As US Wildfires Pollute the Skies, a Loophole is Obscuring the Impact. Can it be Fixed?
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As Canadian wildfire smoke curled down to Kentucky this year, officials began to do the same thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On alert days, “smoke’s there when you wake up in the morning, it’s there when you’re going to bed at night,” said Michelle King, the assistant director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and other regulators say they’re working on how to communicate about smoke — something she anticipates doing more often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We collectively are seeing, more and more, the very real impacts of climate change, and no reason to think that is slowing down or going away,” King said. “I think that this is a new normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic, more U.S. states are laboring to understand how and when smoke will make meeting federal health standards harder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best advice a Boy Scout will give you is, ‘Don’t stand downwind of the campfire,’” said Frank Steitz, an assistant director at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But what if you can’t? What if you can’t avoid it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An obscure part of the Clean Air Act grants regulators an opening to “forgive” air pollution from wildfires, meaning that it doesn’t count against air-quality goals. After wildfires flourished across North America this year, more U.S. states east of the Mississippi may use this exceptional events rule to subtract smoke from the record, if not from the air we breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these exceptional events are no longer exceptional, and the requests to obscure them from air-quality records are more common, according to an investigation from \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The California Newsroom\u003c/em> and \u003cem>MuckRock\u003c/em>. Without reform, the exceptional events rule is likely to become a regularly used tool, one that experts warn may divert resources or distract from addressing the growing problem of wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding common ground to change U.S. clean air law is rare. But on wildfire smoke, academics, environmental advocates and some regulators agree: it’s time to reconsider our approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964710\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing neon yellow shirt with silver stripes hands another man a flag over a fence.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dave Jefferis hands a flag he rescued from burning to his neighbor, Jim Marchio. Both stayed behind to defend their homes from the River Fire on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to think bigger when it comes to solutions. We’re just getting there,” said Jodi Bechtel, the assistant director for the Department of Environment and Sustainability in Clark County, Nevada. “I cringe at the idea of amending the Clean Air Act because that is such a heavy lift. But I think we’re at the point where the way it’s written and the expectations in it almost aren’t working anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, said Michael Benjamin, the air quality and planning chief at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and his western colleagues “felt really bad” for eastern cities affected by Canadian fires. “But part of us, especially when it was impacting Washington D.C., we said, well, good,” he remembered. “Now the policymakers really understand what it means to be exposed to wildfire smoke. And maybe they’ll start to think seriously about how to mitigate it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing problem\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildland fires is reversing a continent-wide, decades-long trend toward bluer skies, according to recent Stanford University studies.\u003cbr>\nA warming climate has helped to set the stage for wildfires to burn hotter and bigger. “Stopping them or making them less severe is going to be very hard and going to involve intervention on a scale that we’re just currently not prepared or able to do,” said the environmental scientist Marshall Burke, one of the leaders of Stanford’s work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time the likelihood of wildfires grows, the U.S. is considering making stricter goals for ground-level ozone and fine particulate, pointing to an avalanche of studies documenting health impacts. The Biden administration has delayed plans to take action on ozone until after next year’s election. On fine particulates, a contentious public rule-making is expected to yield a more strict standard any day now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in the face of growing risk, and in anticipation of tighter limits on these types of pollution, state and local governments have been clear: they will turn to exceptional events for relief more often, even if the process is arduous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lowering the annual standard will require more exceptional event demonstrations, resulting in a significant increase in workload for the state of Arizona and Maricopa County, with no benefit to air quality or public health,” wrote the county’s department of air quality, commenting on the EPA’s proposed soot standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter uses an instrument to douse flames in a forest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-800x599.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-2048x1535.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1920x1439.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A prescribed fire in Hayfork on April 10, 2019. Advocates for the practice of setting planned burns to manage lands and minimize wildfire risk say the exceptional events rule gets in the way. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/California Newsroom)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be much more pressure on regulatory agencies to take advantage of exceptional events,” added CARB’s Benjamin. “Sometimes people don’t understand what attainment means, and under the Clean Air Act, it’s not necessarily that you’re breathing clean air, it’s that you’re meeting these requirements that are defined by the federal government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, public agencies and other air policy observers argue that the exceptional events rule effectively undermines one of the few tools states have to combat wildfires: beneficial or “prescribed” burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originated by Native Americans, controlled application of fire to wildlands reduces the risk of catastrophic infernos by clearing underbrush, pine needle beds and other fuels that make forests prone to burning. Federal and state agencies say that increasing this “good fire” is a priority. The EPA modified exceptional events guidelines in 2016, in part to do just that. But not a single prescribed fire has been forgiven under the exceptional events rule since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of 86 western scientists, researchers and advocates say that local regulators are not permitting prescribed fires because they fear they could create too much smoke — the kind that warrants exceptional events. “The current statutory scheme is selecting for the very worst type of fire when it comes to public health,” they told the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the California-Oregon border, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council advocates for a healthy ecosystem, which the director, Will Harling, said includes the return of beneficial fire. Obstacles to such planned burns, coupled with forgiveness offered wildfires, he said, are why his children “have smoked the equivalent of about 20,000 packs of cigarettes while they’re in their teens”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just because they scrub that out of the record doesn’t mean that smoke isn’t in their lungs,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA spokesperson Khanya Brann, responding to our questions in writing, confirmed that exceptional events “could result in the removal of event-influenced data from the data set used to make certain regulatory decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brann wrote that local air regulators must meet requirements in the exceptional events process, such as taking “appropriate and reasonable actions to protect public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pathways to reform\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Across the political spectrum, experts, advocates and states say it’s time to change the exceptional events rule. They offer vastly different ideas about what that change should look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>States and their advocates generally seek liberation from regulatory paperwork. Republican senators, led by Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, recently introduced legislation aimed in part at making filing for exceptional events easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, the Western Governors’ Association has argued for greater state flexibility, complaining both that “the rule is resource intensive, costly, and place[s] a significant burden on strained state resources”, and that regulators are slow to act on it. The nonpartisan association suggested to lawmakers that rules should permit more complicated multistate exceptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can’t fix it, goes the reasoning, so why should we be punished for it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA, for its part, maintains it is following the law. “The Clean Air Act requires the agency to address emissions from natural events such as wildfires differently than emissions from industrial or mobile sources that EPA and Tribal, state and local air agency regulations can control,” Brann wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independent clean-air watchdogs emphasize instead that the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964711\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964711\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke from a massive wildfire with a road in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Salt Fire burns in Shasta County, as seen from I-5 June 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That could mean stepping up enforcement, said Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit that advocates for transparency. Plenty of controls already on the books could work better, he said, including more frequent inspections and better monitoring systems for known polluters. “There’s always more that can be done,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan attorney Nick Leonard, who represents fence-line communities where Canadian smoke has mingled with routine local pollution, called the exceptional events rule a “misapplication” of the Clean Air Act and pointed out that local air regulators could simply stop using it. “It’s sort of creating this alternative reality,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964713\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964713\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A hazy view of skyscrapers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hazy New York City skylines during bad air quality on June 7, 2023, due to smoke from Canadian wildfires brought in by wind. \u003ccite>(Lev Radin/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the EPA strips exceptional events-related data from regulatory use, epidemiologists and health experts continue to analyze air quality using unmodified data, \u003ca href=\"https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html\">which remains available.\u003c/a> In its annual State of the Air report, the American Lung Association has always included pollution exceedances that exceptional events would leave out, said Will Barrett, a clean-air expert for the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are unhealthy air days,” Barrett said. “Ultimately, your lungs don’t care if the pollution is classified as an exceptional event under an obscure federal law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A warning light on the dashboard for the Clean Air Act’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the summer of 2023, more than 20 states so far, from Wyoming to Wisconsin to North Carolina, have flagged air-quality readings that were far higher than normal. Most of these days came in June, as skies in the midwest and eastern U.S. were blanketed with Canadian wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964714\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a face mask rides a bike in a city with cars and people moving in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many New Yorkers wore face masks on June 7, 2023, because of bad air quality brought in by smoke from Canadian wildfires. \u003ccite>(Lev Radin/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke knows no borders. Unlike refineries, wildfires have no scrubbers. You can’t shut them down. But the Clean Air Act, whose pollution controls have saved millions of lives, affords the agency responsible for healthy air no direct authority to manage lands that burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the EPA’s response to this fast-growing source of soot, ash and toxic chemicals has been “ad hoc” and muddled by a lack of coordination with other agencies, according to a Congressional watchdog’s report earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA spokesperson Brann wrote that the agency “supports efforts by agencies across the federal government — including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, as well as interagency forums such as the Wildland Fire Leadership Council — to implement and further develop strategies to reduce wildfire risk, and to help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964715\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A hazy view of a city skyline.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Canadian wildfire smoke obscures the Chicago skyline on June 29, 2023. \u003ccite>(Dave Jonasen/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The growing use of the exceptional events rule reveals “a poorer and poorer fit between the policy we have and the problems it’s trying to solve”, said Stanford University’s Michael Wara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the rule “a warning light on the dashboard for the Clean Air Act”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To heed it, say experts, it’s essential to adapt the law to the conditions under which we already breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If fires are going to become more widespread and more predictable, then that changes the calculus for air-quality determinations,” said Schaeffer of the Environmental Integrity Project. “You have to assume that’s part of your baseline now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The landmark law protecting air quality wasn’t created to deal with global heating. But the policies of the past are colliding with the problems of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964716\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-800x526.png\" alt=\"A hazy view of a bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-800x526.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1020x671.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-160x105.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1536x1010.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-2048x1347.png 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1920x1263.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Brooklyn Bridge shrouded in Canadian wildfire smoke this summer. \u003ccite>(Brigid Bergin/Gothamist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Clean Air Act should really include climate,” said Benjamin of CARB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“States who have tried to keep these things separate — to keep climate change and exposure to local air pollution as two distinct things — I don’t think they’re going to be able to maintain that indefinitely,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key assumption of air pollution policy, said Wara, has been that we are in control: “Climate change is kind of making a mockery of that.”\u003cbr>\nThe obligation to protect people from polluted air remains, he added: “That’s really what the Clean Air Act is supposed to do, is keep people safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he was in college, Moiz Mir lived under an orange sky in Sacramento, California, for weeks because of the Camp Fire; some of that pollution was forgiven in nearby Nevada county as an exceptional event. His neighbors didn’t understand the risks of smoke then, or know where to get masks. He began to warn them, to educate himself, and to learn from other fire-prone communities how to cope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke, he said, “made a permanent and lasting impact” on his psyche and life path. Now 26 years old and a grassroots climate activist, he points out that “in crisis, people look to authority for answers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re still looking, as the smoke thickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were thinking like the impacts of climate change were distant,” Mir said. “But now, it’s quite literally the air that I breathe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Manola Secaira contributed to this report.\u003cbr>\nSmoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Guardian. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for The Guardian.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Everyone agrees it’s time to change the Clean Air Act's exceptional events rule, but has different solutions.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1697585722,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":53,"wordCount":2485},"headData":{"title":"As US Wildfires Pollute the Skies, a Loophole is Obscuring the Impact. Can it be Fixed? | KQED","description":"Everyone agrees it’s time to change the Clean Air Act's exceptional events rule, but has different solutions.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"As US Wildfires Pollute the Skies, a Loophole is Obscuring the Impact. Can it be Fixed?","datePublished":"2023-10-18T10:00:35.000Z","dateModified":"2023-10-17T23:35:22.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"nprByline":"Molly Peterson, Dillon Bergin, Emily Zentner and Andrew Witherspoon ","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11964707/ee-solutions","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>During wildfire season in the western U.S., soot-clogged skies have long triggered public alerts with advice like: \u003cem>Shut the windows and stay indoors\u003c/em>. For those who can afford it: \u003cem>Use an air filter\u003c/em>. As Canadian wildfire smoke curled down to Kentucky this year, officials began to do the same thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On alert days, “smoke’s there when you wake up in the morning, it’s there when you’re going to bed at night,” said Michelle King, the assistant director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and other regulators say they’re working on how to communicate about smoke — something she anticipates doing more often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We collectively are seeing, more and more, the very real impacts of climate change, and no reason to think that is slowing down or going away,” King said. “I think that this is a new normal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic, more U.S. states are laboring to understand how and when smoke will make meeting federal health standards harder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best advice a Boy Scout will give you is, ‘Don’t stand downwind of the campfire,’” said Frank Steitz, an assistant director at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But what if you can’t? What if you can’t avoid it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An obscure part of the Clean Air Act grants regulators an opening to “forgive” air pollution from wildfires, meaning that it doesn’t count against air-quality goals. After wildfires flourished across North America this year, more U.S. states east of the Mississippi may use this exceptional events rule to subtract smoke from the record, if not from the air we breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these exceptional events are no longer exceptional, and the requests to obscure them from air-quality records are more common, according to an investigation from \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The California Newsroom\u003c/em> and \u003cem>MuckRock\u003c/em>. Without reform, the exceptional events rule is likely to become a regularly used tool, one that experts warn may divert resources or distract from addressing the growing problem of wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding common ground to change U.S. clean air law is rare. But on wildfire smoke, academics, environmental advocates and some regulators agree: it’s time to reconsider our approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964710\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing neon yellow shirt with silver stripes hands another man a flag over a fence.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/River-Fire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dave Jefferis hands a flag he rescued from burning to his neighbor, Jim Marchio. Both stayed behind to defend their homes from the River Fire on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to think bigger when it comes to solutions. We’re just getting there,” said Jodi Bechtel, the assistant director for the Department of Environment and Sustainability in Clark County, Nevada. “I cringe at the idea of amending the Clean Air Act because that is such a heavy lift. But I think we’re at the point where the way it’s written and the expectations in it almost aren’t working anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, said Michael Benjamin, the air quality and planning chief at the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and his western colleagues “felt really bad” for eastern cities affected by Canadian fires. “But part of us, especially when it was impacting Washington D.C., we said, well, good,” he remembered. “Now the policymakers really understand what it means to be exposed to wildfire smoke. And maybe they’ll start to think seriously about how to mitigate it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing problem\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Smoke from wildland fires is reversing a continent-wide, decades-long trend toward bluer skies, according to recent Stanford University studies.