PORT TOWNSEND — The City Council has returned a proposed resolution to a committee for a rewrite in light of the news that the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency will not provide more than one air-monitoring station per community because of a lack of funding.
The resolution originally was crafted to ask the regional agency — known as ORCAA — for a second air-monitoring station in Port Townsend.
Since then, the city has received word from ORCAA — which monitors six counties in Western Washington, including Jefferson and Clallam — that no community would receive more than one monitor because of available funding and resources.
The city council decided Tuesday to return the proposed resolution to the Council Special Projects Committee.
“We have returned it to committee, asking them to rewrite the resolution, since what we were going to ask for we can’t have,” said Mayor David King.
While one monitor is already in place in Port Townsend at Blue Heron Middle School, ORCAA has no plans to install a second monitor in the city, said Fran McNair, the agency’s executive director.
“Under the current structure, no community will receive more than one station,” she said Wednesday.
An air-monitoring system has been in place at Blue Heron for more than 20 years and was placed in that location because it is centrally located and has a high incidence of wood smoke.
Concerns about particulate matter, particularly that originating from the Port Townsend Paper Corp.’s mill, led to calls to install a second monitoring station at Grant Street School, which is closer to the mill.
On Tuesday, Councilwoman Michelle Sandoval, who chairs the Special Projects Committee, recommended tabling the resolution until other funding sources could be explored.
“We can look for new partners for this,” she said.
“Maybe it’s the county or the schools.”
An ORCAA board meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Monitoring strategies will be determined for the North Olympic Peninsula, McNair said.
“At the meeting, we will develop a monitoring plan for all six counties but will be concentrating on Jefferson and Clallam counties,” she said.
In April, ORCAA said it would consider the installation of a second monitoring station at Grant Street but did not have available funding to do so.
Since then, no funding sources have been made available, McNair said.
The Grant Street site also has been ruled out as it is in proximity to a smokestack, which would influence the results, she said.
“We look at the ambient air quality, the average where people live,” she said.
“We don’t differentiate between the different types of pollutants.
“Our only purpose is to make sure there is good air.”
While ORCAA is concerned with what might come from the mill, there are standards from other agencies that monitor the facility more carefully, she said.
In a memo in the agenda packet, city staff noted ORCAA’s position that it does not have the funding for an additional station and asked if a station could be installed if other funding became available — perhaps through a partnership between the city and the mill.
At Tuesday’s meeting, City Attorney John Watts said he spoke to a representative of the Port Townsend Paper Corp. who said the company would not make any additional investments in air-quality monitoring.
McNair said ORCAA might consider running a second station if it were subsidized by another source but has not seen that support so far.
“These monitors aren’t cheap; they cost about $20,000 each,” she said.
“In meetings, I’ve asked whether the money could be raised to purchase a monitor, but there have been no positive responses.”
In discussion, council members backed off from making demands of ORCAA.
“There is no money to add any stations,” said Councilman Mark Welch.
“It’s similar to if the county asked us to raise the temperature in the pool when we don’t have the money to do that.
“I suggest we just let sleeping dogs lie.”
Said Councilwoman Deborah Stinson: “I think we should let ORCAA know that we have this concern and ask them to do a serious review of the air monitoring in Port Townsend.
“After that, they can recommend what is available and what the funding options are.
“ORCAA has a lot of smart people, and I don’t think that we should be telling them how to do their business.”
McNair said the agency had hired a new staff member who is an expert on all new monitoring technology.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.