such as Lead, Arsenic, and Cadmium as well as others, and some Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). The CCF technology will bring the Owens-Brockway facility into the 21st century and allow them to become a good neighbor to all residents in, and visitors to, the Cully community as the facility continues to recycle glass and provide the local glass industries with products. Cheers!

CAAT will continue to monitor for noticeable effects on the airshed as the emission filtering technology is installed and wish the company great speed, and success, in installing and using these advanced air pollution reduction tools. 

Cully Air Action Team is an organization of community members from Portland’s Cully neighborhood that focuses on addressing ongoing air pollution and toxicity in that area.