\u003cbr>\nA warming climate has helped to set the stage for wildfires to burn hotter and bigger. “Stopping them or making them less severe is going to be very hard and going to involve intervention on a scale that we’re just currently not prepared or able to do,” said the environmental scientist Marshall Burke, one of the leaders of Stanford’s work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time the likelihood of wildfires grows, the U.S. is considering making stricter goals for ground-level ozone and fine particulate, pointing to an avalanche of studies documenting health impacts. The Biden administration has delayed plans to take action on ozone until after next year’s election. On fine particulates, a contentious public rule-making is expected to yield a more strict standard any day now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet in the face of growing risk, and in anticipation of tighter limits on these types of pollution, state and local governments have been clear: they will turn to exceptional events for relief more often, even if the process is arduous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lowering the annual standard will require more exceptional event demonstrations, resulting in a significant increase in workload for the state of Arizona and Maricopa County, with no benefit to air quality or public health,” wrote the county’s department of air quality, commenting on the EPA’s proposed soot standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A firefighter uses an instrument to douse flames in a forest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-800x599.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-2048x1535.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_7960-1920x1439.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A prescribed fire in Hayfork on April 10, 2019. Advocates for the practice of setting planned burns to manage lands and minimize wildfire risk say the exceptional events rule gets in the way. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/California Newsroom)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be much more pressure on regulatory agencies to take advantage of exceptional events,” added CARB’s Benjamin. “Sometimes people don’t understand what attainment means, and under the Clean Air Act, it’s not necessarily that you’re breathing clean air, it’s that you’re meeting these requirements that are defined by the federal government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, public agencies and other air policy observers argue that the exceptional events rule effectively undermines one of the few tools states have to combat wildfires: beneficial or “prescribed” burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Originated by Native Americans, controlled application of fire to wildlands reduces the risk of catastrophic infernos by clearing underbrush, pine needle beds and other fuels that make forests prone to burning. Federal and state agencies say that increasing this “good fire” is a priority. The EPA modified exceptional events guidelines in 2016, in part to do just that. But not a single prescribed fire has been forgiven under the exceptional events rule since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of 86 western scientists, researchers and advocates say that local regulators are not permitting prescribed fires because they fear they could create too much smoke — the kind that warrants exceptional events. “The current statutory scheme is selecting for the very worst type of fire when it comes to public health,” they told the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the California-Oregon border, the Mid Klamath Watershed Council advocates for a healthy ecosystem, which the director, Will Harling, said includes the return of beneficial fire. Obstacles to such planned burns, coupled with forgiveness offered wildfires, he said, are why his children “have smoked the equivalent of about 20,000 packs of cigarettes while they’re in their teens”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just because they scrub that out of the record doesn’t mean that smoke isn’t in their lungs,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA spokesperson Khanya Brann, responding to our questions in writing, confirmed that exceptional events “could result in the removal of event-influenced data from the data set used to make certain regulatory decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brann wrote that local air regulators must meet requirements in the exceptional events process, such as taking “appropriate and reasonable actions to protect public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pathways to reform\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Across the political spectrum, experts, advocates and states say it’s time to change the exceptional events rule. They offer vastly different ideas about what that change should look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>States and their advocates generally seek liberation from regulatory paperwork. Republican senators, led by Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, recently introduced legislation aimed in part at making filing for exceptional events easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, the Western Governors’ Association has argued for greater state flexibility, complaining both that “the rule is resource intensive, costly, and place[s] a significant burden on strained state resources”, and that regulators are slow to act on it. The nonpartisan association suggested to lawmakers that rules should permit more complicated multistate exceptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can’t fix it, goes the reasoning, so why should we be punished for it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA, for its part, maintains it is following the law. “The Clean Air Act requires the agency to address emissions from natural events such as wildfires differently than emissions from industrial or mobile sources that EPA and Tribal, state and local air agency regulations can control,” Brann wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Independent clean-air watchdogs emphasize instead that the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964711\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964711\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Smoke from a massive wildfire with a road in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Saltfire.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Salt Fire burns in Shasta County, as seen from I-5 June 30, 2021. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That could mean stepping up enforcement, said Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit that advocates for transparency. Plenty of controls already on the books could work better, he said, including more frequent inspections and better monitoring systems for known polluters. “There’s always more that can be done,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan attorney Nick Leonard, who represents fence-line communities where Canadian smoke has mingled with routine local pollution, called the exceptional events rule a “misapplication” of the Clean Air Act and pointed out that local air regulators could simply stop using it. “It’s sort of creating this alternative reality,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964713\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964713\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A hazy view of skyscrapers.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306199-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hazy New York City skylines during bad air quality on June 7, 2023, due to smoke from Canadian wildfires brought in by wind. \u003ccite>(Lev Radin/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Though the EPA strips exceptional events-related data from regulatory use, epidemiologists and health experts continue to analyze air quality using unmodified data, \u003ca href=\"https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html\">which remains available.\u003c/a> In its annual State of the Air report, the American Lung Association has always included pollution exceedances that exceptional events would leave out, said Will Barrett, a clean-air expert for the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are unhealthy air days,” Barrett said. “Ultimately, your lungs don’t care if the pollution is classified as an exceptional event under an obscure federal law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A warning light on the dashboard for the Clean Air Act’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the summer of 2023, more than 20 states so far, from Wyoming to Wisconsin to North Carolina, have flagged air-quality readings that were far higher than normal. Most of these days came in June, as skies in the midwest and eastern U.S. were blanketed with Canadian wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964714\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a face mask rides a bike in a city with cars and people moving in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2314306239-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many New Yorkers wore face masks on June 7, 2023, because of bad air quality brought in by smoke from Canadian wildfires. \u003ccite>(Lev Radin/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke knows no borders. Unlike refineries, wildfires have no scrubbers. You can’t shut them down. But the Clean Air Act, whose pollution controls have saved millions of lives, affords the agency responsible for healthy air no direct authority to manage lands that burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the EPA’s response to this fast-growing source of soot, ash and toxic chemicals has been “ad hoc” and muddled by a lack of coordination with other agencies, according to a Congressional watchdog’s report earlier this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EPA spokesperson Brann wrote that the agency “supports efforts by agencies across the federal government — including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, as well as interagency forums such as the Wildland Fire Leadership Council — to implement and further develop strategies to reduce wildfire risk, and to help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964715\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A hazy view of a city skyline.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/shutterstock_2324780883-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Canadian wildfire smoke obscures the Chicago skyline on June 29, 2023. \u003ccite>(Dave Jonasen/Shutterstock)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The growing use of the exceptional events rule reveals “a poorer and poorer fit between the policy we have and the problems it’s trying to solve”, said Stanford University’s Michael Wara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He called the rule “a warning light on the dashboard for the Clean Air Act”.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To heed it, say experts, it’s essential to adapt the law to the conditions under which we already breathe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If fires are going to become more widespread and more predictable, then that changes the calculus for air-quality determinations,” said Schaeffer of the Environmental Integrity Project. “You have to assume that’s part of your baseline now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The landmark law protecting air quality wasn’t created to deal with global heating. But the policies of the past are colliding with the problems of the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964716\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-800x526.png\" alt=\"A hazy view of a bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"526\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-800x526.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1020x671.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-160x105.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1536x1010.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-2048x1347.png 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-13-at-9.40.42-AM-1920x1263.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Brooklyn Bridge shrouded in Canadian wildfire smoke this summer. \u003ccite>(Brigid Bergin/Gothamist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The Clean Air Act should really include climate,” said Benjamin of CARB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“States who have tried to keep these things separate — to keep climate change and exposure to local air pollution as two distinct things — I don’t think they’re going to be able to maintain that indefinitely,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key assumption of air pollution policy, said Wara, has been that we are in control: “Climate change is kind of making a mockery of that.”\u003cbr>\nThe obligation to protect people from polluted air remains, he added: “That’s really what the Clean Air Act is supposed to do, is keep people safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he was in college, Moiz Mir lived under an orange sky in Sacramento, California, for weeks because of the Camp Fire; some of that pollution was forgiven in nearby Nevada county as an exceptional event. His neighbors didn’t understand the risks of smoke then, or know where to get masks. He began to warn them, to educate himself, and to learn from other fire-prone communities how to cope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke, he said, “made a permanent and lasting impact” on his psyche and life path. Now 26 years old and a grassroots climate activist, he points out that “in crisis, people look to authority for answers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re still looking, as the smoke thickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were thinking like the impacts of climate change were distant,” Mir said. “But now, it’s quite literally the air that I breathe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Manola Secaira contributed to this report.\u003cbr>\nSmoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock \u003c/em>and \u003cem>The Guardian. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for The Guardian.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11964707/ee-solutions","authors":["byline_news_11964707"],"categories":["news_19906","news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_20962","news_33348","news_27626","news_33347"],"featImg":"news_11964712","label":"news"},"news_11964517":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11964517","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11964517","score":null,"sort":[1697536802000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"in-detroit-a-magic-wand-makes-dirty-air-look-clean-and-lets-polluters-off-the-hook","title":"In Detroit, a 'Magic Wand' Makes Dirty Air Look Clean — and Lets Polluters Off the Hook","publishDate":1697536802,"format":"standard","headTitle":"In Detroit, a ‘Magic Wand’ Makes Dirty Air Look Clean — and Lets Polluters Off the Hook | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>In southeast Detroit, the Environmental Protection Agency says, the air is clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Shobe’s lungs tell a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a lot of Detroiters, Shobe suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD, a long-term lung ailment that flares up when the air is smoggy or smokey. On those days, Shobe said: “I probably am low on energy, and I feel like I’m seeing a haze in the air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traffic, industrial sources and meteorological conditions often worsen pollution in his part of town. One of Shobe’s closest neighbors is the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant, where Jeep Wagoneers roll off the line. Since opening a paint shop on the property just over two years ago, it has racked up eight air pollution violations and fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Shobe was baffled when he heard in May of 2023 that Detroit had three years of clean-air data, and that according to the EPA, the region met strict federal air-quality standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators for Wayne County, where Detroit is located, accomplished that feat by removing two of the highest-ozone days from their calculations. They could do that because they had identified a surprising source of dirty air: wildfires burning across the border, in other states and in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a little-known loophole in the Clean Air Act, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) had made the case to the EPA that pollution on those days stemmed from an exceptional event, defined as something uncontrollable, unlikely to recur and, often, natural: wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “exceptional events rule” allows the EPA to strike pollution caused by these events from the record, allowing regulators to meet clean-air goals on paper, without forcing local industry to comply with tighter pollution controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man sits inside a home at a dinner table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Shobe, who lives adjacent to the Stellantis Mack Auto Assembly Plant, in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 3, 2023. Shobe suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which gets worse on days when the air is smoggy or smoky. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Michigan, a regulator referred to the process as a “magic wand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That wand is regularly, if quietly, being waved. An investigation by The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> found that state and local air-quality managers across the U.S. increasingly rely on the rule to meet air-quality goals because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">review of federal data\u003c/a>, as well as thousands of pages of regulatory records, shows that at least 21 million people, including in Michigan, now live and breathe \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/final-agency-actions-215474/\">in areas where the EPA has forgiven pollution (DOC)\u003c/a> from at least one “exceptional event,” often a wildfire, since the law took effect. Public contracts and correspondence also reveal how local governments have spent millions in taxpayer dollars to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">seek forgiveness for pollution (DOC)\u003c/a> related to “exceptional events,” helped at times by industry lobbyists, who pushed for the expansion of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.levernews.com/oil-lobby-pushed-pollution-loophole-for-wildfire-smoke/\">loophole in the Clean Air Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964684\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-800x674.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"674\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-800x674.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-1020x859.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-160x135.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>From the mountain west to the Rust Belt and into the south, utility, energy and business advocates have worked to promote the rule’s use, aiming to avoid costly emission controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It isn’t just industry that benefits, said John Walke, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The nonprofit environmental advocacy organization has sued the EPA over its interpretation of the rule. “Loopholes and exceptions [like this one] are treated as get-out-of-jail-free cards for politicians who are balancing economic activities and development with the need for clean air and public health,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>In and out of limbo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Detroit was on tenterhooks. The region had been struggling toward clean air since 2015, when the EPA last lowered the healthy standard for ozone. State officials argued to the EPA that the region had improved enough to meet air-quality goals. Just in case, they were ready to enact tighter and more costly pollution controls in southeast Michigan, as well as a new vehicle inspection program — an unpopular idea in the Motor City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964685\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-800x743.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-800x743.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-1020x948.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-160x149.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then air-pollution numbers spiked in Shobe’s neighborhood in June and July of 2022, stalling progress with the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicly, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, a 120-year-old, politically powerful trade group, warned that “limbo” about Detroit’s air-quality designation would “dampen business growth in the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Air regulators and government officials heeded that warning. Behind the scenes, despite the persistent problems with Detroit’s air and the health consequences for members of the public like Shobe, they worked under tight deadlines to obtain Detroit’s clean bill of air health, emails show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Top officials from the office of governor Gretchen Whitmer sought meetings with regulators, beginning in July of last year. