PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Keller Rohrback L.L.P. is pleased to announce that a consortium of Portland-area air quality researchers will soon be acquiring $559,000 worth of air pollution monitoring equipment as the result of a recent class action settlement.
The equipment was previously used for a two-year air monitoring program required as part of a legal settlement with Bullseye Glass Co. The 2019 settlement resulted from a class action lawsuit, brought on behalf of Southeast Portland residents by the law firms of Keller Rohrback L.L.P. and the Law Office of Karl G. Anuta, P.C. Information about the settlement is available here.
The Bullseye settlement created a $6.5 million settlement fund. The majority of the fund was distributed to Class Members. $1 million of the fund paid for the two-year-long air monitoring program in the local area. The results of the monitoring can be viewed here.
Now that the monitoring program has run its course, the Bullseye settlement requires that the equipment be donated to a local non-profit, academic, or institution working on air quality issues in the Portland area. The parties selected the Portland-area Air Quality Research Consortium to be the recipient of the equipment.
The consortium consists of faculty researchers from Portland State University and Pacific University who, according to their proposal for acquiring the equipment, intend to use it to “continue work in understanding air pollution sources and exposures in the Portland metro area,” through engaging “undergraduate and graduate students across [their] institutions in investigating air quality issues identified by community advocates, neighborhood groups and local jurisdictions, especially issues related to industrial air pollution.”
Matthew Preusch, Keller Rohrback partner and one of the attorneys who negotiated the settlement, had this to say about the donation of the equipment to the consortium: “After providing two years of detailed analysis of Southeast Portland’s air quality, this valuable equipment will now continue to benefit all Portlanders as these researchers put it to work around the city for the foreseeable future.”
Karl G. Anuta, another of the attorneys involved, commented: “More data and more transparency about Portland air quality is needed. We are excited by the Consortium’s proposal to focus on issues identified by local folks. Our hope is that this equipment, and the analysis of the data it creates, will lead to more just and equitable decisions about where pollution sources are or should be located.”
About Keller Rohrback L.L.P.
Keller Rohrback L.L.P. is a law firm with offices in seven locations throughout the country. Keller Rohrback’s environmental lawyers have a long history of successfully representing individuals and class members in a wide range of important environmental litigation. Whether working for victims of oil spills, fires, communities exposed to toxic materials, or people who purchased contaminated or defective products, Keller Rohrback’s team of experienced environmental litigators have helped to protect people and the environment across the country.
About Law Office of Karl G. Anuta, P.C.
Karl G. Anuta is a solo practitioner who has spent 30 or more years pursuing environmental and personal injury cases of various types in the Pacific Northwest.
