ALA air report incomplete for Kootenai County

A new American Lung Association report on the state of the nation’s air does little to clear the air on the topic in Kootenai County because local monitoring efforts don’t match up with the national criteria used to craft the study.

The State of the Air Report didn’t grade the county because monitoring for ozone hadn’t been done for the required three years, and because the American Lung Association could not get data on particulate monitoring in the county from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the county would have received a failing grade. In fact, it meets all federal air-quality requirements, said Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Air Quality Supervisor Mark Boyle.

“Because of the methodology they use, it doesn’t give you a complete picture,” Boyle said. “We’ve never been over the federal standard.”

The lack of apples-to-apples data, however, does make it difficult to compare Kootenai County to other counties in the state and the nation.

“One of the chief reasons we do this report is that a lot of communities have information about air quality, but it is difficult for people to understand,” said Janice Nolen, the American Lung Association’s assistant vice president for national policy and advocacy.

The report’s letter grades are easily understandable, Nolen explained.

Butte and Canyon counties received A grades in the report for their ozone levels, with Ada County getting a B. For particulate pollution during a 24-hour period, Ada, Bannock, Gem and Idaho counties were given Bs. Benewah County scored a C, Shoshone and Canyon counties scored Ds and Franklin County failed. All the other counties, including Kootenai and Bonner, had incomplete information.

One of the reasons for that in Kootenai County is the way that Idaho DEQ monitors its particulate levels. Rather than putting out filters and then analyzing them after a 24-hour period, air-quality monitors use equipment to continuously analyze the air, Boyle said.

Boyle said the disadvantage may be that it isn’t the way EPA prefers to get its data. But the advantage is the continuous-monitoring technique gives more timely information about air quality.

“The benefit is you get real-time numbers of what is in the air,” he said.

The process also costs more than the EPA-endorsed filter air sampling method.

In 2007, the Idaho DEQ recorded 41 days of moderate air quality in Kootenai County related to particulate matter, with no days exceeding federal standards, Boyle said.

Ozone levels, measured from May through September last year, reached moderate levels between 65 and 84 parts per billion on 10 days.

But Boyle said that even if the federally tightened standards instituted earlier this year had been in effect last year, Kootenai County ozone levels still would not have reached the “unhealthy” level.

Particle pollution is a serious air quality issue in North Idaho, said Patti Gora, executive director of Safe Air for Everyone.

Most susceptible are children, the ill and the elderly.

The American Lung Association estimates that more than 18,000 Kootenai County residents have lung diseases.

“Our main concern is that the most vulnerable people be protected,” Gora said.

To do that, agricultural burning needs to be done without smoke drifting toward schools, hospitals, and nursing homes, she explained.

Gora and her group are pushing for the Idaho DEQ to do more monitoring close to burning activity to see how high the particle levels get in those areas.

Boyle said that his department is working hard to keep North Idaho air clean, including working to keep homeowners from burning household and yard waste. That situation is improving, he said.

“It used to be completely uncontrolled – open burning any time,” he said. “People are starting to pay attention to the burning issue, but we still have our work cut out for us.”