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), a regional planning partnership, joined the effort. In October, an air-quality specialist with the environment, Great Lakes and energy department wrote to counterparts at the council: “We know that conversations are continuing to be had ‘at the White House level’ about Detroit ozone.” In November, lobbyist Mary Beth McGowan emailed SEMCOG staffers about a call between the governor’s chief of staff and the EPA’s deputy administrator, Janet McCabe. The call appears on McCabe’s public calendar on November 21. By January of 2023, Michigan had assembled its “demonstration” of an exceptional event. Southeast Michigan’s last-ditch effort to receive a passing grade for its air quality had taken only a few months to assemble. By March of this year, the EPA indicated it would work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One scientist has called the demonstration “a challenging one to review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my opinion, the evidence that the days described were impacted by smoke due to wildfires was limited,” said Dan Jaffe, a professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry at the University of Washington-Bothell who has advised the EPA, states including Louisiana and private companies on the movement and makeup of ozone pollution. “And I understand why the community has concerns over that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to Jaffe’s comment, the EPA wrote that the “rationale for approving Michigan’s demonstration [is] consistent” with the exceptional events rule. The EPA also said it objects to the word “loophole,” arguing it “delegitimizes the process established by Congress in the Clean Air Act and implemented by EPA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964688\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white house with a black door and steps.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Justice for Beniteau Street Residents’ sign hangs in a neighbor’s home across the street from Robert Shobe’s home. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Critics of the exceptional events rule say the implications of the conversations among regulators, lobbyists and high-ranking government officials like the ones in Michigan are significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anytime you bring politics into a decision like this, it can skew the decision-making,” said Nick Leonard, an attorney with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Michigan who reviewed the emails. Pointing to the potential harm to people like Robert Shobe, Leonard has sued the EPA over Detroit’s redesignation and the exceptional event decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his opinion, Michigan regulators “don’t want to enact more stringent regulations on some of the major industry in the area, many of which are auto-assembly plants and a very powerful political force in Michigan and nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan air-quality regulators declined to be interviewed, as did the Michigan governor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA declined to comment on pending litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Shocking and unseemly’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In other parts of the country, industry and economic interests are involved in making these cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have approached the EPA about exceptional events, or actually made filings, in at least 29 states. Emails and documents show that in more than half of those states, lobbyists and business groups weighed in on those efforts. In some places, private industry is paying to support these requests, revealing a close-knit effort between local authorities and businesses to protect the status quo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest Ozone Group, a powerful collective of utility companies and trade organizations that regularly opposes ozone controls, wrote public comments and sought meetings with regulators on wildfire exceptional events in western Michigan, Cook County, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964691\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964691\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man wearing a blue shirt sits down inside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Leonard at his home in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 6, 2023. Leonard is suing the EPA over the agency’s clean air determination for Detroit. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Kentucky, one member of the group, Louisville Gas and Electric (LGE), a for-profit company, paid for an exceptional event analysis blaming excess ozone pollution on the \u003ca href=\"https://dffm.az.gov/2020-wildfire-season-one-worst-decade\">2020 wildfires in Arizona\u003c/a>. Emails describe meetings about the analysis among regulators, the utility and a local chamber of commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the first time LGE indicated interest in exceptional events; it didn’t surprise Michelle King, the assistant director of the Louisville metro air pollution control district. The power sector is “very savvy,” she said, adding that such companies “understood the implications of what an exceptional event would or wouldn’t do with regard to our area’s non-attainment, and then the effect that that would have on them.” In the end, the district did not formally submit the analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A wide view of a complex with railroad tracks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Part of a complex encompassing both the North Assembly and the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, representing major refiners like ExxonMobil, regional midstream companies, and marketing firms, paid for an exceptional event filing in Louisiana in 2017. That demonstration allowed the five-parish Baton Rouge area to meet its air-quality goals for the first time, affecting 800,000 people. It also let local polluters avoid tougher regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going full bore on this one,” wrote Vivian Aucoin, a senior scientist for the Louisiana department of environmental quality, in an email from October 2017. “Use whatever or whoever you need to get the information we need to prove” that wildfires were to blame, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aucoin, who now goes by Vivian Johnson, said that in lieu of payment for violations, industry trade groups in Louisiana “often” pay for “beneficial environmental projects.” In this case, “the state didn’t have the money we needed,” she said. “And so their industry members bellied up to the bar and paid for the modelling that needed to be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about industry involvement in Louisiana, the EPA said “[f]or questions about how air agencies prepare their demonstrations, including coordination with industry or other parties, EPA recommends those questions be directed to specific air agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think people understand the degree to which there’s such a cozy, tightly woven tapestry of relationships between regulated industries and their regulators,” said John Walke, with the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is “an entirely rational undertaking by these industries and their lawyers and their lobbyists,” he said. “There’s no downside to them crying chicken or being wrong because at worst, the agency doesn’t bite, but at best they express interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that it is shocking and unseemly to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Millions of taxpayer dollars\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Removing bad air days from the record isn’t cheap. States are spending millions of taxpayer dollars to get pollution forgiven, according to public contracts and requests. Local regulators regularly complain that applying for exceptional events is expensive and time-consuming. The reports filed to the EPA can often run into hundreds of pages with detailed scientific analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price of filing for an exceptional event appears to range widely, depending on the scope and complexity of the work, as well as the cost of external consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) estimated that one filing cost as much as $20,000 and 200 hours to prepare. At a congressional hearing in 2017, a Wyoming state regulator estimated “that it would take about 15 months and contractor assistance at a cost of over $150,000 to produce just one” demonstration for ozone-related to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clearer picture emerges when consultants get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has committed to spending nearly $5 million across 19 contracts since 2018, toward work to improve exceptional event modeling and monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas is waiting to hear from the EPA about two open requests: one to exclude pollution related to wind in the El Paso area, and the other to exclude some smog pollution around Houston because of wildfires, mostly in neighboring gulf states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written response to questions, TCEQ said that it “routinely” conducts research, and that it “disagrees with the assertion that the exceptional events rule prioritizes any entity over public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, local air officials have mounted a sustained campaign to take advantage of exceptional events, including arguing that wildfires are beyond local control. In 2021, the county filed 17 exceptional event determinations with federal regulators; the EPA rejected five of them, and declined to weigh in on the rest. All told, Clark County has approved spending more than $3.3 million over a nine-year period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pushed to the regional level and we’re supposed to solve it. We cannot solve it alone,” said Jodi Bechtel, an assistant director for the department of environment and sustainability in Clark County, Nevada. “We’re lucky to have the resources to be able to put these exceptional event packages together and commit these millions of dollars to at least maybe do them if we need them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No state has filed more requests than California, where the state air resources board (CARB) has invested significant resources in developing analysis and requests, even as staffers point out it takes months to work with the EPA on demonstrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that probably makes it seem to people like we’re taking advantage of a loophole, to try to show attainment,” said Michael Benjamin, chief of the air quality planning and science division at CARB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But breathing clean air isn’t the same thing as meeting federal air requirements, he said, which carries legal consequences: “If there weren’t such significant repercussions for not attaining, like the potential loss of federal highway funds and so on, then there wouldn’t be that pressure on air districts and CARB to really take full advantage of exceptional events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan regulators reckoned they spent 250 hours writing last year’s exceptional event demonstration — but declined to provide a cost estimate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It still happened’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In July, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-07/23-3583_Documents.pdf\">sued (PDF) \u003c/a>the EPA over its decision to move Detroit back into attainment. A successful lawsuit could force regulators to reimpose the controls they drafted. It would also require them to be more transparent about Detroit’s air quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Excluding data to say that the air is clean is a “disservice to the public and the community,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents Detroit. “Either we’re for addressing the climate crisis or we’re not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964687\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a cap and t-shirt sits in a chair looking to the side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shobe has his own air monitor on his porch. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tlaib argues that the federal government should do better at counting the cumulative impacts of pollution. “I want those that are making these decisions and these exceptions and carve-outs to know that jobs don’t cure cancer,” she said. “They don’t stop the increase of asthma among our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan officials didn’t comment, but pointed to a recently published blog post where the department of environment, Great Lakes, and energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.michigan.gov/egle/newsroom/mi-environment/2023/08/28/wildfire-smoke-and-pollution-a-primer-on-michigans-attainment-status\">wrote\u003c/a> that it “remains to be seen” whether the state will apply for more exemptions this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In southeast Detroit, Robert Shobe has his own air monitor on his porch. He trusts it, he said, regardless of what the official numbers say about two smoggy days last June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It still happened,” he said. The policies don’t make sense to him; he said it’s wrong “that they can have a way to take away something that you have documentation of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a throwaway, I’m in a sacrifice zone,” he said. “We complain, we file complaints, we’re doing everything we can to fight for ourselves, and they hide behind loopholes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Across the US, local governments, lobbyists and industry have spent millions to get wildfire pollution excluded from the record. People like Robert Shobe pay the price.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1697584365,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":63,"wordCount":2883},"headData":{"title":"In Detroit, a 'Magic Wand' Makes Dirty Air Look Clean — and Lets Polluters Off the Hook | KQED","description":"Across the US, local governments, lobbyists and industry have spent millions to get wildfire pollution excluded from the record. People like Robert Shobe pay the price.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"In Detroit, a 'Magic Wand' Makes Dirty Air Look Clean — and Lets Polluters Off the Hook","datePublished":"2023-10-17T10:00:02.000Z","dateModified":"2023-10-17T23:12:45.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"nprByline":"Molly Peterson, Dillon Bergin and Andrew Witherspoon","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11964517/in-detroit-a-magic-wand-makes-dirty-air-look-clean-and-lets-polluters-off-the-hook","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In southeast Detroit, the Environmental Protection Agency says, the air is clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Shobe’s lungs tell a different story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like a lot of Detroiters, Shobe suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD, a long-term lung ailment that flares up when the air is smoggy or smokey. On those days, Shobe said: “I probably am low on energy, and I feel like I’m seeing a haze in the air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traffic, industrial sources and meteorological conditions often worsen pollution in his part of town. One of Shobe’s closest neighbors is the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant, where Jeep Wagoneers roll off the line. Since opening a paint shop on the property just over two years ago, it has racked up eight air pollution violations and fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Shobe was baffled when he heard in May of 2023 that Detroit had three years of clean-air data, and that according to the EPA, the region met strict federal air-quality standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators for Wayne County, where Detroit is located, accomplished that feat by removing two of the highest-ozone days from their calculations. They could do that because they had identified a surprising source of dirty air: wildfires burning across the border, in other states and in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a little-known loophole in the Clean Air Act, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) had made the case to the EPA that pollution on those days stemmed from an exceptional event, defined as something uncontrollable, unlikely to recur and, often, natural: wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “exceptional events rule” allows the EPA to strike pollution caused by these events from the record, allowing regulators to meet clean-air goals on paper, without forcing local industry to comply with tighter pollution controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964686\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man sits inside a home at a dinner table.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__17-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Shobe, who lives adjacent to the Stellantis Mack Auto Assembly Plant, in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 3, 2023. Shobe suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which gets worse on days when the air is smoggy or smoky. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Michigan, a regulator referred to the process as a “magic wand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That wand is regularly, if quietly, being waved. An investigation by The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> found that state and local air-quality managers across the U.S. increasingly rely on the rule to meet air-quality goals because of wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">review of federal data\u003c/a>, as well as thousands of pages of regulatory records, shows that at least 21 million people, including in Michigan, now live and breathe \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/final-agency-actions-215474/\">in areas where the EPA has forgiven pollution (DOC)\u003c/a> from at least one “exceptional event,” often a wildfire, since the law took effect. Public contracts and correspondence also reveal how local governments have spent millions in taxpayer dollars to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">seek forgiveness for pollution (DOC)\u003c/a> related to “exceptional events,” helped at times by industry lobbyists, who pushed for the expansion of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.levernews.com/oil-lobby-pushed-pollution-loophole-for-wildfire-smoke/\">loophole in the Clean Air Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964684\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-800x674.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"674\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-800x674.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-1020x859.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1-160x135.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-4-1.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>From the mountain west to the Rust Belt and into the south, utility, energy and business advocates have worked to promote the rule’s use, aiming to avoid costly emission controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It isn’t just industry that benefits, said John Walke, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The nonprofit environmental advocacy organization has sued the EPA over its interpretation of the rule. “Loopholes and exceptions [like this one] are treated as get-out-of-jail-free cards for politicians who are balancing economic activities and development with the need for clean air and public health,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>In and out of limbo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Detroit was on tenterhooks. The region had been struggling toward clean air since 2015, when the EPA last lowered the healthy standard for ozone. State officials argued to the EPA that the region had improved enough to meet air-quality goals. Just in case, they were ready to enact tighter and more costly pollution controls in southeast Michigan, as well as a new vehicle inspection program — an unpopular idea in the Motor City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964685\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-800x743.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-800x743.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-1020x948.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1-160x149.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-5-1.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then air-pollution numbers spiked in Shobe’s neighborhood in June and July of 2022, stalling progress with the EPA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicly, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, a 120-year-old, politically powerful trade group, warned that “limbo” about Detroit’s air-quality designation would “dampen business growth in the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Air regulators and government officials heeded that warning. Behind the scenes, despite the persistent problems with Detroit’s air and the health consequences for members of the public like Shobe, they worked under tight deadlines to obtain Detroit’s clean bill of air health, emails show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Top officials from the office of governor Gretchen Whitmer sought meetings with regulators, beginning in July of last year. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), a regional planning partnership, joined the effort. In October, an air-quality specialist with the environment, Great Lakes and energy department wrote to counterparts at the council: “We know that conversations are continuing to be had ‘at the White House level’ about Detroit ozone.” In November, lobbyist Mary Beth McGowan emailed SEMCOG staffers about a call between the governor’s chief of staff and the EPA’s deputy administrator, Janet McCabe. The call appears on McCabe’s public calendar on November 21. By January of 2023, Michigan had assembled its “demonstration” of an exceptional event. Southeast Michigan’s last-ditch effort to receive a passing grade for its air quality had taken only a few months to assemble. By March of this year, the EPA indicated it would work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One scientist has called the demonstration “a challenging one to review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my opinion, the evidence that the days described were impacted by smoke due to wildfires was limited,” said Dan Jaffe, a professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry at the University of Washington-Bothell who has advised the EPA, states including Louisiana and private companies on the movement and makeup of ozone pollution. “And I understand why the community has concerns over that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Responding to Jaffe’s comment, the EPA wrote that the “rationale for approving Michigan’s demonstration [is] consistent” with the exceptional events rule. The EPA also said it objects to the word “loophole,” arguing it “delegitimizes the process established by Congress in the Clean Air Act and implemented by EPA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964688\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white house with a black door and steps.