PORT TOWNSEND — The worst air quality in Port Townsend is in the Blue Heron Middle School area, but even there, it poses little health hazard to either the students or the surrounding residents, according to the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency.
“When compared to other places, the air quality in Port Townsend and around the Blue Heron school is actually quite good, although there are some times where parents with asthmatic children will want to keep them from running around outside,” said Odelle Hadley, an ORCAA senior air monitoring specialist.
The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, known as ORCAA, monitors ambient air throughout its jurisdiction of Jefferson, Clallam, Thurston, Mason, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. Due to costs, ORCAA runs the saturation study in one county at a time.
The Clallam County Saturation Study was concluded in 2014 and the Jefferson County data was collected in 2015. The equipment is now deployed in Thurston County.
ORCAA findings from the Jefferson County Saturation Study — which gathered data on particulates in the air between May 2014 and April 2015 — were presented in Port Townsend on Saturday.
In addition to the Blue Heron school site, the study gathered data from three other locations: Jefferson County Mental Health in Port Townsend, the East Jefferson Fire-Rescue station on Jacob Miller Road and the Chimacum Fire Station.
The two locations outside of Port Townsend showed a higher particulate level than those within city limits, probably because of outdoor burning, the study said.
Monitor website
Parents, Hadley said, should regularly monitor the real-time data on ORCAA’s website and take preventive action if the needle ever moves into the yellow or red areas.
The ORCAA website displays up-to-the-minute data for seven locations, viewable at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-particulate.
The conclusions drawn from the data are that air quality in the Port Townsend area has improved over the past 15 years even as population has increased.
“Summer air quality is ‘good’ over 98 percent of the time at all four monitor locations,” the study concluded.
Wintertime air quality was rated “good” 94 percent of the time, it added.
Particulates
The study focused on the mass of particles in a cubic meter of air with diameters less than 2.5 micrometers — 1 millionth of a meter.
“This size and smaller has the most harmful health effects,” the presentation said.
Dust is the greatest source of summertime air pollution, while wood burning is largely responsible for impaired winter air quality.
Wood-burning stoves
During the winter, the Blue Heron school area showed a decrease in air quality in the early morning and late afternoon, which corresponds with when people use wood-burning stoves, Hadley said.
Aside from collecting data, the test was meant to determine where to locate a permanent air quality monitor.
The decision was made to have it at Blue Heron, Hadley said.
Air quality levels are tied to wind speed and direction, with the greatest pollution occurring during cold weather when there is no wind because “the particulates have no place to go,” Hadley said.
The annual average should not exceed 12.5 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter. The 24-hour average should not be more than 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
The combined annual average from the four Jefferson County stations was 5.8 micrograms per cubic meter, so “you aren’t even close to the danger level,” Hadley said.
ORCAA would have stepped in and mandated particulate reduction if the readings had exceeded 35 micrograms per cubic meter more than 3 percent of the time for a three-year period, Hadley said.
At that time, the agency would discourage the use of wood-burning stoves and forbid the use of uncertified stoves, although exemptions would be provided if the stove was the only household heat source.
Paper mill odor
While it can be a source of unpleasant smells the Port Townsend Paper Co. is not the source of excess particulate matter, Hadley said.
“The odor from the mill comes from reduced sulphur compounds, which the nose detects but the instruments do not,” she said.
“We do not believe the mill provides any kind of health risk.”
To view the presentation, go to http://tinyurl.com/PDN-air-quality.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
