With the backing of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders, county officials are asking state and federal officials to instead zero in on the South End, Parkland and Spanaway, where many people burn wood for heat.

At issue is the boundary of so-called “nonattainment” zones, or areas where anti-pollution efforts would be focused. Federal regulations require state officials to make a recommendation by Dec. 18.

Tacoma is the only place in Washington that does not meet standards for airborne particles too small to be seen with the naked eye. The Clean Air Act regulation was revised in 2006 after federal Environmental Protection Agency officials saw new medical research that proved a connection between fine particles and premature death and serious respiratory ailments.

“We are trying to get a better health profile for the people of our community, but we don’t need to be impaled on our efforts and have the entire city of Tacoma called nonattainment,” said Lyle Quasim, who is County Executive John Ladenburg’s chief of staff.

Quasim spoke Wednesday night at a meeting of the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health. His criticism focused on a previously announced state Department of Ecology proposal to include not only Tacoma, but also suburban cities and much of the county’s urban growth area in the “nonattainment” zone.

Also Wednesday, at a state-sponsored public hearing in Parkland, representatives of the county, the Port of Tacoma, the Chamber of Commerce and the Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. mill encouraged state officials to focus on home heating as the source of Tacoma’s air pollution problem.

Gary Brackett, the chamber’s business and trade development manager, said his group endorses the county’s proposal to exclude the Tideflats, Nalley Valley and the Port of Tacoma’s Frederickson industrial area from the “nonattainment” zone because possible stepped-up regulations could impede business expansion.

Quasim also told the health board the “nonattainment” designation “could hurt industry and commerce and economic development and traffic in and out of the port.”

Port officials have not taken a position on the boundary issue.

Sarah Rees, a state Department of Ecology air quality manager, said she would hesitate to leave the Tideflats out of the “nonattainment” zone, especially since results from a monitoring station there suggest air pollution nearly exceeds permitted levels.

“It would be tough to justify how you could cut that stuff out,” she said.

In the South End, Fred Brookshier, vice chairman of the South End Neighborhood Council, said he was surprised that county officials had chosen to recommend a “nonattainment” designation focused on some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. “I’m upset with the county for doing it the way they do it. They ought to be working with us instead of against us,” he said.

Tacoma’s soot problems peak in winter when cold, stagnant air traps the emissions of woodstoves and fireplaces near the ground, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which regulates regional air quality.

Agency officials believe the problem could be reduced by coaxing residents to switch to cleaner fuels. With state help, they are offering grants to residents who want to get rid of uncertified woodstoves.

But while wood smoke is a big part of the problem, Clean Air Agency officials note that some of the soot comes from trucks, trains, ships and smokestacks.

More scientific testing is planned, but it’s not scheduled for completion before the “nonattainment” boundary is proposed.

Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, said he knows there’s a stigma attached to air pollution problems, but said it may be an overreaction to believe it the designation will hinder business opportunities or economic growth.

“It is important for us to recognize there is unhealthy air in Tacoma now,” he said. And it’s not confined to a single neighborhood, he added.

What originally attracted air-quality regulator attention was a long history of discouraging results from an air pollution monitoring station on South L Street, behind the Sound End Neighborhood Center.

But after Brookshier and other community activists complained that it was wrong to pin the blame exclusively on home heating, Clean Air Agency officials set up an array of temporary monitors.

“Unfortunately, what that monitoring showed is it is an areawide problem,” McLerran said. Even so, Quasim, Brackett and others complained that it’s unfair to call Tacoma to account for pollution violations when air quality may be worse in other places where regulators lack the documentation to prove it. Among areas Quasim cited were parts of Snohomish and King Counties, including the Duwamish Waterway area of Seattle.

“If you want to bring in other parts of Tacoma and the Port, then those areas of King and Snohomish county should also be brought into nonattainment,” said Quasim, who represents Ladenburg on the Clean Air Agency board.

Quasim’s remarks found a receptive audience in Pierce County Councilman Dick Muri, who also sits on the health board. “They’re out of line on this one,” he said. “This is not good government. This is not good science. We need people to step back and realize this is going to hurt Tacoma.”

Susan Gordon: 253-597-8756

susan.gordon@thenewstribune.com

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Monday is the deadline for public comment on the state Department of Ecology’s proposal to designate Tacoma a “non-attainment” area under the Clean Air Act.

Mail: Doug Schneider, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 4700, Olympia, WA 98504-7534

Fax: 360-407-7534

E-mail: dsch461@ecy.wa.gov

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