Tear gas at Portland protests raises concern about pollution
SALEM, Ore. ( AP) — The presence of U.S. agents has diminished in Portland, Oregon, but city o cials are still cleaning up tear gas residue from the streets, dirt and possibly the storm drains after the chemical was used frequently by both police and federal o cers during more than two months of often-violent protests over racial injustice.
The Portland Bureau of Environmental Services cleaned and took samples from six storm drains last week around the federal courthouse and a building with a police station and jail that have been targeted in nightly demonstrations. Environmental o cials aimed to prevent pollutants from reaching the Willamette River, which runs through downtown and is popular with kayakers, canoeists and boaters, and determine the possible impact if contaminants did flow into the waterway.
“There is no American city, that I am aware of, that has endured the level of tear gas,” agency spokeswoman Diane Dulken said. “We are researching and looking through environmental literature. What are these materials and their toxicity?”
Officials said they’re testing for pollutants that are found in crowd control agents such as the heavy metals zinc, lead, copper and chromium.
Dulken said there is no evidence yet of tear gas residue reaching the river, “but it’s also hard to say because there is so much unknown about the materials and so much unknown about the quantities.”
U. S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and state Rep. Karin Power sent a letter last month to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality requesting an investigation into “the public health and environmental risks of tear gas and other chemicals to people, wildlife, aquatic life and local air and water quality.”
Blumenauer and Power asked the EPA for information on what kind of chemicals federal agents used and how the residue will be cleaned up.
“We don’t know yet what has been deployed, but we aim to find out,” Power said.
The protests over racist policing often ended with a fog of tear gas as federal agents tried to disperse the crowd. Before they arrived, local police frequently deployed it. The protests started after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, dwindled to smaller groups that spread chaos and grew again when President Donald Trump sent federal agents to the liberal city in early July. Violence has persisted, but the gatherings over the last week have been much smaller and targeted local police facilities.
Demonstrators and city officials said agents’ use of tear gas was excessive, but U.S. authorities said it was necessary to protect federal property and o - cers as protesters hurled objects like cans of beans, bottles and fireworks.
Robert Griffin, who is the dean of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany in New York, said he was “a little bit appalled” by the use of tear gas.