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__39-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘Justice for Beniteau Street Residents’ sign hangs in a neighbor’s home across the street from Robert Shobe’s home. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Critics of the exceptional events rule say the implications of the conversations among regulators, lobbyists and high-ranking government officials like the ones in Michigan are significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anytime you bring politics into a decision like this, it can skew the decision-making,” said Nick Leonard, an attorney with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Michigan who reviewed the emails. Pointing to the potential harm to people like Robert Shobe, Leonard has sued the EPA over Detroit’s redesignation and the exceptional event decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his opinion, Michigan regulators “don’t want to enact more stringent regulations on some of the major industry in the area, many of which are auto-assembly plants and a very powerful political force in Michigan and nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan air-quality regulators declined to be interviewed, as did the Michigan governor’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA declined to comment on pending litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Shocking and unseemly’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In other parts of the country, industry and economic interests are involved in making these cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have approached the EPA about exceptional events, or actually made filings, in at least 29 states. Emails and documents show that in more than half of those states, lobbyists and business groups weighed in on those efforts. In some places, private industry is paying to support these requests, revealing a close-knit effort between local authorities and businesses to protect the status quo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Midwest Ozone Group, a powerful collective of utility companies and trade organizations that regularly opposes ozone controls, wrote public comments and sought meetings with regulators on wildfire exceptional events in western Michigan, Cook County, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964691\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964691\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man wearing a blue shirt sits down inside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis_2__27-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Leonard at his home in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 6, 2023. Leonard is suing the EPA over the agency’s clean air determination for Detroit. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Kentucky, one member of the group, Louisville Gas and Electric (LGE), a for-profit company, paid for an exceptional event analysis blaming excess ozone pollution on the \u003ca href=\"https://dffm.az.gov/2020-wildfire-season-one-worst-decade\">2020 wildfires in Arizona\u003c/a>. Emails describe meetings about the analysis among regulators, the utility and a local chamber of commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the first time LGE indicated interest in exceptional events; it didn’t surprise Michelle King, the assistant director of the Louisville metro air pollution control district. The power sector is “very savvy,” she said, adding that such companies “understood the implications of what an exceptional event would or wouldn’t do with regard to our area’s non-attainment, and then the effect that that would have on them.” In the end, the district did not formally submit the analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964689\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A wide view of a complex with railroad tracks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__47-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Part of a complex encompassing both the North Assembly and the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on Oct. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, representing major refiners like ExxonMobil, regional midstream companies, and marketing firms, paid for an exceptional event filing in Louisiana in 2017. That demonstration allowed the five-parish Baton Rouge area to meet its air-quality goals for the first time, affecting 800,000 people. It also let local polluters avoid tougher regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going full bore on this one,” wrote Vivian Aucoin, a senior scientist for the Louisiana department of environmental quality, in an email from October 2017. “Use whatever or whoever you need to get the information we need to prove” that wildfires were to blame, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aucoin, who now goes by Vivian Johnson, said that in lieu of payment for violations, industry trade groups in Louisiana “often” pay for “beneficial environmental projects.” In this case, “the state didn’t have the money we needed,” she said. “And so their industry members bellied up to the bar and paid for the modelling that needed to be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association did not return a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about industry involvement in Louisiana, the EPA said “[f]or questions about how air agencies prepare their demonstrations, including coordination with industry or other parties, EPA recommends those questions be directed to specific air agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think people understand the degree to which there’s such a cozy, tightly woven tapestry of relationships between regulated industries and their regulators,” said John Walke, with the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is “an entirely rational undertaking by these industries and their lawyers and their lobbyists,” he said. “There’s no downside to them crying chicken or being wrong because at worst, the agency doesn’t bite, but at best they express interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that it is shocking and unseemly to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Millions of taxpayer dollars\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Removing bad air days from the record isn’t cheap. States are spending millions of taxpayer dollars to get pollution forgiven, according to public contracts and requests. Local regulators regularly complain that applying for exceptional events is expensive and time-consuming. The reports filed to the EPA can often run into hundreds of pages with detailed scientific analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The price of filing for an exceptional event appears to range widely, depending on the scope and complexity of the work, as well as the cost of external consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) estimated that one filing cost as much as $20,000 and 200 hours to prepare. At a congressional hearing in 2017, a Wyoming state regulator estimated “that it would take about 15 months and contractor assistance at a cost of over $150,000 to produce just one” demonstration for ozone-related to wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A clearer picture emerges when consultants get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has committed to spending nearly $5 million across 19 contracts since 2018, toward work to improve exceptional event modeling and monitoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas is waiting to hear from the EPA about two open requests: one to exclude pollution related to wind in the El Paso area, and the other to exclude some smog pollution around Houston because of wildfires, mostly in neighboring gulf states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written response to questions, TCEQ said that it “routinely” conducts research, and that it “disagrees with the assertion that the exceptional events rule prioritizes any entity over public health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, local air officials have mounted a sustained campaign to take advantage of exceptional events, including arguing that wildfires are beyond local control. In 2021, the county filed 17 exceptional event determinations with federal regulators; the EPA rejected five of them, and declined to weigh in on the rest. All told, Clark County has approved spending more than $3.3 million over a nine-year period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s pushed to the regional level and we’re supposed to solve it. We cannot solve it alone,” said Jodi Bechtel, an assistant director for the department of environment and sustainability in Clark County, Nevada. “We’re lucky to have the resources to be able to put these exceptional event packages together and commit these millions of dollars to at least maybe do them if we need them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No state has filed more requests than California, where the state air resources board (CARB) has invested significant resources in developing analysis and requests, even as staffers point out it takes months to work with the EPA on demonstrations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that probably makes it seem to people like we’re taking advantage of a loophole, to try to show attainment,” said Michael Benjamin, chief of the air quality planning and science division at CARB.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But breathing clean air isn’t the same thing as meeting federal air requirements, he said, which carries legal consequences: “If there weren’t such significant repercussions for not attaining, like the potential loss of federal highway funds and so on, then there wouldn’t be that pressure on air districts and CARB to really take full advantage of exceptional events.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan regulators reckoned they spent 250 hours writing last year’s exceptional event demonstration — but declined to provide a cost estimate.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It still happened’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In July, the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-07/23-3583_Documents.pdf\">sued (PDF) \u003c/a>the EPA over its decision to move Detroit back into attainment. A successful lawsuit could force regulators to reimpose the controls they drafted. It would also require them to be more transparent about Detroit’s air quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Excluding data to say that the air is clean is a “disservice to the public and the community,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents Detroit. “Either we’re for addressing the climate crisis or we’re not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964687\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964687\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man wearing a cap and t-shirt sits in a chair looking to the side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/TheGuardian_Stellantis__30-2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shobe has his own air monitor on his porch. \u003ccite>(Brittany Greeson/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tlaib argues that the federal government should do better at counting the cumulative impacts of pollution. “I want those that are making these decisions and these exceptions and carve-outs to know that jobs don’t cure cancer,” she said. “They don’t stop the increase of asthma among our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michigan officials didn’t comment, but pointed to a recently published blog post where the department of environment, Great Lakes, and energy \u003ca href=\"https://www.michigan.gov/egle/newsroom/mi-environment/2023/08/28/wildfire-smoke-and-pollution-a-primer-on-michigans-attainment-status\">wrote\u003c/a> that it “remains to be seen” whether the state will apply for more exemptions this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In southeast Detroit, Robert Shobe has his own air monitor on his porch. He trusts it, he said, regardless of what the official numbers say about two smoggy days last June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It still happened,” he said. The policies don’t make sense to him; he said it’s wrong “that they can have a way to take away something that you have documentation of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m a throwaway, I’m in a sacrifice zone,” he said. “We complain, we file complaints, we’re doing everything we can to fight for ourselves, and they hide behind loopholes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11964517/in-detroit-a-magic-wand-makes-dirty-air-look-clean-and-lets-polluters-off-the-hook","authors":["byline_news_11964517"],"categories":["news_19906","news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_255","news_21506","news_33329","news_28199"],"featImg":"news_11964704","label":"news"},"news_11964447":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11964447","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11964447","score":null,"sort":[1697450447000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"what-is-the-exceptional-events-rule-the-loophole-letting-us-regulators-wipe-air-pollution-from-the-record","title":"What Is the Exceptional Events Rule? The Loophole Letting US Regulators Wipe Air Pollution From the Record","publishDate":1697450447,"format":"standard","headTitle":"What Is the Exceptional Events Rule? The Loophole Letting US Regulators Wipe Air Pollution From the Record | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>When smoke from the Camp Fire poured down over northern California in 2018, schools across the region closed to protect kids from breathing dangerous air. When wildfires blanketed the Willamette Valley with soot and ash in 2020, hundreds of Oregonians sought urgent care for shortness of breath, headaches and asthma. When Canadian wildfire smoke made its way to Michigan last year, ozone levels in Detroit spiked to levels that caused officials to warn residents sensitive to air pollution to take extra care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In each of those cases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that oversees air quality, allowed local air regulators to strike the pollution caused by these events from air-quality records, using a mostly overlooked legal tool called the “exceptional events rule,” which allows pollution caused by “uncontrollable” events to be forgiven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new investigation from The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> found that local regulators are turning to the exceptional events rule for wildfires more and more often to reach air quality goals — goals that are harder to meet as the climate crisis gets worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The review of thousands of documents, which include regulatory filings, emails and scientific analyses, also found several examples of industry groups working hand in hand with local regulators to get these exemptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increasing use of the rule for wildfires, experts say, not only obscures health risks to people across the U.S., but undermines the goals of the landmark Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Leonard, who directs the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit, Michigan, sees the problem in fairly simple terms: The growing threat of wildfire smoke is exacerbated by climate change. Climate change has been fueled by the oil and gas industry. Their lobbyists, in turn, have pushed states to use the exceptional events rule as much as possible, slowing progress to address air pollution at the local level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“EPA’s had a stake in this problem for a long time. States have had a stake in this problem for a long time. Private companies have had a stake in this problem for a long time,” Leonard said. “And now when that problem is coming home to roost, they’re saying, ‘Well, who could have seen this coming?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11964450\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1.png\" alt=\"Map showing smoke density \" width=\"1240\" height=\"1472\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1.png 1240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-800x950.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-1020x1211.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-160x190.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Republican senator’s crusade\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The driving force behind the exceptional events rule was Jim Inhofe, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma who, for decades, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/22/us-senate-man-climate-change-global-warming-hoax\">called climate change a hoax\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring of 1998, air quality managers in his home state found themselves in a tough spot. A wildfire on Mexico’s drought-stricken Yucatán peninsula had sent acrid smoke north, and around that time Oklahoma City exceeded its pollution limits. If the soot and ozone stayed on the books, they’d have to tighten controls on known local polluters. Instead, they argued to the EPA that the pollution shouldn’t count because it came from a wildfire, and so was “natural” and “uncontrollable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA turned air quality managers down, to Inhofe’s frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964452\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964452\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281.jpg\" alt=\"Telephone pole tipped over, pulling down wires, amid smoky air\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fallen power line on Nunneley Road in Paradise, Butte County, on Nov. 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Smoke lingers in the air in Paradise, California on November 13, 2018. Photograph: Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He held several hearings and meetings, grilling the EPA. He thought local regulators should have more discretion to ignore pollution — including the kinds that are hard to control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until then, no formal rule in the Clean Air Act allowed that. The EPA did have a policy, infrequently used in the 1980s and 1990s, that allowed local governments to write off some wildfire smoke on a case-by-case-basis as “unrealistic to control” or “impractical to fully control.” That wasn’t enough for the pro-business senator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inhofe’s years-long crusade succeeded. Once added to the Clean Air Act, the “exceptional events” rule enabled regulators to erase pollution — not from the sky, but from records used to make regulatory decisions. Since 2007, local officials have been able to request that pollution data be excluded from clean air determinations when it comes from an array of events, from volcanoes to fireworks to “unusual traffic circumstances,” and the fastest-growing event of all: wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The purpose of the amendment was deregulatory, to be sure,” said John Walke, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11964451\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1720\" height=\"906\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1.png 1720w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-800x421.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-1020x537.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-160x84.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-1536x809.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1720px) 100vw, 1720px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A regulatory escape hatch\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The exceptional events rule functions as a regulatory escape hatch. When soot and ozone drift in from “natural” sources like wildfires, regulators can ask the EPA for an exception. If the federal agency grants it, that air pollution is erased from the regulatory record and disregarded in regulatory decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local air officials often spend months, using publicly funded atmospheric modelling and meteorological data, to create hundreds of pages documenting why pollution exceedances shouldn’t count — sometimes with the help of industry-funded consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because justifying an exceptional event is complicated and expensive, guidance from the EPA directs regulators to apply the rule only when it has regulatory significance, including meeting federal air standards — or, in regulator speak, achieving “attainment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attainment communicates to the public that the air meets conditions regulators have deemed healthy. It helps people decide where to live and work. The meeting of standards loosens both federal funding for transportation and pollution controls for factories.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What we studied, and what we found\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No other rule works like exceptional events to discount recorded pollution from consideration by regulators. We requested hard-to-find EPA data about exceptional events. We reviewed thousands of pages of written material, including correspondence, materials related to contracting, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">what are called “demonstrations” (DOC)\u003c/a> of these events — basically, descriptions of toxic events regulators don’t want to be responsible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our \u003ca href=\"https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2023/oct/16/smoke-screened-methodology/\">analysis \u003c/a>shows that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2016, local regulators have flagged almost 700 exceptional events to the EPA. The agency agreed to adjust \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">the data\u003c/a> on 139 of them.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">The adjustments were allowed in more than 70 counties across 20 states.