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Since 1977, Ron Edgar has been helping local residents breathe a little easier.
Edgar works as the chief of Technical Services for the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, an organization dedicated to maintaining outdoor air quality throughout Spokane County. Edgar joined the staff when the agency was still known as the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, a name it took on after being formed in 1969.
This year, SRCAA is celebrating its 40th anniversary, though not with the bells and whistles that generally accompany such a landmark. For agency veterans like Edgar, the commemoration has more to do with the strides achieved over the years in clearing the air.
“I think we’ve been able to get a lot of people informed about what we should be doing,” Edgar said. “Air pollution affects everyone. It’s important to have that awareness out there.”
When Edgar joined the organization, air quality in Spokane County lagged behind national averages. Industrial sources, inefficient wood stoves and fuming vehicles all contributed to the problem.
Spokane Valley City Council Member Rose Dempsey, a member of the SRCAA board of directors, remembers a time when burning on the Rathdrum Prairie generated concern for those with asthma and other breathing difficulties.
“It used to be that you would come down Sunset Hill and there would be this brown fog hanging over Spokane – and now it’s not there anymore,” Dempsey said.
The SRCAA has helped to enforce new standards for commercial sites while cleaner running vehicles and higher efficiency wood stoves have also added to improvements in air quality. The agency continues to encourage residents to utilize natural gas instead of wood stoves for heating.
Barbara Nelson has been with SRCAA for the past 20 years as the finance and personnel administrative director. She said the agency has made a dedicated effort to get the word out about the benefits of clean air through a range of educational programs.
“It’s about teaching people what can be done and how it can help,” Nelson said. “We spend a lot of time in the schools, getting that environmental message to kids.”
SRCAA also works with entities like the Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency, promoting green standards based on awareness and stewardship. When the city of Spokane Valley sponsored its first Arbor Day celebration earlier this year, SRCAA was represented with a booth at Mirabeau Point Park.
“I’ve always known clean air was important,” said Dempsey, whose husband suffers from asthma. “I think a lot of people may not be aware of all this agency does. I’ve been impressed with how much this group has accomplished.”
That effort includes bringing attention to issues like idling cars and the harmful exhaust they produce. Last year, SRCAA worked with local cities and school districts to install “no-idle zones” in area where motorists often stall. The agency also collaborated with the Spokane Transit Authority to place signs at transfer stations.
Clean Air was also involved in the drive to help STA reduce diesel emissions produced by its buses. Filtration systems installed on the vehicles – the result of a grant from the Washington state Department of Ecology – decreased emissions by approximately 90 percent.
Edgar said the improvements, along with similar programs adopted by a number of local school districts and the city of Spokane, will “drastically reduce the health risks that are commonly associated with diesel particulate.”
When it comes to the dangers of asbestos, SRCAA is also at the forefront, working with homeowners, developers and businesses to facilitate asbestos surveys. The evaluations are conducted to make sure asbestos-containing materials do not release hazardous fibers into the air during renovation projects. Asbestos has been associated with cancer and various respiratory illnesses.
Sometimes SRCAA will utilize creative thinking to solve an air quality dilemma, such as the one a few years ago when mechanized sweepers were creating a dust concern when cleaning parking lots and other commercial areas. Edgar described how the addition of a little water “helped keep the dust way down.”
For those who don’t make the switch to natural gas, Clean Air has offered incentives to residents who replace inefficient wood stoves with cleaner burning renditions. Edgar said an outdated stove “can make the air in your house worse than the air outside.”
Nelson said SRCAA continues to encourage local residents to call the agency with concerns about air quality from unheeded burn bans to drifting paint fumes from a car detailing shop.
“You never know how someone is going to be affected,” she said.
Clean Air did have a small observance of the four-decade mark earlier this year after it moved into a new building on East Augusta near Spokane Community College and hosted an open house. Despite the lack of publicity, Dempsey said the agency continues to serve a valuable, if unglamorous, purpose for residents of Spokane County.
“I’m proud of the work that Clean Air does,” she said. “It’s an effort that enriches all of our lives.”
Want to find out more?
To learn more about clean air practices or to file an air quality complaint, call the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency at 477-4727 or visit www.spokanecleanair.org.
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By
Craig Howard
