“I might be the only person here who’s reacting to it,” the Enumclaw resident said during the second day of a region-wide smog watch Friday. “And I’m the one with the really sensitive allergies.”

Congestion didn’t stop Dawn – or about 200 others – from taking in a sunny and hazy day at Nolte State Park outside Enumclaw. This area tends to get the highest levels of ozone throughout the region, according to officials at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, but everyone seemed more concerned with swimming, paddling canoes, enjoying a picnic or soaking up some rays beside Deep Lake.

“The only thing I’ve noticed is a little haze when I look at Mount Rainier,” said Caren English of South Prairie. “It’s usually such a nice view from here, but yeah, it’s definitely obscured.”

A thin haze had spread across this corner of King County, and ozone levels were expected to spike during late afternoon.

This is the second smog watch in the Puget Sound region this month; experts are more likely to call a smog watch after the Environmental Protection Agency lowered its ozone threshold in March from 84 to 75 parts per billion.

People with a sensitivity to pollution are advised to limit their time outdoors, the agency said. The state Department of Health said people with asthma, lung and cardiovascular diseases also should limit outdoor activities.

Temperatures were expected to hit the mid-90s today. Air quality was expected to improve tonight when marine air pushes the pollutants away, meaning the watch could end by Sunday.

Every time there’s a smog watch, sensors in Enumclaw regularly record some of the highest concentrations of ozone in the Puget Sound area. But Beijing it isn’t. So what attracts the smog?

Residents can blame Seattle. And Everett. And Bellevue. And basically everyone in that sprawling urban mass in which people drive everywhere, spewing the elements that create smog into the air.

Wind patterns and mountains also contribute; if it’s cool and there’s wind aplenty, no problem. If it’s hot, then this area gets a larger-than-average dose of O3.

“The wind is very, very low-speed during these events,” said Dave Kircher, the manager for air resources at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. “And it typically comes out of the north. And it’s affected by geography and geology of the area. That air mass moves down the mountains and ends up in the Enumclaw area.

“It’s kind of funneled down there.”

But if you think the residents are choking on bad air, rest assured it isn’t that bad. How one reacts to the smog depends on individual sensitivity, Kircher said.

“Our levels are nothing like you’d experience in Houston or Southern California,” he said.

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

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