Once again, the fine editorial staff at the Mercury has let me write a cover story about a disaster. This new piece—which Steve Humphrey lovingly refers to as “more disaster porn”—looks at what might happen to Oregon’s communications networks when the “Big One” strikes. It also examines what Oregon telecoms are doing, or not, to prepare for a calamity we’re very likely to get any time in the next 50 to 100 years, or—given that we’re overdue for a big quake—maybe even tomorrow.
So what aren’t the telecoms doing for their buildings, which house vital equipment that routes internet and phone traffic—including 911 calls? Quite a bit, it turns out.
This includes not working with state seismic planners, and, as one person in the know told me, updating their equipment to the current quake codes only when it makes economic sense. But as the new story points out, the telecoms’ biggest earthquake liabilities are their seismically vulnerable buildings.
These are buildings that, for the most part, were built mid-century or earlier. They predate the current seismic codes. And it’s unclear what, if any, retrofitting has been done to them. In other words, what we’re talking about is a lot of really new high-tech stuff—including some equipment that’s already up to the current seismic specs—housed in low-tech shells that aren’t expected to perform well in a big quake.
In fact, they might even collapse entirely. And, experts say, it could take years to replace them and get our data-hungry communications networks even close to where they are now.
So why haven’t these buildings been updated, aside from the fact it would presumably cost the telecoms a lot of money? Well, it’s because legally they don’t have to.
According to Oregon building codes, the rule is, if an old building has been used continuously for the same purpose (“occupancy” in the lingo), the building is legally exempt from having to be upgraded to the current building codes, which started taking large earthquakes into consideration only in the 1990s.
That means if a building’s been used as, say, a telecommunications hub since the late 1960s and is still being used for that purpose—like CenturyLink’s office at 735 SW Stark in downtown Portland appears to be—it does not need to be retrofitted to the current standards. That holds true even if the building changes owners.
With one exception, this seems to be the case with CenturyLink’s Stark office, which is one of these important 911 routing centers.
The office is a bit of a black hole, at least based on the information listed in the city’s buildings database. While less important buildings bare all, including when they were built and how much they’re worth, CenturyLink’s Stark office is a bit of a prude. But you can learn a lot by looking at a building’s nasty bits.
According to its plumbing records, the CenturyLink office was built in the late ’60s for Pacific Northwest Bell. For the most part, it has a solid history of listings as a telecom building, though it might have briefly been an office building in the mid-1980s (or was mislabeled by plumbing inspectors as an office building).
From there it was passed on to US West Communications, which later became Qwest, which later became CenturyLink. In other words, the line of succession ensures the building was probably used for the same purpose, and that purpose predates the new and safer codes. But that doesn’t mean the building hasn’t had some work done.
A CenturyLink spokesman wasn’t able to confirm if any seismic work had been done to the building. However the Mercury was able to track down an engineer who did confirm that building had been worked on; he says that work was done voluntarily by its owner. According to this engineer, the work involved some minor seismic upgrades, but nothing big.
I’m planning a trip to the records office for what will be a long day of filing through piles of microfiche to find out for sure. But seismic experts say you don’t need to look at each building to know how they will perform in a large earthquake, instead you can just look at when the building was built. If it’s pre-1990, it’s probably not going to do well in a large quake.
As for if and when this and other important buildings will be retrofitted, or replaced entirely, that decision is now in the hands of Oregon lawmakers.
The Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advisory Commission (OSSPAC) recently went to Salem to lay on lawmakers what ended up being a very large and not-so-good-looking assessment of just how bad the coming 9.0 disaster will be.
Included in their tome were several recommendations, one of them that telecom buildings be held to the same high seismic standards as emergency facilities like hospitals and fire stations. As one CenturyLink employee put it, that “could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.” But who will pay this billion-dollar-cost is another story.
OSSPAC is currently recommending the Oregon Public Utility Commission—the state agency with the right to set utility rates—oversee the upgrading of the state’s telecoms to the emergency standard. This change—and upgrades to the electric and gas utilities, which also need seismic work—are probably going to be paid for largely through rate increases to utility consumers, meaning you and me.
This we-pay-so-the-utilities-don’t-have-to scenario might not seem ideal, but say OSSPAC members, it’s what’s politically feasible. The group is also recommending these rate increases and the work they’ll fund be extended over an equally politically feasible 50-year period.
When that time frame starts now depends on how quickly Oregon lawmakers to decide to act.
Here’s hoping we have that much time.
This is possibly the best thing the Mercury has ever published! Please do more disaster-readiness mixed with public property records reporting. It’s like Giles looked into my brain and wrote my dreams.
It would be horrible if every building had to be rebuilt to meet every new building code. Jesus – do you own a home? Would you like to get a letter saying that you had to enlarge all your windows this year, at your own expense? Or increase the size of your foundation timbers? I’m sure something changes in the codes every year – nobody could afford that. There wouldn’t be a single homeowner in the city.