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 21 million Americans live in areas where an adjustment \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/final-agency-actions-215474/\">allowed local regulators to claim (DOC)\u003c/a> the area had met strict national health standards or that the air was cleaner than it actually was.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">On three-fourths of the days exceptional events were reported, local governments pointed at wildfires in justifying their requests.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Local regulators are turning to the exceptional events rule for wildfires more and more often to reach air quality goals. In 2016, 19 wildfire events were submitted to the EPA. In 2020, 65 were.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Businesses and industry representatives lobbied local air regulators before an event was even considered, as happened in Kentucky, and worked together with them to file exceptional event requests, as happened in Louisiana.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The use of the exceptional events rule means U.S. air-quality data doesn’t reflect how safe it is to breathe, said Vijay Limaye, a climate and health scientist at the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our regulatory picture is really not keeping up with the true toll, the true health burden posed by air pollution and wildfire smoke,” he said. “And we really need to be taking into consideration the truth on the ground in terms of what exposures look like and what that means for public health across the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule in practice lets regional regulators meet air quality goals without having to put additional demands on polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964465\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964465\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774.jpg\" alt=\"Trees engulfed in flames\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-800x599.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-1536x1150.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters battle the Mosquito Fire near Foresthill, Placer County, on Sept. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re just pretending like it’s just not happening,” said Sanjay Narayan, the managing attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “The pollution is not in the air from sort of a regulatory perspective, which is the way in which things become invisible. All of this is invisible unless you trawl through all of these reports.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions, a spokesperson for the EPA, Khanya Brann, said the agency “takes our decisions related to exceptional events seriously. We recognize that even when pollution (such as wildfire smoke) is not something that an air agency can control, people still are breathing the polluted air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA said it requires mitigation plans where exceptional events recur. Those plans include efforts to educate and notify the public about the pollution risk, as well as to take “steps to identify, study, and implement mitigating measures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing loophole\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Soot, ash and other particulate matter drive health risks that are significant to pregnant people, children, outdoor workers, residents of leaky buildings and anyone with heart or lung ailments. Ozone produced by wildfire pollution carries an invisible threat, irritating and inflaming lungs; even short-term exposure above certain levels raises the risk of premature death. The federal Office of Management and Budget estimates that in an increasingly extreme climate\u003cb>,\u003c/b> \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/OMB_Climate_Risk_Exposure_2022.pdf\">wildfire smoke exposure could increase federal health care expenditures (PDF)\u003c/a> by $128 million to $226 million each year by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to focus on solutions for wildfire smoke, because about 30% to 50% of our wildfires are directly attributed to climate change and increasing temperatures around the globe,” said Kari Nadeau, an immunologist who directs the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. \u003cb>“\u003c/b>No one is immune to this. Everyone can be affected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pedestrians\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Climate change has already created the conditions for more frequent and significant wildfires this year, from Maui to Quebec.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists and activists worry that the exceptional events rule can be exploited to avoid the costly efforts needed to address this growing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Clean Air Act was passed by a nearly unanimous Congress and signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, it focused on pollution from soot-spewing smokestacks and freeways full of cars with tailpipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soot from Canadian fires that choked skies from Chicago to Washington earlier this year was a sickly brown telltale for some of the same key pollutants the Clean Air Act aimed to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has proposed lowering the standard for fine particulates. Soon, ozone standards could be tightened, too, a consensus recommendation of the agency’s top scientific advisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry have told the EPA the exceptional events rule will be a key part of meeting ozone standards. States themselves say any moves to tighten particulate or ozone limits will be met with a greater reliance on the exceptional events rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a big problem,” said Leonard of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “And you’re not only actively ignoring it, you’re actively trying to get out of doing something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Emily Zentner is a data reporter for The California Newsroom. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"First pushed through by the Republican senator and climate change denier Jim Inhofe, the exceptional events rule has become a 'regulatory escape hatch' for states that want to meet federal air quality standards.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1697239664,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":40,"wordCount":1898},"headData":{"title":"What Is the Exceptional Events Rule? The Loophole Letting US Regulators Wipe Air Pollution From the Record | KQED","description":"First pushed through by the Republican senator and climate denier Jim Inhofe, the exceptional events rule has become a ‘regulatory escape hatch’ for states that want to meet federal air-quality standards.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"First pushed through by the Republican senator and climate denier Jim Inhofe, the exceptional events rule has become a ‘regulatory escape hatch’ for states that want to meet federal air-quality standards.","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"What Is the Exceptional Events Rule? The Loophole Letting US Regulators Wipe Air Pollution From the Record","datePublished":"2023-10-16T10:00:47.000Z","dateModified":"2023-10-13T23:27:44.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"nprByline":"Molly Peterson, Dillon Bergin, Emily Zentner and Andrew Witherspoon","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11964447/what-is-the-exceptional-events-rule-the-loophole-letting-us-regulators-wipe-air-pollution-from-the-record","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When smoke from the Camp Fire poured down over northern California in 2018, schools across the region closed to protect kids from breathing dangerous air. When wildfires blanketed the Willamette Valley with soot and ash in 2020, hundreds of Oregonians sought urgent care for shortness of breath, headaches and asthma. When Canadian wildfire smoke made its way to Michigan last year, ozone levels in Detroit spiked to levels that caused officials to warn residents sensitive to air pollution to take extra care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In each of those cases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that oversees air quality, allowed local air regulators to strike the pollution caused by these events from air-quality records, using a mostly overlooked legal tool called the “exceptional events rule,” which allows pollution caused by “uncontrollable” events to be forgiven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new investigation from The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> found that local regulators are turning to the exceptional events rule for wildfires more and more often to reach air quality goals — goals that are harder to meet as the climate crisis gets worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The review of thousands of documents, which include regulatory filings, emails and scientific analyses, also found several examples of industry groups working hand in hand with local regulators to get these exemptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increasing use of the rule for wildfires, experts say, not only obscures health risks to people across the U.S., but undermines the goals of the landmark Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nick Leonard, who directs the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit, Michigan, sees the problem in fairly simple terms: The growing threat of wildfire smoke is exacerbated by climate change. Climate change has been fueled by the oil and gas industry. Their lobbyists, in turn, have pushed states to use the exceptional events rule as much as possible, slowing progress to address air pollution at the local level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“EPA’s had a stake in this problem for a long time. States have had a stake in this problem for a long time. Private companies have had a stake in this problem for a long time,” Leonard said. “And now when that problem is coming home to roost, they’re saying, ‘Well, who could have seen this coming?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11964450\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1.png\" alt=\"Map showing smoke density \" width=\"1240\" height=\"1472\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1.png 1240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-800x950.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-1020x1211.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1-160x190.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1240px) 100vw, 1240px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Republican senator’s crusade\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The driving force behind the exceptional events rule was Jim Inhofe, the former Republican senator from Oklahoma who, for decades, \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/22/us-senate-man-climate-change-global-warming-hoax\">called climate change a hoax\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring of 1998, air quality managers in his home state found themselves in a tough spot. A wildfire on Mexico’s drought-stricken Yucatán peninsula had sent acrid smoke north, and around that time Oklahoma City exceeded its pollution limits. If the soot and ozone stayed on the books, they’d have to tighten controls on known local polluters. Instead, they argued to the EPA that the pollution shouldn’t count because it came from a wildfire, and so was “natural” and “uncontrollable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA turned air quality managers down, to Inhofe’s frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964452\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964452\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281.jpg\" alt=\"Telephone pole tipped over, pulling down wires, amid smoky air\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/111318_AW_CampFire_36-scaled-e1697234471281-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A fallen power line on Nunneley Road in Paradise, Butte County, on Nov. 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Smoke lingers in the air in Paradise, California on November 13, 2018. Photograph: Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He held several hearings and meetings, grilling the EPA. He thought local regulators should have more discretion to ignore pollution — including the kinds that are hard to control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until then, no formal rule in the Clean Air Act allowed that. The EPA did have a policy, infrequently used in the 1980s and 1990s, that allowed local governments to write off some wildfire smoke on a case-by-case-basis as “unrealistic to control” or “impractical to fully control.” That wasn’t enough for the pro-business senator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inhofe’s years-long crusade succeeded. Once added to the Clean Air Act, the “exceptional events” rule enabled regulators to erase pollution — not from the sky, but from records used to make regulatory decisions. Since 2007, local officials have been able to request that pollution data be excluded from clean air determinations when it comes from an array of events, from volcanoes to fireworks to “unusual traffic circumstances,” and the fastest-growing event of all: wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The purpose of the amendment was deregulatory, to be sure,” said John Walke, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11964451\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1720\" height=\"906\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1.png 1720w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-800x421.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-1020x537.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-160x84.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/showcase-860@2x-1-1536x809.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1720px) 100vw, 1720px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A regulatory escape hatch\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The exceptional events rule functions as a regulatory escape hatch. When soot and ozone drift in from “natural” sources like wildfires, regulators can ask the EPA for an exception. If the federal agency grants it, that air pollution is erased from the regulatory record and disregarded in regulatory decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local air officials often spend months, using publicly funded atmospheric modelling and meteorological data, to create hundreds of pages documenting why pollution exceedances shouldn’t count — sometimes with the help of industry-funded consultants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because justifying an exceptional event is complicated and expensive, guidance from the EPA directs regulators to apply the rule only when it has regulatory significance, including meeting federal air standards — or, in regulator speak, achieving “attainment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attainment communicates to the public that the air meets conditions regulators have deemed healthy. It helps people decide where to live and work. The meeting of standards loosens both federal funding for transportation and pollution controls for factories.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What we studied, and what we found\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>No other rule works like exceptional events to discount recorded pollution from consideration by regulators. We requested hard-to-find EPA data about exceptional events. We reviewed thousands of pages of written material, including correspondence, materials related to contracting, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">what are called “demonstrations” (DOC)\u003c/a> of these events — basically, descriptions of toxic events regulators don’t want to be responsible for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our \u003ca href=\"https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2023/oct/16/smoke-screened-methodology/\">analysis \u003c/a>shows that:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2016, local regulators have flagged almost 700 exceptional events to the EPA. The agency agreed to adjust \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">the data\u003c/a> on 139 of them.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">The adjustments were allowed in more than 70 counties across 20 states.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than 21 million Americans live in areas where an adjustment \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/final-agency-actions-215474/\">allowed local regulators to claim (DOC)\u003c/a> the area had met strict national health standards or that the air was cleaner than it actually was.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">On three-fourths of the days exceptional events were reported, local governments pointed at wildfires in justifying their requests.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Local regulators are turning to the exceptional events rule for wildfires more and more often to reach air quality goals. In 2016, 19 wildfire events were submitted to the EPA. In 2020, 65 were.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">Businesses and industry representatives lobbied local air regulators before an event was even considered, as happened in Kentucky, and worked together with them to file exceptional event requests, as happened in Louisiana.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The use of the exceptional events rule means U.S. air-quality data doesn’t reflect how safe it is to breathe, said Vijay Limaye, a climate and health scientist at the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our regulatory picture is really not keeping up with the true toll, the true health burden posed by air pollution and wildfire smoke,” he said. “And we really need to be taking into consideration the truth on the ground in terms of what exposures look like and what that means for public health across the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule in practice lets regional regulators meet air quality goals without having to put additional demands on polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964465\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11964465\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774.jpg\" alt=\"Trees engulfed in flames\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1438\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-800x599.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-1020x764.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/IMG_3239-scaled-e1697232933774-1536x1150.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters battle the Mosquito Fire near Foresthill, Placer County, on Sept. 7, 2022. \u003ccite>(Andrew Nixon/CapRadio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re just pretending like it’s just not happening,” said Sanjay Narayan, the managing attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “The pollution is not in the air from sort of a regulatory perspective, which is the way in which things become invisible. All of this is invisible unless you trawl through all of these reports.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions, a spokesperson for the EPA, Khanya Brann, said the agency “takes our decisions related to exceptional events seriously. We recognize that even when pollution (such as wildfire smoke) is not something that an air agency can control, people still are breathing the polluted air.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA said it requires mitigation plans where exceptional events recur. Those plans include efforts to educate and notify the public about the pollution risk, as well as to take “steps to identify, study, and implement mitigating measures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A growing loophole\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Soot, ash and other particulate matter drive health risks that are significant to pregnant people, children, outdoor workers, residents of leaky buildings and anyone with heart or lung ailments. Ozone produced by wildfire pollution carries an invisible threat, irritating and inflaming lungs; even short-term exposure above certain levels raises the risk of premature death. The federal Office of Management and Budget estimates that in an increasingly extreme climate\u003cb>,\u003c/b> \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/OMB_Climate_Risk_Exposure_2022.pdf\">wildfire smoke exposure could increase federal health care expenditures (PDF)\u003c/a> by $128 million to $226 million each year by the end of the century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to focus on solutions for wildfire smoke, because about 30% to 50% of our wildfires are directly attributed to climate change and increasing temperatures around the globe,” said Kari Nadeau, an immunologist who directs the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. \u003cb>“\u003c/b>No one is immune to this. Everyone can be affected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pedestrians\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Climate change has already created the conditions for more frequent and significant wildfires this year, from Maui to Quebec.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists and activists worry that the exceptional events rule can be exploited to avoid the costly efforts needed to address this growing crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Clean Air Act was passed by a nearly unanimous Congress and signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, it focused on pollution from soot-spewing smokestacks and freeways full of cars with tailpipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The soot from Canadian fires that choked skies from Chicago to Washington earlier this year was a sickly brown telltale for some of the same key pollutants the Clean Air Act aimed to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has proposed lowering the standard for fine particulates. Soon, ozone standards could be tightened, too, a consensus recommendation of the agency’s top scientific advisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry have told the EPA the exceptional events rule will be a key part of meeting ozone standards. States themselves say any moves to tighten particulate or ozone limits will be met with a greater reliance on the exceptional events rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a big problem,” said Leonard of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. “And you’re not only actively ignoring it, you’re actively trying to get out of doing something about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Emily Zentner is a data reporter for The California Newsroom. