1. 2017 Summer Wildfire Smoke Updates
Erik Saganić
Air Quality Scientist
Advisory Council
September 2017

2. Why such historic smoke events?
Wettest rain season on record for many areas
Spurred growth of understory, increasing available fuel to burn
Then driest summer on record for many areas

3. Three wildfire smoke events
3 wildfire smoke events from:
BC wildfires
August 1-10
Poor air quality, lots of air quality records broken
(Stage 1) burn ban issued
CA/OR and Norse Peak fire
August 28-29
Short-duration air quality impact
No burn ban issued
Local and distant fires
September 4-7
Lower pollution levels (mostly MODERATE)
Lots of interest due to the ash
No burn bans issued

4. Summer Smoke (fine particle) Levels
= Under an air quality burn ban

5. Summer Smog (ozone) Levels
Less sun to create much ozone here
Record ozone levels here

6. Exceptional Events
EPA has a process that “flags” data that does not apply toward the federal standards
Wildfire impacts qualify as exceptional events
Ozone is harder to demonstrate when levels would have already been high on hot days

7. Ozone summary (preliminary)
4th Highest Values for 2017:
Enumclaw: 97 ppb (3-year average 77 ppb)
Issaquah: 85 ppb (3-year average 66 ppb)
North Bend: 84 ppb (3-year average 66 ppb)
Federal standard is 70 ppb (over 3-year average)

8. Fine particle summary (preliminary)
8th highest values for 2017:
Non-regulatory monitors in grey
But we still have 3 months left of winter in 2017…
Site
Concentration (micrograms per cubic meter)
Puyallup 51
North Bend 43
Darrington 42
Kent 36
Seattle 10th and Weller 31
Tacoma South L 30
Tukwila Allentown
Seattle Beacon Hill
Tacoma S 36th 29
Lynnwood 28
Marysville 27
Bremerton Spruce 24

9. Public interest and communications
- This post received 250,000 Facebook views
- 42,000 Twitter impressions on related post
- 25% increase in who “likes” the Agency (now 3,800)

10. Lessons learned Summer vs Winter Burn Ban
More emphasis on health than regulation needed
Overlap with fire safety burn bans
All our smoke models are very uncertain, but brand new satellites were very helpful
Risk perception of large (ash) vs fine particles

11. Lessons learned (page 2)
Coordinating our message with all the local health departments takes time
Health messages need translation ahead of time to better reach communities with limited English proficiency
Gained useful feedback quickly on the new website with lots of users

12. Thanks for your attention
Erik Saganic