Areas of Fairbanks continue to struggle with wintertime smoke pollution. Many residents of the interior community rely on wood heat, and a North Star Borough sponsored conference is exploring ways to reduce emissions tied to serious health problems.
Fairbanks has been a federal non-attainment area for the tiny airborne pollutants in smoke known as PM 2.5 since 2009. The community is embroiled in a maze of state and federal air quality regulations, that are about to get more complicated.  In town for a North Star Borough air quality conference, Environmental Protection Agency PM 2.5 team leader Justin Spenillo said the community’s failure to sufficiently lower pollution levels is triggering its reclassification as a serious nonattainment area.
“They’ll need to meet the serious area requirements, which include some more stringent requirements most notably the best available control measures and best available control technologies,” Spenillo said.
Spenillo says reclassification also moves back a compliance deadline to 2019, or even as far as 2034 in the community applies for and receives extensions. North Star Borough mayor Karl Kassel said the community should not rely on federal regulators to drive a solution.
“This is a local issue,” Kassel said. “We’re breathing the air. EPA isn’t breathing the air.”Â
The borough has reduced wood and other smoke pollution through education about clean burning, and subsidized replacement of older stoves and boilers, but Borough and State air quality consultant Bob Dulla said some neighborhoods continue to suffer serious violations.
“The very high concentrations that have been recorded, in North Pole in particular, demand very large reductions,” Dulla said. “And so that requires a real change in behavior. That’s not easy to accomplish, and it’s gonna take time.”
Tacoma, WA provides an example of a community that successfully reduced fine particulate pollution. Puget Sound Clean Air Agency scientist Phil Schwartzendruber told Fairbanks conference attendees that it hinged on enforcement patrols carried out after hours by local government employees.
“…who are accustomed to this sort of work,” Schwartzendruber said “Some of them were inspectors. Some of them were housing inspectors. We’ve actually had some dog catchers.”
Schwartzendruber said identified violators were contacted and offered help.
“If you simply cooperate with us, go through the education materials, sign up for our alerts sign up for the text alerts, enroll in our change-up program, the fine would be waived,” Schwartzendruber said. “And so the vast majority of people actually had no fine at all because they agreed to work with us.”
Schwartzendruber says Tacoma lowered the local fine particulate pollution enough to meet EPA standards in 2015. The Fairbanks Borough assembly is taking new steps to address the problem. Last month, the assembly approved funding for more localized air quality monitoring, Mayor Kassel says should help identify polluters.
“We have staff that will be going out and taking a look at what’s going on and try to pinpoint sources that need to improve,” Kassel said. “And I think we can get there.”
The Fairbanks assembly appropriated nearly 3 hundred thousand dollars to purchase and operate 26 new air quality monitoring devices. The borough’s air quality conference continues through Wednesday.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