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11964447/what-is-the-exceptional-events-rule-the-loophole-letting-us-regulators-wipe-air-pollution-from-the-record","authors":["byline_news_11964447"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_20962","news_255","news_21506","news_33329","news_28199"],"featImg":"news_11964454","label":"news"},"news_11964317":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11964317","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11964317","score":null,"sort":[1697450404000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"revealed-how-a-little-known-pollution-rule-keeps-the-air-dirty-for-millions-of-americans","title":"Revealed: How a Little-Known Pollution Rule Keeps the Air Dirty for Millions of Americans","publishDate":1697450404,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Revealed: How a Little-Known Pollution Rule Keeps the Air Dirty for Millions of Americans | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>A legal loophole has allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strike pollution from clean air tallies in more than 70 counties, enabling local regulators to claim the air was cleaner than it really was for more than 21 million Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have exploited a little-known provision in the Clean Air Act called the “exceptional events rule” to forgive pollution caused by “natural” or “uncontrollable” events — including wildfires — investigation from The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> reveals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964354\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-800x809.png\" alt=\"A graph\" width=\"800\" height=\"809\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-800x809.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-1020x1032.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-160x162.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to obscuring the true health risks of pollution and swerving away from tighter control on local polluters, the rule threatens the potency of the Clean Air Act, experts argue, at a time when the climate crisis is posing an unprecedented challenge to the health of millions of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the EPA — the U.S. department monitoring air quality — has agreed to exclude bad air days from analysis, “we may have a sort of stable, relatively rosy picture when it comes to our regulatory world in terms of air-quality trends,” said Vijay Limaye, a climate and health epidemiologist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is more complicated, and the air dirtier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The true conditions on the ground in terms of the air that people are breathing in, day after day, week after week, year after year, is increasingly an unhealthy situation,” Limaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the summer of 2023, more than 20 states so far, from Wyoming to Wisconsin to North Carolina, have flagged air-quality readings that were far higher than normal. Most of these days came in June, as skies in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. were blanketed with Canadian wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We pored over thousands of pages of regulatory documentation, correspondence and contracts, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2023/oct/16/smoke-screened-methodology/\">analyzed hard-to-find public data\u003c/a> to better understand how local regulators make use of the exceptional events rule, as global heating sparks extreme wildfires more often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We found that, since 2016, when the EPA last revised the guidance on exceptional events:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Local regulators in 21 states \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">filed requests with the agency (DOC)\u003c/a> to forgive pollution and, in 20 of those states, had them approved.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In total, local regulators made note of almost 700 exceptional events. The EPA agreed to adjust \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">the data\u003c/a> on 139 of them.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The adjustments came in more than 70 counties across 20 states. The affected areas stretched from the forested Oregon coast to the Ohio Rust Belt, from the craggy Rhode Island coastline down to the bayous of Louisiana.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In more than half of the states where exceptional events were forgiven, industry lobbyists and business interests pressed to make that happen, sometimes as the only public voice in the regulatory process. Also, to protect the status quo, some regulators spent millions of taxpayer dollars doing research for and making exceptional events requests, sometimes working hand in hand with industry stakeholders.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Meeting air-quality standards matters a lot to industry and politicians. Violations can add up to stricter, more costly and potentially unpopular pollution controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say the growing use of the exceptional events rule for wildfires is of deep concern. “You need to level with the public about the number of days when the air quality was unhealthy,” said Eric Schaeffer, a former regulator who directs the Environmental Integrity Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have saved more lives in this country because we cleaned up the air than almost any other environmental policy,” said Michael Wara, the director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “And that’s what’s being undermined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world has changed,” he said. “We are living in a different world when it comes to wildfire and all of its consequences, including air pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to written questions, the EPA said it takes all air pollution seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964351\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of a bridge with two pairs of people walking.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Highway 49 Bridge over the South Yuba River in Nevada County, California, is a popular area for hikers. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Wildland fire and smoke pose increasing challenges and human health impacts in communities all around the country,” Khanya Brann, an EPA spokesperson, wrote. “EPA works closely with other federal agencies, state and local health departments, tribal nations, and other partners to provide information, tools, and resources to support communities in preparing for, responding to, and reducing health impacts from wildland fire and smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA also pointed to “mitigation plans,” in which air districts that have experienced repeated exceptional events must create plans for educating and notifying the public about the pollution risk, as well as “steps to identify, study, and implement mitigating measures” like limiting use of wood-burning stoves and wetting down unpaved roads before dust storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More ‘toxic soup’ and more paperwork\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., clean-air policy long allowed local governments to write off some wildfire smoke on a case-by-case-basis as “unrealistic to control” or “impractical to fully control.” But in 2005, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has long denied the climate crisis, won a years-long battle to amend the Clean Air Act. The new rule gave local officials more opportunity to exclude pollution from regulatory consideration for an array of events, from fireworks displays and volcanic eruptions to wildfires and even unusual traffic events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964355\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-800x743.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-800x743.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-1020x948.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-160x149.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, the rule was used most successfully in a handful of communities in the Southwest where high winds created a recurring problem of dust pollution. Over time, local regulators have turned to exceptional events for wildfires more and more often to reach air-quality goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis of local and EPA records found that in 2016, air agencies flagged 19 wildfire events as potential exceptional events. In 2018 and 2021, 52 and 50 wildfire events were flagged, respectively. In 2020, 65 were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The uptick in exceptional events is absolutely consistent with what we see in the air pollution data,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of global environmental policy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Smoke is accounting for a higher proportion of overall air pollution, and it’s going up quickly, Burke said — not just in the Western U.S., but nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-800x533.jpg\" alt='A building with a flag pole and a wooden sign that reads \"Nevada County Consolidated Fire District\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nevada County Consolidated Fire District office in Nevada City on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan / The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No state is blamed more for smoke pollution than California, followed by Oregon and Canadian provinces, according to our analysis. Western states are more likely to point fingers at each other, while states in the Midwest and Northeast place the blame on Canadian provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke is a dirty and complicated polluter. Limaye, of the NRDC, called it a “toxic soup of air pollution.” It carries soot and ash, regulated as particulate pollution, as well as hydrocarbons and other gases that, cooked in sunlight, help form ground-level ozone. It’s a growing concern for public health, both near the source and thousands of miles away. Smoke, especially from a long-burning fire, can travel long distances and linger at dangerous levels for weeks at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We analyzed data recorded at air monitors nationwide. For every U.S. county, on a day where the EPA excluded any data, we counted that day. Our analysis found that the total number of wildfire-related bad air days erased from regulatory consideration in counties nationwide was nearly double that of bad air days related to high winds: 236 compared to 121.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964356\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-800x1101.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1101\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-800x1101.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1020x1403.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-160x220.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1116x1536.png 1116w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When wildfire caused air pollution, the rule was applied to more monitor readings over multiple days, not just to exclude particulate pollution but also smog or ozone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a lot of time,” said John Walke, a lawyer for the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One or two violations at a single air monitor can flip an area from meeting air standards to missing the mark, according to Walke. Three or four violations over several years can prompt increasingly strict local pollution controls. “So a lot is riding on one, or two, or three violations,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A smokier future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The recent experience of California’s Nevada county may offer a glimpse of a smokier future. So far, the exceptional events rule has removed 16 days from the record there in the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing a plaid shirt stands next to some equipment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julie Hunter, the interim director of the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District, poses for a photo by a monitor in her district. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ozone levels are rising in the background in this foothill community, according to Julie Hunter, the interim chief for the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District. She said more trucks and warmer temperatures are to blame. More frequently now, she said, wildfire smoke is like a “pancake,” settling flat across the rural valley, stuck until conditions change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one fire in 2021, a thick plume of smoke covered the sun in the town of Grass Valley. “We couldn’t see past down the driveway,” said Dr. Alinea Stevens, the medical director at the Chapa-De Indian Health clinic in town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stevens remembered doctors and nurses moving among patients under the menacing amber skies, N95 masks snug on their faces to protect against COVID-19 — and wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964365\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-800x450.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-1020x573.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-160x90.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-1536x864.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860.png 1793w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over hours, the clinic’s security guards got lightheaded and developed headaches. “We told them, you need to wear N95 masks, too,” Stevens said. “That kind of prolonged exposure to those things was very real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After fires in 2018 and 2020, the EPA wiped more than two weeks of ozone pollution in the district from the record. That didn’t get Nevada county all the way to a clean bill of health, but local regulators avoided having to tighten rules on local emissions. Hunter, the local regulator, said her district is likely to seek more exceptional events there, including for fires in the last two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964366\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-800x534.png\" alt=\"Two men dressed in firefighter uniforms move towards a fire outdoors with the man on the right holding a fire hose.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1536x1025.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-2048x1367.png 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1920x1281.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters from Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach battle the Bond Fire in Santiago Canyon on Dec. 3, 2020. \u003ccite>(Brian Feinzimer/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If we take out wildfire smoke as one of the things that we look at, then we’re not going to be addressing problems that really affect our community here,” said Stevens, who directs the health clinic. The surge of asthma and other health problems from smoke can be overlooked when it happens in a rural community, she said. “I think it’s maybe a way that we don’t put enough attention into fixing something that can be fixed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the California Air Resources Board stress that state law works toward mitigating the effects of climate change, and state policies are supposed to minimize the risk of catastrophic fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really are trying to pull out all the stops,” Michael Benjamin, the chief of CARB’s air-quality planning and science division, said. Practically, he added: “We and the air districts in California will continue to take advantage of the exceptional events provisions in the Clean Air Act to try to show attainment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to showing attainment, the stakes are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scrubbing smoke from regulatory accounting allows local governments and business to continue as usual, since the practice obscures the toll wildfires take on public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also ignores the ways that the climate crisis is altering how people decide where to live across the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are all inheriting this’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Maitreyi Siruguri and her husband woke in the night to a sky lit unnaturally orange. They left their Santa Rosa home with their young children in the early hours of the morning; the fire that eventually swirled through went on to kill 22 people and destroy more than 5,600 structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, “I was starting to sense the emotional drain, from everyone having to go through this,” she said. She searched the internet with worry about how smoke could harm her children, then 3 and 7 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, they left for the suburbs of Chicago. They could afford to buy a house; the family would be closer to friends and relatives — and further, she hoped, from wildfire and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in India in the 1980s and 1990s, and working as a climate educator, Siruguri knows very well that there is no escape hatch leading away from environmental problems. “We are all inheriting this, in every part of the world,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of a woman wearing a reddish-orange sweater with a purple shirt with designs.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-160x240.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alinea Stevens, the medical director at the Chapa-De Indian Health clinic, on Oct. 4, 2023 in Grass Valley. During a fire in 2021, a thick plume of smoke covered the sun in Grass Valley. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wara, of Stanford’s Woods Institute, argues that such an inheritance requires investment. Rather than trying to protect the status quo, he said, governments could make a new cost-benefit analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would not be unreasonable” to boost spending significantly to manage public and private lands to minimize smoke, “something like what we think is reasonable when it comes to coal-fired power plants, which is billions of dollars per year,” he said. “Because the harms that are being created by the smoke are large.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, as air quality worsened across Illinois from Canadian fires, Siruguri worried anew in Naperville. On a late July day, when smoke pollution had returned, she brought her child to soccer camp, and asked the camp’s director whether the air was healthy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964348\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a downtown area of a city.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown Nevada City on Oct. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He didn’t have an answer. “He was like, well, we kind of wait till somebody tells us what to do or you make the decision for your child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siruguri believes the government must work to stop climate change, including by switching energy sources away from fossil fuels. She believes that when officials talk to the public, they should be honest about how smoke is changing air over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard for the general public to know. The next time I see bad air quality, I will be looking for how that’s getting recorded,” Siruguri said. “It is concerning that these decisions are made behind the scenes, almost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walke of the NRDC agreed: “The worst possible outcome is lying to the American people about whether the air they breathe is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Emily Zentner is a data reporter for The California Newsroom. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A major investigation shows local governments are increasingly exploiting a loophole in the Clean Air Act, leaving more than 21 million Americans with air that's dirtier than they realize.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1697414090,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":56,"wordCount":2517},"headData":{"title":"Revealed: How a Little-Known Pollution Rule Keeps the Air Dirty for Millions of Americans | KQED","description":"A major investigation shows local governments are increasingly exploiting a loophole in the Clean Air Act, leaving more than 21 million Americans with air that's dirtier than they realize.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Revealed: How a Little-Known Pollution Rule Keeps the Air Dirty for Millions of Americans","datePublished":"2023-10-16T10:00:04.000Z","dateModified":"2023-10-15T23:54:50.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"nprByline":"Molly Peterson, Dillon Bergin, Emily Zentner and Andrew Witherspoon ","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11964317/revealed-how-a-little-known-pollution-rule-keeps-the-air-dirty-for-millions-of-americans","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A legal loophole has allowed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to strike pollution from clean air tallies in more than 70 counties, enabling local regulators to claim the air was cleaner than it really was for more than 21 million Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators have exploited a little-known provision in the Clean Air Act called the “exceptional events rule” to forgive pollution caused by “natural” or “uncontrollable” events — including wildfires — investigation from The California Newsroom, MuckRock and \u003cem>The Guardian\u003c/em> reveals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964354\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-800x809.png\" alt=\"A graph\" width=\"800\" height=\"809\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-800x809.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-1020x1032.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2-160x162.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-2.