@Reymont: So you’re saying that property owners shouldn’t have to make necessary improvements if they weren’t required at the time the property was built?
Retrofitting an average Portland home costs a lot less. This is one of Commissioner Novick’s priorities… http://www.portlandoregon.gov/novick/artic…
@Graham – Sure, with the standard caveats that the article mentioned – changes in ownership, or in use. I can’t buy a barn built in 1919 and turn it into a daycare without rather significant changes. But if I’ve owned and used it that long, I shouldn’t have to remodel it every year to reflect the newest barn building code changes.
@Paul – $3,400 to comply with this year’s seismic regulations. What about all the other building codes? Paint? Materials? Foundation? Windows? What about next year’s seismic regulations? There’d be a neverending series of changes.
Hell, one of my buildings is flush against the sidewalk, because it was there before the city required setbacks. I think that’s no longer the case, so Graham and Nathan seem to be suggesting that I need to pay to have it torn down or moved back 10 feet, because they’ve changed the codes since it was built.
@reymont: I’m glad I don’t lease any property from you. You’re essentially a slumlord if you don’t believe you need to make neccesary safety improvements because of legal loopholes.
@Graham – You’re totally right, I should definitely tear down that building to comply with the new offset laws.
I think this story is more about fixing up the buildings that route 911 calls and the internet. And why that’s extremely urgent. And not anyone’s apartment buildings. That’s your ass. Not mine. Telecom is everybody’s asses. Mine and yours.
I mean, Graham, I just don’t think you understand the scope of the changes they’re talking about. Remember when they used lead paint? Okay, so that changes and you want every owner to scrape EVERYTHING down to bare wood and repaint. Then, they make the process a bit harder – nowadays, you have to get pass a “lead free” chemical analysis test. So when they implemented that test, you’d have to scrape EVERYTHING back down and repaint again. And then AGAIN when they switched to the low-VOC paint.
Now interior walls can’t have more than 18″ between joists? Tear down every interior wall and rebuild the house. The law changes again a few years later to 16″? Do it again. Otherwise Graham will call you a slumlord.
Wood foundation posts smaller than 8″x8″ aren’t allowed to touch bare dirt anymore, so tear out the foundation and start over. Then nothing smaller than 6″x6″. Tear it all out again. Then no wood foundation posts at all – tear everything down to the foundation again and rebuilt again. No one can live in the house while any of this is being done, by the way…
Exit windows in bedrooms have to be over a certain size – kick everyone out of that bedroom, tear open the wall, and put in a bigger one. Then, when they increase the size a few years later, do it again. And then again, when they say they have to be within 20″ of the floor. And then again when they make it 16″.
Change the amount of overhang required by the roof? Fine, everyone has to move out of every house in town while all the roofs are raised.
No more blown-in insulation allowed in the attic? Get a dustbuster and a pair of tweezers, and get up there and spend about 3 months collecting it all before putting in the newest “approved” insulation.
It’s just a ridiculous concept – you’d never “finish” any house long enough to move into it. It’d just be constant rebuilding. No one could afford to keep up with it all.
Think of all the times you would have had to completely replace the wiring in your house, and the plumbing, too! We went from knob-and-tube to coax to modern cable, with multiple steps between. And the same advances in plumbing. That’s a dozen times moving out and tearing open every wall, for weeks at a time. Ridiculous! But otherwise Graham would call you a slumlord!
@Reymont: You’re the one obsessed with offset laws. EVERYONE ELSE IS TALKING ABOUT SAFETY REQUIREMENTS. When there’s an earthquake and one of your properties collapses and kills everyone, what’s your response to their family and loved ones going to be? “I’m sorry I didn’t make seismic upgrades to that home, I was too cheap to care about the well being of your family.”
@Graham – Every building code, offset laws included, ultimately are for safety. Every single one.
@Reymont: So you shouldn’t be required to keep the properties you own in a safe condition because? Because why? It’s too onerous for you to comply with the law?
EXPLAIN TO ME IN SMALL WORDS WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH SAFETY LAWS. THEN EXPLAIN TO US WHY THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR ROUTING SAFETY AND EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SHOULDN’T BE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAW.
Do you provide your tenants with fire extinguishers and smoke detectors? Or do you think the laws requiring those are too difficult to comply with? Where is the “Magic Reymont Line of Too Tough to Comply”? Why are you so antithetical to the whole idea of a social safety net that keeps us all safe?
I haven’t seen Reymont this riled up since Randy Leonard left office.
It’s telling – at least to me – that city hall got gutted and totally redone with seismic improvements, then the federal building got totally rebuilt. The one they tore down wasn’t really that old…