CLEAN AIR NEWSLINE

October 2006 Edition

In this issue:

Sustainable Business Conference
Air quality information just a click away
It's Burn Ban season
New outdoor burning TV ad campaign
Cleaner school buses, cleaner air
How was the air in August?

You’re invited: Sustainable Business Conference – Emerging Business Realities and Opportunities

Join leaders from science, business and government at the “Sustainable Business Conference” next Tuesday morning, October 31 in Everett. The discussion will focus on emerging climate and energy issues in our region, what Puget Sound businesses and governments are doing, and the opportunities it presents.

The conference will be held from 7:30 a.m. until noon at the Everett Performing Arts Center’s theater. The registration cost of $20 includes continental breakfast. For agenda and registration information, visit www.pscleanair.org/climateconference .

Have you checked out our new web site?

Last month we launched a new and improved Web site for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. The information at www.pscleanair.org is now compact, easy to read, and connects you with a variety of resources and tools.

Zeroing in on the primary information you come to us for, we refocused the content on our home page.

“I’d like to take my dog for a walk at the park today, what is the air quality like outside?” One of the first things you’ll now find on our home page is the air quality forecast for today and tomorrow.

“Am I talking to the right agency?” A clear definition of who we are now dominates the center of the page.

“What is that brown haze across the skyline?” Burn Ban and Smog Watch status now have a permanent home in the upper right corner.

But those are just the tip of the ice berg. All of the content has been rewritten and reorganized. Instead of trying to cover a big topic all on one long, scrolling page, information has been distilled down to the basics with connections to expanded, related and relevant topics. Graphics and supporting charts load quickly; if they needed to be large, they are available in a pop-up link for easy access.

It’s always good to have a “plan B”, and for Web sites that is the search tool. Our search tool now delivers highly-accurate results. If visitors can’t find what they’re looking for through our menus or links, the search tool is ready to help. We hope the newly organized and redesigned menus are easier to scan and navigate, and that visitors find this to be the improvement we do.

We take the site very seriously as a real communication tool between our agency and the people we serve. www.pscleanair.org serves an average of 14,000 visitors a month. While we have made every effort to improve the site, we wouldn’t have been able to do as much as we have without feedback from Web visitors. So please, take a spin around the new site and let us know if you see anything out of place, catch a broken link, or just have comments or observations. You can e-mail us at communications@pscleanair.org . Your feedback counts.

Changing seasons, changing air pollutant concerns

Smog Watches are SO last season (summer that is) and now we turn our attention to fall and Burn Ban season.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency issues temporary bans on indoor and outdoor burning when the weather trends toward stagnant conditions, such as air inversions, which trap fine particle pollution emitted from our chimneys, cars, trucks, and other activities. Our air quality can deteriorate quickly when the weather doesn't give us the breeze we need to clean away our daily air pollution, which is why taking action to curb burning can help keep our air healthy.

When the Clean Air Agency calls a Burn Ban, wood burning in uncertified wood stoves and fireplaces is prohibited unless they are your only adequate source of heat. You can use pellet stoves, EPA-certified wood stoves and natural gas or propane fireplaces during a Stage I Burn Ban which typically is the type of ban called. If conditions worsen to a Stage 2 Burn Ban, no burning is allowed in any fireplace, pellet stove or wood stove (certified or not), unless it is your only adequate source of heat. Not sure if your wood stove is certified? Visit our Web site for information www.pscleanair.org/actions/woodstoves/certifiedws.aspx . You can use natural gas or propane fireplaces during a Stage II Burn Ban (and our Web site has information about clean heating choices at www.pscleanair.org/actions/woodstoves/choices.aspx ). All outdoor burning is prohibited during a Burn Ban, even in areas where otherwise permitted by law.

You can find out Burn Ban status by calling our Burn Ban hotline at 1-800-595-4341, visiting our Web site at www.pscleanair.org , or signing up for e-mail notification at www.pscleanair.org/news/agencynews.aspx . If you receive this newsletter directly, you are already signed up to receive e-mail notification of air quality alerts.

New outdoor burning ad campaign in the wings

Protecting health, particularly children’s health, is the theme of a new outdoor burning ad campaign that our agency and two others in western Washington will launch on Nov. 8.

A 30-second TV ad titled “Kids’ Rights” will air on cable stations throughout western Washington for two weeks in November, the last week of December and the first week of January. A companion print ad will appear in several weekly newspapers as well. The ads also encourage choosing cleaner, healthier alternatives for disposing of yard waste.

Our partner agencies are Northwest Clean Air Agency and Olympic Region Clean Air Agency. We pooled our media dollars since cable networks overlap our jurisdictions.

To view the TV ad, visit www.airwatchnorthwest.org and click on Outdoor Burning Program. To learn more about the health effects of outdoor burning and clean, healthy alternatives, visit our Web site at www.pscleanair.org/actions/outdoorfires/default.aspx .

More school districts join the clean-school bus parade

Imagine a line-up of over 1,800 yellow school buses stretching from Tacoma to Seattle. Now scatter them throughout our four-county area of King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

These are the diesel-fueled school buses that have had their exhaust or crankcase systems cleaned up through the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s Diesel Solutions program. These efforts have been made possible thanks in large part to funding enacted by the 2003 Washington State Legislature and grants from the EPA’s Clean School Bus USA. Similar efforts are taking place throughout the state which, by 2008, will result in approximately three-quarters of the school bus fleets statewide being retrofitted.

Diesel sources account for over 70 percent of the potential air toxics cancer risk in our region. Additionally, diesel particulate matter is linked with health effects including heart problems, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis and premature death.

So far 49 school districts have partnered with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to retrofit their diesel-fueled buses to emit less diesel exhaust. Most recently, 53 buses in Pierce County’s Bethel, Peninsula and Clover Park School Districts are being retrofitted with crankcase filters. This equipment reduces the amount of diesel fumes that build up inside the buses, while other retrofits are for the installation of a particulate filter or oxidation catalyst to clean up the tailpipe exhaust. The program also incorporated the use of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel years ahead of its mandated availability this fall.

To learn more about this program, visit www.pscleanair.org/programs/dieselsolutions/buses/default.aspx . To check out the Diesel Solutions project status report, which includes transit, public fleet, maritime and other projects, click to www.pscleanair.org/programs/dieselsolutions/ds_quarterly_status.pdf .

Monthly air quality data summary: August*

August was a good month for air quality, compared to earlier in the summer when we had several smoggy days and Smog Watch calls-to-action.

In August there were no days in the “Unhealthy” category (compared to two days in July when the ozone standard was exceeded on both July 21 and 22), no days in the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” (one day in July), two days in the “Moderate” category (seven days in July) and 29 days in the “Good” category (only 21 days in July).

Precipitation at Sea-Tac Airport totaled 0.02 inches for the month compared to the normal rainfall of 1.02 inches. Rainfall for the past two months totaled less than one tenth of an inch. The airport average monthly temperature was 0.3 degrees above normal – the fifth straight month of above normal temperatures.

For data summaries of air quality monitored throughout our four-county region, click to www.pscleanair.org/airq/aqsumm/06-08.aspx .

* Because of the time it takes to review data for quality assurance and process data for reports, our air quality discussions in each “Newsline” edition will be two months previous. Thus, our report for this edition is for August 2006.

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.