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to obscuring the true health risks of pollution and swerving away from tighter control on local polluters, the rule threatens the potency of the Clean Air Act, experts argue, at a time when the climate crisis is posing an unprecedented challenge to the health of millions of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where the EPA — the U.S. department monitoring air quality — has agreed to exclude bad air days from analysis, “we may have a sort of stable, relatively rosy picture when it comes to our regulatory world in terms of air-quality trends,” said Vijay Limaye, a climate and health epidemiologist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit advocacy group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is more complicated, and the air dirtier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The true conditions on the ground in terms of the air that people are breathing in, day after day, week after week, year after year, is increasingly an unhealthy situation,” Limaye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the summer of 2023, more than 20 states so far, from Wyoming to Wisconsin to North Carolina, have flagged air-quality readings that were far higher than normal. Most of these days came in June, as skies in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. were blanketed with Canadian wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We pored over thousands of pages of regulatory documentation, correspondence and contracts, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2023/oct/16/smoke-screened-methodology/\">analyzed hard-to-find public data\u003c/a> to better understand how local regulators make use of the exceptional events rule, as global heating sparks extreme wildfires more often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We found that, since 2016, when the EPA last revised the guidance on exceptional events:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Local regulators in 21 states \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/projects/exceptional-event-demonstrations-215472/\">filed requests with the agency (DOC)\u003c/a> to forgive pollution and, in 20 of those states, had them approved.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In total, local regulators made note of almost 700 exceptional events. The EPA agreed to adjust \u003ca href=\"https://github.com/MuckRock/air-quality-exceptional-events\">the data\u003c/a> on 139 of them.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The adjustments came in more than 70 counties across 20 states. The affected areas stretched from the forested Oregon coast to the Ohio Rust Belt, from the craggy Rhode Island coastline down to the bayous of Louisiana.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>In more than half of the states where exceptional events were forgiven, industry lobbyists and business interests pressed to make that happen, sometimes as the only public voice in the regulatory process. Also, to protect the status quo, some regulators spent millions of taxpayer dollars doing research for and making exceptional events requests, sometimes working hand in hand with industry stakeholders.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Meeting air-quality standards matters a lot to industry and politicians. Violations can add up to stricter, more costly and potentially unpopular pollution controls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics say the growing use of the exceptional events rule for wildfires is of deep concern. “You need to level with the public about the number of days when the air quality was unhealthy,” said Eric Schaeffer, a former regulator who directs the Environmental Integrity Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have saved more lives in this country because we cleaned up the air than almost any other environmental policy,” said Michael Wara, the director of the climate and energy policy program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “And that’s what’s being undermined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The world has changed,” he said. “We are living in a different world when it comes to wildfire and all of its consequences, including air pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to written questions, the EPA said it takes all air pollution seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964351\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A photo of a bridge with two pairs of people walking.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_418-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Highway 49 Bridge over the South Yuba River in Nevada County, California, is a popular area for hikers. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Wildland fire and smoke pose increasing challenges and human health impacts in communities all around the country,” Khanya Brann, an EPA spokesperson, wrote. “EPA works closely with other federal agencies, state and local health departments, tribal nations, and other partners to provide information, tools, and resources to support communities in preparing for, responding to, and reducing health impacts from wildland fire and smoke.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA also pointed to “mitigation plans,” in which air districts that have experienced repeated exceptional events must create plans for educating and notifying the public about the pollution risk, as well as “steps to identify, study, and implement mitigating measures” like limiting use of wood-burning stoves and wetting down unpaved roads before dust storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More ‘toxic soup’ and more paperwork\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the U.S., clean-air policy long allowed local governments to write off some wildfire smoke on a case-by-case-basis as “unrealistic to control” or “impractical to fully control.” But in 2005, Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has long denied the climate crisis, won a years-long battle to amend the Clean Air Act. The new rule gave local officials more opportunity to exclude pollution from regulatory consideration for an array of events, from fireworks displays and volcanic eruptions to wildfires and even unusual traffic events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964355\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-800x743.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-800x743.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-1020x948.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3-160x149.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-3.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, the rule was used most successfully in a handful of communities in the Southwest where high winds created a recurring problem of dust pollution. Over time, local regulators have turned to exceptional events for wildfires more and more often to reach air-quality goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis of local and EPA records found that in 2016, air agencies flagged 19 wildfire events as potential exceptional events. In 2018 and 2021, 52 and 50 wildfire events were flagged, respectively. In 2020, 65 were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The uptick in exceptional events is absolutely consistent with what we see in the air pollution data,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of global environmental policy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Smoke is accounting for a higher proportion of overall air pollution, and it’s going up quickly, Burke said — not just in the Western U.S., but nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964347\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-800x533.jpg\" alt='A building with a flag pole and a wooden sign that reads \"Nevada County Consolidated Fire District\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_286-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Nevada County Consolidated Fire District office in Nevada City on Oct. 4, 2023. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan / The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No state is blamed more for smoke pollution than California, followed by Oregon and Canadian provinces, according to our analysis. Western states are more likely to point fingers at each other, while states in the Midwest and Northeast place the blame on Canadian provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire smoke is a dirty and complicated polluter. Limaye, of the NRDC, called it a “toxic soup of air pollution.” It carries soot and ash, regulated as particulate pollution, as well as hydrocarbons and other gases that, cooked in sunlight, help form ground-level ozone. It’s a growing concern for public health, both near the source and thousands of miles away. Smoke, especially from a long-burning fire, can travel long distances and linger at dangerous levels for weeks at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We analyzed data recorded at air monitors nationwide. For every U.S. county, on a day where the EPA excluded any data, we counted that day. Our analysis found that the total number of wildfire-related bad air days erased from regulatory consideration in counties nationwide was nearly double that of bad air days related to high winds: 236 compared to 121.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964356\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-800x1101.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1101\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-800x1101.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1020x1403.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-160x220.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x-1116x1536.png 1116w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/inArticle-620@2x.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When wildfire caused air pollution, the rule was applied to more monitor readings over multiple days, not just to exclude particulate pollution but also smog or ozone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a lot of time,” said John Walke, a lawyer for the NRDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One or two violations at a single air monitor can flip an area from meeting air standards to missing the mark, according to Walke. Three or four violations over several years can prompt increasingly strict local pollution controls. “So a lot is riding on one, or two, or three violations,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A smokier future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The recent experience of California’s Nevada county may offer a glimpse of a smokier future. So far, the exceptional events rule has removed 16 days from the record there in the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman wearing a plaid shirt stands next to some equipment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_224-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julie Hunter, the interim director of the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District, poses for a photo by a monitor in her district. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ozone levels are rising in the background in this foothill community, according to Julie Hunter, the interim chief for the Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District. She said more trucks and warmer temperatures are to blame. More frequently now, she said, wildfire smoke is like a “pancake,” settling flat across the rural valley, stuck until conditions change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During one fire in 2021, a thick plume of smoke covered the sun in the town of Grass Valley. “We couldn’t see past down the driveway,” said Dr. Alinea Stevens, the medical director at the Chapa-De Indian Health clinic in town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stevens remembered doctors and nurses moving among patients under the menacing amber skies, N95 masks snug on their faces to protect against COVID-19 — and wildfire smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11964365\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-800x450.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-800x450.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-1020x573.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-160x90.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860-1536x864.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/test_showcase-860.png 1793w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over hours, the clinic’s security guards got lightheaded and developed headaches. “We told them, you need to wear N95 masks, too,” Stevens said. “That kind of prolonged exposure to those things was very real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After fires in 2018 and 2020, the EPA wiped more than two weeks of ozone pollution in the district from the record. That didn’t get Nevada county all the way to a clean bill of health, but local regulators avoided having to tighten rules on local emissions. Hunter, the local regulator, said her district is likely to seek more exceptional events there, including for fires in the last two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964366\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-800x534.png\" alt=\"Two men dressed in firefighter uniforms move towards a fire outdoors with the man on the right holding a fire hose.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1536x1025.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-2048x1367.png 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-12-at-5.41.29-PM-1920x1281.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighters from Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach battle the Bond Fire in Santiago Canyon on Dec. 3, 2020. \u003ccite>(Brian Feinzimer/LAist)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If we take out wildfire smoke as one of the things that we look at, then we’re not going to be addressing problems that really affect our community here,” said Stevens, who directs the health clinic. The surge of asthma and other health problems from smoke can be overlooked when it happens in a rural community, she said. “I think it’s maybe a way that we don’t put enough attention into fixing something that can be fixed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials at the California Air Resources Board stress that state law works toward mitigating the effects of climate change, and state policies are supposed to minimize the risk of catastrophic fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really are trying to pull out all the stops,” Michael Benjamin, the chief of CARB’s air-quality planning and science division, said. Practically, he added: “We and the air districts in California will continue to take advantage of the exceptional events provisions in the Clean Air Act to try to show attainment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to showing attainment, the stakes are high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scrubbing smoke from regulatory accounting allows local governments and business to continue as usual, since the practice obscures the toll wildfires take on public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also ignores the ways that the climate crisis is altering how people decide where to live across the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We are all inheriting this’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2017, Maitreyi Siruguri and her husband woke in the night to a sky lit unnaturally orange. They left their Santa Rosa home with their young children in the early hours of the morning; the fire that eventually swirled through went on to kill 22 people and destroy more than 5,600 structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, “I was starting to sense the emotional drain, from everyone having to go through this,” she said. She searched the internet with worry about how smoke could harm her children, then 3 and 7 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, they left for the suburbs of Chicago. They could afford to buy a house; the family would be closer to friends and relatives — and further, she hoped, from wildfire and smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in India in the 1980s and 1990s, and working as a climate educator, Siruguri knows very well that there is no escape hatch leading away from environmental problems. “We are all inheriting this, in every part of the world,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of a woman wearing a reddish-orange sweater with a purple shirt with designs.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-160x240.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_63-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alinea Stevens, the medical director at the Chapa-De Indian Health clinic, on Oct. 4, 2023 in Grass Valley. During a fire in 2021, a thick plume of smoke covered the sun in Grass Valley. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wara, of Stanford’s Woods Institute, argues that such an inheritance requires investment. Rather than trying to protect the status quo, he said, governments could make a new cost-benefit analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would not be unreasonable” to boost spending significantly to manage public and private lands to minimize smoke, “something like what we think is reasonable when it comes to coal-fired power plants, which is billions of dollars per year,” he said. “Because the harms that are being created by the smoke are large.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, as air quality worsened across Illinois from Canadian fires, Siruguri worried anew in Naperville. On a late July day, when smoke pollution had returned, she brought her child to soccer camp, and asked the camp’s director whether the air was healthy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11964348\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11964348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a downtown area of a city.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/10/Copy-of-Guardian_Exceptional_Events_Rule_583-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown Nevada City on Oct. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Andri Tambunan/The Guardian)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He didn’t have an answer. “He was like, well, we kind of wait till somebody tells us what to do or you make the decision for your child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Siruguri believes the government must work to stop climate change, including by switching energy sources away from fossil fuels. She believes that when officials talk to the public, they should be honest about how smoke is changing air over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard for the general public to know. The next time I see bad air quality, I will be looking for how that’s getting recorded,” Siruguri said. “It is concerning that these decisions are made behind the scenes, almost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walke of the NRDC agreed: “The worst possible outcome is lying to the American people about whether the air they breathe is safe or unsafe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Smoke, Screened: The Clean Air Act’s Dirty Secret is a collaboration of The California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian. Molly Peterson is a reporter for The California Newsroom. Dillon Bergin is a data reporter for MuckRock. Emily Zentner is a data reporter for The California Newsroom. Andrew Witherspoon is a data reporter for \u003c/em>The Guardian\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11964317/revealed-how-a-little-known-pollution-rule-keeps-the-air-dirty-for-millions-of-americans","authors":["byline_news_11964317"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_2036","news_2928","news_21506","news_33329","news_27626","news_31499"],"featImg":"news_11964345","label":"news"},"news_11962057":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11962057","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11962057","score":null,"sort":[1695405657000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"as-bay-area-air-quality-remains-smoky-spare-the-air-alert-extended-through-friday","title":"Spare the Air Alert Extended Through Saturday, Amid Lingering Wildfire Smoke","publishDate":1695405657,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Spare the Air Alert Extended Through Saturday, Amid Lingering Wildfire Smoke | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11 a.m. Friday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local air district officials are extending this week’s Spare the Air alert through Saturday, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961902/bay-area-smoke-thickens-air-quality-warning-issued-through-thursday\">smoke from wildfires in far Northern California\u003c/a> continues to envelop parts of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from \u003ca href=\"https://fire.airnow.gov/\">wildfires burning in Siskiyou, Trinity and Humboldt counties\u003c/a>, and in southwestern Oregon, began noticeably creeping into the Bay Area on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared a Spare the Air alert, initially through Thursday. Yesterday, it extended that alert through Friday, and this morning stretched it yet again, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/news-and-events/page-resources/2023-news/092223-sta-alert\">through Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not quite out of the woods yet,” said Sarah McCorkle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, according to the National Weather Service, the smoke is expected to begin to dissipate Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1705256433846264038\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">Spare the Air alerts\u003c/a> are issued when air quality index levels reach above 150, which are considered “unhealthy” levels. The amount of pollutants and particulate matter is measured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976747/what-the-air-quality-index-actually-means\">an air quality index, known as the AQI\u003c/a>. During a Spare the Air alert, it is illegal to use fireplaces, wood stoves, outdoor fire pits or other wood-burning devices. Residents are also encouraged to drive less in order to reduce air pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305 label='What to Know About Air Quality']“We are still expecting some smoke to be lingering through Friday, and we are seeing unhealthy levels for sensitive groups tomorrow in some portions of the Bay Area,” said Tina Lands, public information officer for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologists for the air quality agency expect the smoky skies to begin to clear out by Saturday, pending any unanticipated changes in fire conditions or weather. Dry, low pressure conditions continued through Thursday afternoon. Smoky winds also brought humidity down, which further amplified the fire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/psps-7day-forecast.page\">PG&E issued a power shutoff alert\u003c/a> in the North Bay and other parts of Northern California, including Tehama, Lake Yolo, Butte, Colusa and Glenn counties — and ultimately turned power off around 3 p.m. for about 1,200 customers. