Air quality board votes to post polluters’ names on its Web site

Spokane County air pollution officials will begin posting online the names of businesses and individuals who break clean air rules.

Driving the new disclosures were concerns that some companies had accrued multiple violations of asbestos abatement regulations, but that information was buried in agency files.

Based on that concern, the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency’s board voted unanimously Thursday to post all violations in a move toward transparency to serve the public interest.

Some businesses submitted comments against the move, saying such a broad release of information could damage reputations even when the violations were small mistakes and quickly remedied.

“If a business is out there blatantly violating clean air rules and regulations and then refuses to clean up their mess, then maybe posting those violations would protect some consumers,” wrote Brian Layton, manager of Home Creek LLC. “However, posting a violation of any business that followed all the procedures set out by Spokane Clean Air is slanderous. We strongly disagree with posting violations on the Spokane Clean Air’s Web site.”

Matt Holmquist, the agency’s compliance coordinator, said it will cost about $650 to build a searchable database of violations for the agency’s Web site.

The agency’s decision to post violations – after the fines have been paid – was pushed by the Spokane Alliance, a community group whose members include churches and labor unions. The alliance was working on a project to help nonprofits and churches retrofit offices and buildings for energy efficiency.

When the alliance’s contractor on the projects, Sustainable Works, needed to hire specialists to remove asbestos materials, the staff was surprised at the difference in bid estimates.

More questions led the alliance to conclude that some asbestos abatement companies were willing to “cut corners to save money and get the work,” said alliance member Jerry White. “That’s just not right.”

So the alliance met with clean air officials in hopes of making it easier for people who need asbestos removed to find companies with good reputations and few violations.

White said the issue boiled down to a choice: “What do you value more, public health or contractor privacy?”