New DEQ rules could end business for C.O. glass artists

Portland residents are still rocked by the discovery of toxic heavy metals in their air and ground. Some of that is traced back to colored-glass manufacturers in the area.

Now, new proposed regulations by the Department of Environmental Quality could have huge implications for Central Oregon glass artists like Marily Badger.

Badger displays her work at a gallery in Sunriver.

“Glass is amazing,” she said this week, holding one of her pieces.

Badger loves working with colored glass, but her line of work soon could be extinct.

“These colors are what vendors across the country are running out stock of,” Badger said, pointing to glass necklaces in orange and yellow.

Badger uses glass from Bullseye Glass Co., a colored-glass manufacturer in Portland. The company is under scrutiny after complaints that chemicals they’re using could contribute to toxins in the air.

“Currently, since the beginning of February, we have voluntarily stopped the use of arsenic cadmium and chromium,” said Jim Jones, manager at Bullseye Glass Co.

Those chemicals are used to make red, orange and yellow glass.

Jones said the company has suspended using these chemicals until they have emission control devices installed.

The DEQ is going a step further, asking for regulations that would require specific source tests — and that’s where Bullseye officials say the DEQ is going too far.

“There is a possibility that we could go out of business,” Jones said.

And so could Badger.

“I love what I do, and I wouldn’t be able to do it any more,” Badger said.

The DEQ has said it believes the tests are necessary.

“These regulations are important for public safety,” said Leah Feldon, manager at the office of compliance and enforcement at the DEQ. “We want to ensure that metals that can be toxic to personal health are restricted.”

Jones said Bullseye agrees with 95 percent of the proposed regulations, but the other 5 percent would mean they could no longer make green glass, accounting for 30 percent of their business.

“I don’t think we could be a colored-glass manufacturer without green glass,” Jones said.

Badger is scared aboutf what that could mean for her business.

“If you look at this window,” she said, pointing at a window filled with her work, “this would disappear. I would have no business.”

The public comment period on the regulations is over. The Environmental Quality Commission will be deciding on them in the coming weeks.