The Cully neighborhood is geographically defined by the Portland International Airport to the north, NE 82nd Avenue to the east, NE 42Avenue to the west and NE Fremont/NE Prescott Streets to the south. Cully’s population of approximately 13,000 is one of the most diverse in Portland, and is comprised of 58% white, 20% Latino, 17% black, and 6% Asian residents.

In its 2014 Report Card on Racial and Ethnic Disparities, the Multnomah County Health Department noted that Cully census tracts had at least 15 percent total populations identifying as African American, Latino and Asian, and had two to three times higher than median levels of diesel particulate matter than census tracts with 90 percent or more non-Latino white populations.

A recent US Forest Service moss study identified neighborhoods with high arsenic and cadmium concentrations, caused mostly by glass plants. These contaminated areas surround General Glass, a glass plant on NE 59th Avenue, and Owens-Brockway, a glass plant near I-205, in Cully. These factories were tragically not included in the Temporary Rules that recently required four Portland glass plants including Bullseye Glass to install new pollution control equipment.

Continue reading the Cully Air Action Team factsheet.

Thanks to Greg Bourget and PortlandCleanAir for their efforts in creating this document.