Butte on the brink of air quality change

WASILLA — Butte residents should think carefully this year before they fire up the wood stove, the Christmas Yule log and the backyard bonfire all at the same time.

Millions of federal highway dollars for the Mat-Su could potentially be at risk.

The Butte area is home to one of two air monitoring sensors in the area (the other is in Palmer), and officials with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation say without action throughout 2016, air quality readings there could exceed EPA-enforced regulatory limits for certain types of air pollution, including car exhaust and wood smoke. Besides posing possible health risks — including premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeats, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, and increased respiratory symptoms, according to the EPA website — repeated violations without any effort at a fix could eventually threaten some portion of roughly $700 million worth of planned federally-funded highway improvements for the Mat-Su Borough.

Without changes, air quality problems could require years of mitigation efforts, said Barbara Trost, a monitor with the DEC.

“If we let this continue the way it has, next year we’re going to really be in trouble,” she said.

2016 will be an important year because of the way the EPA calculates whether a certain area violates the standard or not. In order to prevent a single very smoky day, or one-time major events (like wildfire) from skewing the measurements, officials take a three-year average of the 98th percentile of air quality measurements — usually the seventh- or eighth-highest recorded value in a given year.

The sensor measures two types of particles: one called PM 10, which is larger particles (those with a diameter between 2.5 and 10 micrometers), and another called PM 2.5, smaller particles that can be ingested and pose significant health risks. A micrometer is one millionth of a meter. By way of comparison, people generally can’t see anything smaller than 40 micrometers, and the average sheet of copier paper is about 100 micrometers, according to the Forestry Service.

“We think of it in terms of dust (PM 10) versus smoke (PM 2.5),” Trost said.

Standards for the smaller particles set the limit at 35 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour measurement period and 12 micrograms per cubic meter averaged over the whole year. In 2014, the Butte sensor’s 98th percentile measurement was 39.5 micrograms per cubic meter. The final totals aren’t in yet for 2015 but officials aren’t optimistic, based in part on wildfire activity, Trost said.

“It’s most likely going to be over,” she said.

Some of the readings are caused by burning to clear the way for additional gravel pits, though officials have no way of knowing what that portion might be. Some portion of the Butte measurement is caused by temperature inversions, which hold pollutants in place. Wood stoves used for heat cause some portion of it.

Considerate neighbors and public safety concerns also contribute, Trost said.

“They try to do it (slash burning) when there’s less risk for causing a wildfire,” she said. “That’s good for the neighbors, because they definitely don’t want to lose their houses in a fire.”

Unfortunately, the same wind-free conditions are ideal for allowing smoke to concentrate in one place, Trost said.

If the 2016 numbers aren’t significantly below the standard, the Butte could be listed as a “nonattainment area.” If that happens, the borough and state will be forced to develop a plan to reduce the amount of pollution generated in the area.

Other areas of the state face similar issues

In Fairbanks and North Pole, designated part of a nonattainment area in 2009, that means making state and local funding available for incentives to upgrade older heating equipment, establishing emissions standards for solid fuel heating devices, establishing a public education campaign, using Alaska Housing Finance Corporation programs to reduce heating demands, expanding the availability of liquid natural gas for heating, with a host of other measures. Outdoor open burning is also banned during the wintertime, according to the Fairbanks plan.

Nonattainment areas typically have five years to come into compliance, and can receive another five years if their efforts show some progress, even if that process is insufficient, Trost said.

Restoring air quality could prove difficult. The regulations were designed with more densely populated areas and concentrated sources in mind, like rust-belt factories that can be switched off. By contrast, the area around Bodenburg Butte has a population of 3,500 people, and hundreds of potential sources. That means public education about the problem is key, Trost said.

“Nobody really reacts until they realize that it’s almost too late,” she said. “It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s not the type of pollution sources these type of regulations were built around.”

For example, when DEC officials first approached the borough in December2014, officials largely ignored the issue, Trost said.

“We feel like we’ve gotten the cold shoulder,” she said.

District 1 Assemblyman Jim Sykes participated in a teleconference earlier this year about the air quality issue.

“I was kind of surprised the there had been notifications in prior years,” he said. “I didn’t know it was a problem. This was the first time.”

The Butte is being unfairly maligned, in part because it has half the sensors, Sykes said. The same health issues that lead to elevated levels there are potentially present elsewhere in the borough, but the area just happens to be where the sensor is located, he and Trost both said.

Awareness could ultimately improve quality of life, Sykes said.

“We want to make it a borough-wide response,” he said. “There’s a public education effort to let people know what the deal is.”

Going forward

In the last year, particularly after the local election in November 2015, officials have been more responsive, Trost said. The hope for both state and federal officials is that with a concerted public effort, the borough can avoid being listed by the EPA at all. DEC officials are pushing with a department meteorologist to provide public alerts for better burning conditions. Wood stove owners should consider upgrading their equipment, or consider replacing wood stoves with natural gas. Firewood should be cured for at least a year before being consumed, and not burned immediately after being cut, Trost said.

Homeowners with more than one source of heat should consider switching to natural gas or other less smoky alternatives for heating needs, Trost said.

“If we can do it on a voluntary basis, or a basis where people make smart choices without being forced to do them, it’s always a lot more palatable,” she said.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.