AIRWAY HEIGHTS - Scott Windsor, Executive Director for Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency brought a presentation to council on Aug. 7 to explain what the agency does in the region.
Windsor explained the group has a board of five directors, and that they are one of the seven local clean air agencies in Washington.
He also said that in areas where no agency exists, the Department of Ecology is responsible.
Al French is the County Commissioner member for the agency.
Rod Higgins serves as the representative for the second largest city in the county which is Spokane Valley.
Small cities and towns are currently represented by board member Kevin Freeman. Windsor said Freeman will be retiring from the position soon.
“Currently this year the gentleman that represents small towns is Mayor Freeman from Millwood,” Windsor said. “He’s stepping down from the board, so I’m going to have to start the process of electing a new representative for small towns.”
Windsor then said he would be sending out letters asking for nominations soon.
Jim Simon serves as the representative for the City of Spokane.
One at-large board member is also essential, and Tom Brattebo is the current representative for that seat.
Windsor said there is also an advisory council of nine members that specialize in certain areas of specialization.
He then said the group and programs are funded in a couple of different ways.
Their programs designed to attain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Funding typically comes through state and federal grants, but those are becoming less and less frequent.
They also benefit from cost recovery programs and local assessments.
“They are permits for the largest polluters in the area,” Windsor said.
He said local assessment fees are based on a combination of population and property value of cities and towns and unincorporated areas.
Windsor said the group started prioritizing certain aspects of their budget to save money.
“Cost saving measures started about three years ago,” Windsor said. “When I started, we had 20 full time positions and we are down to 18 now, and shortly we’ll be down to 17.”
He said they decided to outsource their information technology position. They also postponed purchases and began exploring for additional grants.
Windsor said the agency answers approximately 650 air quality complaints response per year,
In terms of enforcing regulations, they issue about 275 verbal and written warnings per year.
They also put out about 75 written notices to entities violating National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Windsor said the group engages the community through local events across the county. It has proven beneficial to build local partnerships and take part in educational and outreach opportunities according to Windsor.
He said they also promote environmental education for youth such as the EnviroKids Club, No-Idle Zone program, STEM and science events and an annual clean art poster contest.
Windsor said that the group has been able to make a difference and showed a graph spanning the past 50 years.
In that time frame, the population has increased but the number of days with unhealthy air have decreased dramatically.
Windsor said the region is currently in attainment and compliance for all pollutants.
“We’re under what the limits are,” Windsor said. “So that’s a good place to be.”
Environmental Protection Agency is mandated to review the standards in place every five years.
According to Windsor, standards are tightening every year.
“It’s based on science, so if they have scientific evidence that it needs to be tighter, they tighten it up,” Windsor said. “They continue to tighten it up because they are continuously presented with emerging information.”
Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.
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