CLEAN AIR NEWSLINE

November 2005 Edition

In this issue:

Stagnant weather could bring season?s first burn ban
Keep an eye on air quality this winter
Manufactured logs are a clean-burning option for holiday fires
Local employers among the nation?s top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters
Our daily actions affect our urban environment ? here?s help to make yours a positive impact

Stagnant weather could bring season’s first burn ban

A ridge of high pressure is building over our region this week, acting like a lid to trap the pollutants we all generate every day by driving and burning. The conditions are expected to continue into next week and could lead to the season’s first burn ban by the end of the week. Our air monitoring network is already detecting increased pollution levels in areas where heating with wood is common.

Early voluntary actions could help avoid a burn ban, or at least delay it. Among the actions you can take starting today are:

Avoid any unnecessary burning until the weather changes.
If you heat with wood, be sure to burn small, hot fires. You’ll get maximum heat with minimum smoke. Smoke is unburned fuel, like money going up your chimney.
Drive less, if possible. Take the bus, share a ride, telework.

If we call a burn ban, no burning is allowed in uncertified wood stoves or open fireplaces, and all outdoor burning is banned, even in areas where it is still allowed, until the ban is lifted. You can sign up to be notified of a burn ban on our Web site — www.pscleanair.org – and click on “sign up for clean air news.”

Keep an eye on air quality this winter

Our agency’s meteorologist says we can expect a “typical winter” this year. That means alternating periods of wet, blustery weather and calm, stagnant weather -- the kind that causes pollution levels to rise. He says we can generally expect five to seven stagnant periods each winter that can vary from 48 hours to more than a week.

You can keep on eye on both current air quality and on two-day air forecasts on our Web site –
www.pscleanair.org. You’ll find both of them at the top of the “Noteworthy” column on our home page.

We issue the forecast to give people with health problems impacted by air quality information to plan their activities so they can avoid exposure as much as possible. And the American Lung Association of Washington offers an e-mail notification service for these individuals and for health professionals when air quality begins to deteriorate. You can sign up for the “Breathe Easy Network” at www.alaw.org.

Manufactured logs are a clean-burning option for holiday fires

The upcoming holidays invite family and friends to gather around a cozy fire, and if you don’t have a natural gas or propane stove or fireplace, manufactured logs such as Duraflame are a great option for wood fires. Made of compressed sawdust, these logs burn much cleaner than cut firewood, and they burn longer for less hassle.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency will partner with Duraflame to promote these clean-burning logs in late December and again in early February, just before the Super Bowl, another hearth-based “holiday.” Listen for us on drive-time radio.

Local employers among the nation’s top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters

Kudos to local employers Intel, Microsoft, Safeco and Boeing for being named among the Top 20 Best Workplaces for Commuters from FORTUNE 500 Companies.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recognizes these companies for their role in offering excellent commuter benefits that reduce fuel consumption, vehicle emissions and traffic congestion across the country.

Redmond-based Microsoft has 11,500 commuters in the Puget Sound region who have decided to leave their cars at home and ride the bus, carpool, vanpool, bike or walk to work. Seattle-based Safeco has been committed to reducing drive-alone commuting for over 30 years. Its employees participate in more than 80 active vanpools in locations across the country and have a high transit participation rate. Boeing encourages employees to work at flexible work locations, provides its Puget Sound region employees with transit subsidy and startup incentives for carpools. With regional offices in DuPont, Intel provides its 1,300 local employees a subsidy benefit for vanpoolers as well as a fitness center with showers and lockers for biking commuters.

To learn more about commute alternatives, click to: http://www.pscleanair.org/news/newsroom/releases/2005/11_16_workplaces.aspx.

Our daily actions affect our urban environment – here’s help to make yours a positive impact

The choices we make in our daily lives – how we heat our homes, get to work, care for our yards, just to name a few – have an impact on our urban ecosystem. A new resource guide is now available to help people make those impacts more positive.

Green Seattle Guide: 101 actions for a healthy urban environment, offers common-sense steps we all can take to keep our local environment green and healthy. These steps are applicable throughout our region, not just in Seattle.

"This guide illustrates how easy it is to make choices that support a healthy urban environment," says Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. "Whether it's taking fewer car trips, teleworking one day a week, or not idling your engine: It all adds up to cleaner air."

To learn specific ways you can protect our air, climate, land, water, wildlife and natural habitat, visit http://www.pscleanair.org/news/newsroom/releases/2005/11_15_Green_Seattle.aspx.

About the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

The mission of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is to ensure that people in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties have clean, healthy air to breathe. Our job is to provide air quality management services on behalf of cities and counties for their citizens. We do this by adopting and enforcing air quality regulations, sponsoring voluntary initiatives to improve air quality, and educating people and businesses about clean-air choices. To learn more about our work, visit us at www.pscleanair.org.

About the Clean Air Newsline

Clean Air Newsline is a monthly electronic newsletter to provide air quality information to the residents of King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Subscribers receive the latest on air quality news, trends and projects that affect our local communities and the air we breathe. Feel free to pass the information along to others.

We also use the Newsline as needed to send timely and important messages about burn bans, Smog Watches and early calls to action when air quality deteriorates.

If you would like to subscribe, you can do so at www.pscleanair.org/news/email_list.shtml. Be sure to select Clean Air Newsline to be added to the e-mailing list.