Air quality/pollution in Portland and suburbs (Lake Oswego, Oregon City: houses, neighborhoods)

[Phrogg]

I've been loosely following the Bullseye glass factory pollution saga and would like to ask a few questions regarding Portland's air quality nowadays. I know Portland's air isn't as good as people think it would be, but how bad is it these days? Is the pollution from Bullseye and elsewhere localized in certain places (heavier particles that don't travel far) or spread out all over the city/metro? Which way does the prevailing wind blow, and which suburbs have better/worse air?

I'm particularly interested to know about the air quality in Lake Oswego and West Linn.
I've looked at the air quality section on Lake Oswego's C-D profile, but other sites rate it more positively than does C-D, so I'm looking for additional data or input.

Really, anything I should know about Portland metro air quality would be great.

[jjpop]

You would probably be best off to look through DEQ's Air Quality Division webpage (State of Oregon: DEQ Air Quality) to answer that question. Also continue to follow the Oregonian for information, as I don't think this story will die down anytime soon.

[bler144]

The first question should always be "compared to what"? Portland's air quality is much worse than the common perception, and the Bullseye incident just highlights it.

It's long been known that Portland is fairly high in particulates, including a number of metals, even if no one was really anticipating the degree of those two hot spots, a lot of the industrial and traffic (pretty much the bulk of the metro these days) areas were known to be "elevated" for at least some particulate types.

High levels of toxic metals found in two more Portland neighborhoods | OregonLive.com

The area in general is also high for a fairly wide range of pollen types, particularly evergreens.

If, however, your concern is ground level ozone, then hey, not so bad.

[Phrogg]

Jjpop, thanks for the DEQ link! Will definitely keep checking the Oregonian.

Originally Posted by bler144

The first question should always be "compared to what"? Portland's air quality is much worse than the common perception, and the Bullseye incident just highlights it.

It's long been known that Portland is fairly high in particulates, including a number of metals, even if no one was really anticipating the degree of those two hot spots, a lot of the industrial and traffic (pretty much the bulk of the metro these days) areas were known to be "elevated" for at least some particulate types.

High levels of toxic metals found in two more Portland neighborhoods | OregonLive.com

The area in general is also high for a fairly wide range of pollen types, particularly evergreens.

If, however, your concern is ground level ozone, then hey, not so bad.

I'm planning to move from the LA area (probably back to Lake Oswego where I lived previously, but there are other possibilities I'm exploring too), so "better than LA", but that's a rather silly comparison because I could probably live inside a smokestack in New Jersey and find better air than in LA. Basically, decent air has become more of a priority for me and air quality will factor into my next move.

Thanks for the link; I had seen that before and then forgot where, so bookmarking this time!


Some thoughts, for you two or whoever else is reading: in looking more into Lake Oswego's air quality, I notice the stats are collected for counties rather than individual cities. Oregon City, also in Clackamas County, had a paper mill (Blue Heron) up until a few years ago. All the Clackamas County stats I can find are from before the paper mill closed, and show it as producing over half of the county's totals for ozone and air toxics. So, should I figure that the actual air pollution in Clackamas County today is maybe 60% (I'd have said half, but obviously some pollution must come from out of county) of what the stats show? Overly simplistic, or a fair estimate?

[bler144]

Originally Posted by Phrogg

All the Clackamas County stats I can find are from before the paper mill closed, and show it as producing over half of the county's totals for ozone and air toxics. So, should I figure that the actual air pollution in Clackamas County today is maybe 60% (I'd have said half, but obviously some pollution must come from out of county) of what the stats show? Overly simplistic, or a fair estimate?

Oregon has a weird mish-mash of rules, and other than having looked at some of the data, I don't claim to be a full-blown expert by any stretch.

The state does some things but not everything. If you look a bit south, air quality in the southern tip of the valley is managed primarily by Lane (County) Regional Protection Agency, and there's been at least some chatter of the metro adopting a similar county/metro structure to fill in the gaps the state DEQ leaves. But at least currently I don't believe Clackamas has an LRAPA equivalent.

As for your second question, it's a good one. I'd be curious how old your data is precisely. If it's 10 years old, you'd want to account for some fairly significant increase in traffic in that corner of the metro. A lot of the new construction is apts/town houses, but there will also be some non-zero increase (aside from all the cars on the roads) in wood smoke and household created air pollution.

If, more likely, it's 2-3 years old, that's probably a decent estimate, but I wouldn't testify to that in court.

[jjpop]

Here's a DEQ webpage with maps showing modeled concentrations of air toxics modeled for 2017: Oregon DEQ Air Quality: Portland Air Toxics maps

The symbols in the map display a multiplier above "ambient benchmark concentrations" (ABC). Darker symbols show higher modeled concentrations above the benchmark. Here's a webpage that describes what those ABCs are and what they mean: Oregon DEQ: Air Quality Air Toxics Science Advisory committee benchmark

And here's an overview of that Portland Air Toxics Solutions project: Oregon DEQ:* Portland Air Toxics Solutions

More information about individual toxic compounds and elements for the PATS study: http://www.deq.state.or.us/aq/toxics...oveSummary.pdf

[pepsik]

jjpop
Hello! don`t you work as an ecologist or an environmental engineer? i`m looking for colleagues.

[AndyAMG]

Our air quality gets worse and worse every year. Our traffic gets worse and worse every year. More people move in year after year.

Clean air fresh has never been a thing in the summer. Its always been dirty in the summer with lower visibility.

The thing I notice is more days in the winter/spring with low vis and bad air quality.

I was shocked to find out Tucson had much cleaner air than Portland these days. SE AZ has some of the cleanest air in the country. I was in Tucson last week and visibility was amazing.

I used to think Portland's dirty air was just a humid air mass, but it isn't its trapped particulates.

[Phrogg]

bler144:
Thanks again. The data I've been looking at seems to range from 1999 (mostly useless!) at the oldest to 2012 or so at the newest. Excellent point about traffic and other air issues relating to the population increase-- when do you think was the greatest increase in traffic/population? Are people still moving there in as great numbers, or was there a boom period that has since leveled off somewhat? In other words, is it way worse than it was in, say, 2012? (Intellectually, I know Portland metro has bad traffic nowadays, but it's still hard for me to visualize until I eventually see it for myself.)

jjpop:
That air toxics forecast map is great, thanks a lot! I'm still chewing on precisely what it represents and how bad the various colors are relative to each other. Extremely interesting and useful though.

AndyAMG:
Thanks for your observations. Interesting about SE Arizona; I don't think Tucson would be my kind of place, but I had been looking into some higher-elevation places in more northern AZ actually (Prescott and Sedona). Do you really think the Portland metro air quality is going straight downhill? I would have thought the closure of the paper mill in Oregon City and (I recently realized) the closure of the Reynolds Aluminum plant in Troutdale, two of the biggest polluters in the area, would be very positive for Portland metro air quality, even though pollution from traffic is getting worse.


I realized as well that I've been looking to see whether plants I knew of had closed, but hadn't considered whether anything else has opened! Anyone know if any significant polluters (mills, etc.) have opened in the Portland metro area in the last several years?

[AndyAMG]

Like I said in the summer our air has always been pretty bad. I'd say the pollution is particulates from cars and trucks especially diesel rigs. Anytime you are in a valley pollution is a concern.