Butte air quality: 2018’s only violation occurred this month

BUTTE — An air quality violation in the Butte area has raised concern.

According to Mat-Su Borough officials, this violation is earlier than the average year and cause for further public discussion and education to prevent any further violations for the rest of the year and lower the levels in the future.

“This time of year [autumn] we’ve got a lot more air movements, we don’t have any inversions sitting over that area and we don’t have a lot of people heating their houses with wood stoves- the only thing that really does impact us right now is when people are burning outside,” MSB Environmental Planner, Brianne Blackburn said.

The violation came on Sept. 4. Data collected from the area’s monitoring system reflects the data from the Mat-Su Valley as a whole in the eyes of the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the Alaska Department of Environmental of Conversation which in turn will be required to enforce mandatory federal regulations if levels continue to rise and exceed the federal standards established to protect public health.

The EPA looks at a number of particles in the air, paying special attention to the particularly harmful pollutants like PM2.5, which can come from smoke, be it from trash or wood.

“Approximately 22 percent of the borough’s population has a health condition. That includes asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. That is aggravated by exposure to PM2.5, and in 2017, that number totaled to over 23,361 Mat-Su residents,” according to the American Lung Association’s 2017 “State of the Air” report for the Borough [cited in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Air Quality Briefing, March 2018].

The cause of the violation, according to Blackburn, was due to one Butte resident burning slash piles of wood. The national standard is 35 PM2.5 for 24-hour duration. The data from Sept. 9 indicated a PM2.5 level of 41, causing a violation.

“It’s a little complicated,” Blackburn said.

For the regulatory value, the EPA and DEC looks at three consecutive years’ worth of data for each economic region in Alaska, enforcing rules based on not a yearly violation count quota but from the total number of 24-hour violations averaged out, according to Blackburn.

“In this situation, often times when we get towards the end of the year, we will work with DEC to kind of pin down how many days we’re looking at; but again, that’s all estimates because it all comes down to what that exceedance value actually is,” Blackburn said.

District 1 Assembly member Jim Sykes started focusing a lot of community conversation on this particular problem shortly after he took office, imploring Butte residents to consider changing some of their plans to burn, particularly to avoid burning on days with already high PM.2.5 levels. He said that his worse fear is that the Borough will enter “nonattainment” and all Mat-Su Valley residents will pay the price with taxes. He noted that this “nonattainment” period would likely take a substantially long time, citing all the problems Fairbanks has been having with the same issue.

Typically the borough sees more elevated PM 2.5 levels starting in November when the weather gets cold, according to Blackburn. She said that more people are burning outside and the cold air traps in the smoke.

“November through January and sometime February is typically when we see more issues associated with elevated PM2.5 and that’s directly related to cold weather, more burning and that dense air inversions that really keeps air from moving in that area,” Blackburn said.

DEC began monitoring ambient air quality in the Palmer and Butte areas in 1985, responding to smoke generated by fires used to clear land in Point Mackenzie. Blackburn said that around 2010, the national average went from 65 to 32 maximum 24-hour PM.25 levels, which made almost doubled the trouble.

Blackburn said that the borough is currently looking into several options, many needing further funding. One idea the borough is considering is to post signs up that would indicate good and bad days to burn, similar to the forest fire danger level sign by Wasilla Lake. Blackburn encouraged everyone in the Mat-Su to consider ways they could reduce their pollutants, improving the health of their neighbors.

“It’s always hard to change,” Blackburn said. “People want to do the right thing… it’s easier to do that if they have the right information.”

DEC established a fixed monitor in the Butte to continue dust monitoring in the zone of maximum impact and worked with the borough to alert the public. There is another monitor in Palmer. These are the only two monitors in the borough. Data is collected year-round at the Butte and Palmer sites and is available to the public at http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/Air/airtoolsweb/Aq/ Anyone can check the daily, real time values with that link as well.