Car Dealership Terminates State Lease Of Air Testing Station
The air-quality monitor that put Spokane on a list of the nation’s most polluted cities has run out of breathing room.
A downtown car dealership is giving the boot to the controversial carbon monoxide tester.
City Councilwoman Roberta Greene and her husband, Nathaniel, who own Empire Ford, have ended the state’s lease for the monitor site.
The Department of Ecology pays about $100 a month for the space. The monitor occupies a small structure at the corner of Third and Washington, next to the dealership’s service entrance and vehicle drop-off zone.
Members of the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority governing board found out about the lease termination Thursday.
“That’s wrong,” fumed County Commissioner Steve Hasson, chairman of the SCAPCA board. “We need to get aggressive and deal with the conflict rather than denying that the conflict exists.”
Hasson said Roberta Greene, as a public official, shouldn’t sacrifice the public health to her business interests.
The Greenes couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.
The Empire Ford monitor has been blamed for causing a blight on downtown development. Its data has been called questionable, and the conclusions reached by the state have been dubbed unfair.
The instrument’s readings have caused the Environmental Protection Agency to consider putting Spokane on a short list of cities with the worst carbon monoxide problems, along with Denver and Los Angeles.
Ecology is shopping around for a comparable monitor site, most likely on a well-trafficked one-way street. There are three other monitors in Spokane: at the Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside; One Bridge North Tavern, 1817 N. Division; and Jack & Dan’s Tavern, 1226 N. Hamilton.
The monitor at Jack & Dan’s has also fallen under business scrutiny. In the 1980s, business leaders complained when it showed high carbon monoxide readings.
In late June, the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce released a report challenging the Empire Ford location because the busy corner supposedly could bias the air sample. Business leaders wanted the air-quality monitor moved.
Dan Kirschner of the chamber said Thursday that Greene had the right to make her own decision.
“That’s a decision that a business owner needs to feel free to make,” Kirschner said.
Moving the monitor, however, may make it more difficult to prove that Spokane’s air quality has improved, SCAPCA Director Eric Skelton said.
“That doesn’t make the data go away,” he said. “If it’s already been collected, the burden of proof would still be on us in Spokane.”
, DataTimes