Here in Lane County, Oregon, the air is pretty good, and the people are tenacious to keep it that way. 

There is much to contend with, from wood burning in homes and industry, to agrarian field burning, to motor vehicle emissions.  Though it has seen considerable improvements in the past decade, the area still faces ever present threats to clean air, both societal and environmental.

(Crap air over Eugene/Springfield, a hazy medley of ozone, dust, and other pollutants.  Photo:  LRAPA.)

Last week, the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency released its 2009 annual report, reviewing an eventful past year, and detailing its $2.4 million budget.  LRAPA, based in Springfield, has been around since 1968 “to achieve and maintain clean air in Lane County, Oregon.”  The report states,

Air quality in most of Lane County is very good, with Eugene/Springfield averaging 323 days a year in the “green” category of the air quality index.

 

Over much of the year in the Willamette Valley, prevailing winds carry pollution away; but certain months see air inversions, in which pollution gets stagnated close to the ground.  In the summer, ozone is concentrated in the Valley; in the winter, it’s particulates. 

It might surprise you where the bulk of it comes from.  You and me.  LRAPA attributes most of the region’s sustained air pollution to wood-burning stoves in homes and automobiles.

(Photo:  Simone Ramella.)

“Major industries, we haven’t had that much problem with,” said Sally Markos, a LRAPA spokeswoman, “because they are fairly well controlled.”  There are 173 permitted sources of air pollution in Lane County, which LRAPA rides herd on; 154 have Air Contaminant Discharge Permits, and 19 “major” sources have Title V federal permits.

Of course, some air pollution travels into the Valley, from Portland, California, and even China. 

Micron-oscopic Little Buggers

Particulate matter is always a problem in Lane County and the Willamette Valley, said Markos.

The American Lung Association, in its 2010 State of the Air report, marked Eugene/Springfield and greater Lane County as areas suffering high short-term particle pollution. 

The largest culprit of particulates is wood-burning stoves in homes.  Unlike the large iconic point sources like factories and lumber mills, people operate their wood stoves unfettered by air permits.  Though individual use may be discreet, the sum of the parts is large enough to degrade an entire region’s air. 

(A small and simple woodstove, with no controls on its emissions.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy.)

 

Oakridge is a prime example of a town where heating homes with wood is common.  It’s a small mountain community, 40 miles southeast of Eugene.  It’s a lower income area, it’s surrounded by forest, and most people don’t have alternatives such as propane heat. 

“People consider that a really good fuel source,” said Markos “since they can get it inexpensively.”

Oakridge has been classified as a non-attainment area for particulate matter (PM10) since December 2009, meaning that for three consecutive years or more it has failed to meet EPA’s air quality standards.  Now, the Oakridge government and LRAPA must write a plan to get the area back into compliance by 2014.

LRAPA has already helped the Oakridge community to replace over 70 old stoves through its Warm Homes Clean Air Project.  This is a strategy the agency is hoping to expand with the procurement of more federal stimulus funds.

The focus of air monitoring here in Lane has largely shifted to fine particulate matter, which is also called “respirable particulate matter” because at that small size (

< 2.5 microns), the permeable membranes in the human lung will absorb many of the particles but be unable to expel them. This greatly aggravates respiratory and heart conditions.

(Image:  LRAPA.)

Fortunately, in the last 20 years, there has been a significant decrease in Lane County’s respirable particulates.
Particulates are not the only issue, though. 

(Dr. Steve Brule accidentally respires a mouthful of wasabe that’s well above EPA’s threshold for public health.  Holy guacamole!  Photo:  AdultSwim.com)

 

Air Toxics

LRAPA monitors 41 air quality parameters, from 11 sites across the county.  It looks at inherent air toxics, as well as major ambient pollutants pursuant to the Clean Air Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national standards.

Two air toxics monitoring stations are located in the city of Eugene.  The first monitor, built in 2001, sits in the middle of the beautiful Amazon park in the southern part of town, whereas the second unit went into the west side of Eugene in spring 2010, where there is considerably more pollution from industry and car traffic. 

(Image:  LRAPA.)

 

Monitoring results in Lane County show five air toxics have concentrations that have averaged above health-based Oregon benchmarks.

They are acetaldehyde, arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde, and methylene chloride.  Much of this is due to automobile exhaust, industry, and home wood burning.

State Action

LRAPA’s Director Merlyn Hough wrote,

The year 2009 proved to be a turning point for many issues related to air quality.

For instance, the state legislature passed two important bills:  the Heat Smart bill (SB 102) to reduce emissions from home wood burning, and a new field burning reduction bill (SB 528).

This supports the aggressive tack taken by Lane County against air pollution.

LRAPA has enforcement authority to issue penalties for clean air violations, such as illegal backyard burning and industrial permit violations.  In 2000, LRAPA issued 80 penalties; in 2009, that number was down to 28.  The general public, better educated and less tolerant of unhealthy activities, was to credit for the decrease in punished offenses, said Markos.  In the past five years in the southern Willamette Valley, field burning has nearly halved, and complaints have decreased 93%.

(Oil painting of field burning in the Willamette Valley.  Image:  Rabbits on Chairs via Flickr.)

 

But the local push-pull between agriculture and tough air standards could water down regulations, as the Eugene Weekly reported.  DEQ has looked into revisions of SB 528 that could allow emergency burning to eliminate pests from crops fields.

An Issue Without Boundaries

Air quality is continually a pressing issue for all of Oregon.  Lane County is not as heavily polluted as say, Portland or Boardman (the location of the state’s only coal-fired power plant); but then again, air travels.

Significant levels of summertime pollutants like ozone have been measured here in Eugene, carried on the prevailing northerly winds from Portland.  On a much larger scale, of course, the U.S. Pacific coast is right in the firing line for China’s emissions.  Obviously, it’s an issue that doesn’t honor borders, and it requires cooperative action, starting with the individual. 

“We’re all guilty,” said Markos, “People need to start looking at what they can do, and individual responsibility.”

State officials, including LRAPA, the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of and Energy, and Governor Kulongoski, are quite wary of the harm climate change could wreak on Oregon.  DOE says,

Coastal and river flooding, snow pack declines, lower summer river flows, impacts to farm and forest productivity, energy cost increases, public health effects, and increased pressures on many fish and wildlife species are some of the effects anticipated by scientists at Oregon and Washington universities.

 

LRAPA has a number of hotlines for citizens to use, including a Backyard Burning Advisory Line (541-726-3976), and a 24-hour Complaint Line (541-726-1930).  LRAPA staff investigates each complaint.