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pgecurrents.com/articles/3830-psps-updates-week-september-19-2023\">Power was restored by 5:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as smoke in the Bay Area begins to dissipate, fire risk remains extremely high. Parts of Napa and Sonoma counties issued \u003ca href=\"https://app.watchduty.org/\">a red flag warning\u003c/a> on Wednesday advising residents to take extra caution as combined dry conditions and heat have amplified fire danger. The red flag warning for Napa and Sonoma was \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1704940098582880448\">canceled\u003c/a> midday Thursday, but dry and windy conditions are expected to continue over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Live Updates' link1='https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area,Wildfire Smoke in the Bay Area']Additionally, the six currently active fires in Northern California, which started in late August, may continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, air quality for the Bay Area should begin to improve soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Saturday, northerly winds up to 30 mph are expected to shift directions, blowing smoke away from the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing a slow improvement of air quality since Tuesday afternoon, that day was probably the worst,” Lands said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials throughout the Bay Area are advising people to stay indoors if possible as smoke passes through the skies this week, especially for people who may be more at-risk for health issues or injuries from smoke, including people who are pregnant, elderly persons, people who have heart or lung disease, and people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common symptoms from overexposure to smoke and air pollution include irritated eyes and airways, coughing, dry scratchy throats, wheezing and emphysema.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More Air Quality Resources:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834305/masks-for-smoke-and-covid-19-what-kind-is-best\">When Air Quality’s Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area#outdoor-workers-in-san-francisco-can-take-paid-leave-through-friday\">Many Outdoor Workers in San Francisco Can Take Paid Leave Through Friday.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/psps-7day-forecast.page\">PG&E Power Shut Off Warnings.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/understanding-air-quality/air-quality-forecast\">Spare the Air — Air Quality Forecast Map.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents\">CalFire Fire Incident Map.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Lesley McClurg contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Meteorologists expect air quality throughout the Bay Area to 'gradually improve' Friday and then 'greatly improve' by late Saturday. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1695413547,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":18,"wordCount":667},"headData":{"title":"Spare the Air Alert Extended Through Saturday, Amid Lingering Wildfire Smoke | KQED","description":"Meteorologists expect air quality throughout the Bay Area to 'gradually improve' Friday and then 'greatly improve' by late Saturday. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Spare the Air Alert Extended Through Saturday, Amid Lingering Wildfire Smoke","datePublished":"2023-09-22T18:00:57.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-22T20:12:27.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11962057/as-bay-area-air-quality-remains-smoky-spare-the-air-alert-extended-through-friday","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 11 a.m. Friday \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local air district officials are extending this week’s Spare the Air alert through Saturday, as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961902/bay-area-smoke-thickens-air-quality-warning-issued-through-thursday\">smoke from wildfires in far Northern California\u003c/a> continues to envelop parts of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from \u003ca href=\"https://fire.airnow.gov/\">wildfires burning in Siskiyou, Trinity and Humboldt counties\u003c/a>, and in southwestern Oregon, began noticeably creeping into the Bay Area on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared a Spare the Air alert, initially through Thursday. Yesterday, it extended that alert through Friday, and this morning stretched it yet again, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/news-and-events/page-resources/2023-news/092223-sta-alert\">through Saturday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not quite out of the woods yet,” said Sarah McCorkle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, according to the National Weather Service, the smoke is expected to begin to dissipate Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"singleTwitterStatus","attributes":{"named":{"id":"1705256433846264038"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">Spare the Air alerts\u003c/a> are issued when air quality index levels reach above 150, which are considered “unhealthy” levels. The amount of pollutants and particulate matter is measured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976747/what-the-air-quality-index-actually-means\">an air quality index, known as the AQI\u003c/a>. During a Spare the Air alert, it is illegal to use fireplaces, wood stoves, outdoor fire pits or other wood-burning devices. Residents are also encouraged to drive less in order to reduce air pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1926793,science_1930023,news_11834305","label":"What to Know About Air Quality "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We are still expecting some smoke to be lingering through Friday, and we are seeing unhealthy levels for sensitive groups tomorrow in some portions of the Bay Area,” said Tina Lands, public information officer for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologists for the air quality agency expect the smoky skies to begin to clear out by Saturday, pending any unanticipated changes in fire conditions or weather. Dry, low pressure conditions continued through Thursday afternoon. Smoky winds also brought humidity down, which further amplified the fire risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/psps-7day-forecast.page\">PG&E issued a power shutoff alert\u003c/a> in the North Bay and other parts of Northern California, including Tehama, Lake Yolo, Butte, Colusa and Glenn counties — and ultimately turned power off around 3 p.m. for about 1,200 customers. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pgecurrents.com/articles/3830-psps-updates-week-september-19-2023\">Power was restored by 5:30 p.m. Thursday\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as smoke in the Bay Area begins to dissipate, fire risk remains extremely high. Parts of Napa and Sonoma counties issued \u003ca href=\"https://app.watchduty.org/\">a red flag warning\u003c/a> on Wednesday advising residents to take extra caution as combined dry conditions and heat have amplified fire danger. The red flag warning for Napa and Sonoma was \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1704940098582880448\">canceled\u003c/a> midday Thursday, but dry and windy conditions are expected to continue over the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Live Updates ","link1":"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area,Wildfire Smoke in the Bay Area"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Additionally, the six currently active fires in Northern California, which started in late August, may continue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, air quality for the Bay Area should begin to improve soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting Saturday, northerly winds up to 30 mph are expected to shift directions, blowing smoke away from the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing a slow improvement of air quality since Tuesday afternoon, that day was probably the worst,” Lands said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health officials throughout the Bay Area are advising people to stay indoors if possible as smoke passes through the skies this week, especially for people who may be more at-risk for health issues or injuries from smoke, including people who are pregnant, elderly persons, people who have heart or lung disease, and people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common symptoms from overexposure to smoke and air pollution include irritated eyes and airways, coughing, dry scratchy throats, wheezing and emphysema.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More Air Quality Resources:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834305/masks-for-smoke-and-covid-19-what-kind-is-best\">When Air Quality’s Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area#outdoor-workers-in-san-francisco-can-take-paid-leave-through-friday\">Many Outdoor Workers in San Francisco Can Take Paid Leave Through Friday.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/outages/public-safety-power-shuttoff/psps-7day-forecast.page\">PG&E Power Shut Off Warnings.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/understanding-air-quality/air-quality-forecast\">Spare the Air — Air Quality Forecast Map.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents\">CalFire Fire Incident Map.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Lesley McClurg contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11962057/as-bay-area-air-quality-remains-smoky-spare-the-air-alert-extended-through-friday","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_20628","news_2936","news_2726"],"featImg":"news_11962031","label":"news"},"news_11834305":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11834305","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11834305","score":null,"sort":[1695238292000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"masks-for-smoke-and-covid-19-what-kind-is-best","title":"When Air Quality's Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke?","publishDate":1695238292,"format":"image","headTitle":"When Air Quality’s Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke? | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834866/cubrebocas-para-el-humo-y-covid-19-que-tipo-es-mejor\">Leer en español\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians have become familiar with masks in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First we learned about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11706160/how-particulate-respirator-masks-work\">the power of N95 and N100 masks to protect ourselves from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>. During the COVID pandemic, masks of all kinds became a part of our daily wardrobe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days\">wildfires continue to impact California\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">the pandemic continues to cause infections and hospitalizations around the state\u003c/a>, just what \u003cem>should\u003c/em> you cover your nose and mouth with when wildfire smoke and COVID collide?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing N95 masks for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The best mask for protecting oneself from wildfire smoke is an N95. That’s also the best mask for protecting oneself from coronavirus,” UCSF pulmonologist and professor of medicine Dr. John Balmes said. The CDC says that well-fitting respirators that are approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">N95s, “offer the highest level of protection” against COVID.\u003c/a> Read more about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11706160/how-particulate-respirator-masks-work\">how N95 masks work and why they’re so effective.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11834382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Off Pleasant Valley Road in Vacaville, Solano County, on Aug. 20, 2020. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But some public health officials say N95s aren’t for everyone. Veronica Vien, a public information officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said that they can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time and must “provide a tight seal around the wearer’s mouth and nose” to work effectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If an N95 respirator makes you feel better, wear it. If you feel worse, please don’t!” Vien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balmes also said some types of KN95 masks, which are similar to N95 masks, but made in China, are also good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>N95 masks with exhalation valves work well for wildfire smoke, but are less effective at stopping the spread of disease — even with tape over the valve.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing a surgical mask for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Surgical masks are “actually somewhat protective with regard to wildfire smoke because they’re standardized,” Balmes said. Balmes estimated surgical masks can reduce exposure to wildfire smoke by roughly 20%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for COVID, the CDC says that “\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">well-fitting disposable surgical masks” are only the second-best mask\u003c/a> to protect yourself from the coronavirus, along with KN95s — behind N95 masks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing a cloth mask for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wearing a cloth mask was one of the primary ways people tried to limit the spread of the virus in the earliest days of the pandemic. But at this stage, the CDC has advised that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">“[l]oosely woven cloth products provide the least protection” against the coronavirus. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a cloth mask doesn’t filter out wildfire smoke. As the CDC notes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/covid-19/wildfire_smoke_covid-19.html\">cloth masks “do not catch small, harmful particles\u003c/a> in smoke that can harm your health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are masking up because you are inside and it is required, however, cloth masks can still slow the spread of coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The best way to protect yourself from wildfire smoke? Stay inside\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While masks are a good option, public health officials say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">the most effective way to keep yourself safe from wildfire smoke is to stay inside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below is an interactive, crowdsourced air quality map from the private company PurpleAir. Read more \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\">information on air quality and how it’s measured\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.purpleair.com/map?#9.33/37.7482/-122.4927\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This advice to stay indoors may not feel particularly helpful or possible during a heat wave, or with impending evacuation orders if you live in an area directly affected by wildfires. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District recommends that “when wildfires are affecting air quality, staying indoors with windows and doors shut is the best way to protect your health”, if heat allows:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/AirDistrict/status/1704288547967218052\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Air Resources Board also recommends mechanical air cleaners with a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter that collects very small particles and does not emit harmful substances. These air cleaners can dramatically reduce indoor particle levels, in some cases by more than 90%. \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/air-cleaners-ozone-products/california-certified-air-cleaning-devices\">See a list of air cleaning devices here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t have air conditioning — which makes closing doors and windows especially difficult during a heat wave — consider getting some battery-operated fans and reducing activities that increase indoor air pollution, like burning candles, cooking on gas stoves or vacuuming. We also have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976551/how-to-get-or-make-a-free-low-cost-air-purifier-for-your-home\"> instructions on how to make your own low-cost air purifier.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on Aug. 21, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Masks became a part of our lives during COVID. So when wildfire smoke hits and the air quality plummets nearby, how can you best protect yourself with a face covering?","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1695829795,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":true,"iframeSrcs":["https://www.purpleair.com/map"],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":768},"headData":{"title":"When Air Quality's Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke? | KQED","description":"Masks became a part of our lives during COVID. So when wildfire smoke hits and the air quality plummets nearby, how can you best protect yourself with a face covering?","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"When Air Quality's Bad, Which Mask Can I Wear for Wildfire Smoke?","datePublished":"2023-09-20T19:31:32.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-27T15:49:55.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11834305/masks-for-smoke-and-covid-19-what-kind-is-best","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834866/cubrebocas-para-el-humo-y-covid-19-que-tipo-es-mejor\">Leer en español\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Californians have become familiar with masks in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First we learned about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11706160/how-particulate-respirator-masks-work\">the power of N95 and N100 masks to protect ourselves from wildfire smoke\u003c/a>. During the COVID pandemic, masks of all kinds became a part of our daily wardrobe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days\">wildfires continue to impact California\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957790/the-new-covid-eris-variant-and-rising-cases-what-you-need-to-know\">the pandemic continues to cause infections and hospitalizations around the state\u003c/a>, just what \u003cem>should\u003c/em> you cover your nose and mouth with when wildfire smoke and COVID collide?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing N95 masks for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“The best mask for protecting oneself from wildfire smoke is an N95. That’s also the best mask for protecting oneself from coronavirus,” UCSF pulmonologist and professor of medicine Dr. John Balmes said. The CDC says that well-fitting respirators that are approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">N95s, “offer the highest level of protection” against COVID.\u003c/a> Read more about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11706160/how-particulate-respirator-masks-work\">how N95 masks work and why they’re so effective.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11834382\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11834382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/DSCF5517-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Off Pleasant Valley Road in Vacaville, Solano County, on Aug. 20, 2020. \u003ccite>(Peter Arcuni/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But some public health officials say N95s aren’t for everyone. Veronica Vien, a public information officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said that they can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time and must “provide a tight seal around the wearer’s mouth and nose” to work effectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If an N95 respirator makes you feel better, wear it. If you feel worse, please don’t!” Vien said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Balmes also said some types of KN95 masks, which are similar to N95 masks, but made in China, are also good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>N95 masks with exhalation valves work well for wildfire smoke, but are less effective at stopping the spread of disease — even with tape over the valve.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing a surgical mask for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Surgical masks are “actually somewhat protective with regard to wildfire smoke because they’re standardized,” Balmes said. Balmes estimated surgical masks can reduce exposure to wildfire smoke by roughly 20%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for COVID, the CDC says that “\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">well-fitting disposable surgical masks” are only the second-best mask\u003c/a> to protect yourself from the coronavirus, along with KN95s — behind N95 masks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wearing a cloth mask for COVID and smoke\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wearing a cloth mask was one of the primary ways people tried to limit the spread of the virus in the earliest days of the pandemic. But at this stage, the CDC has advised that \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html\">“[l]oosely woven cloth products provide the least protection” against the coronavirus. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a cloth mask doesn’t filter out wildfire smoke. As the CDC notes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/covid-19/wildfire_smoke_covid-19.html\">cloth masks “do not catch small, harmful particles\u003c/a> in smoke that can harm your health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are masking up because you are inside and it is required, however, cloth masks can still slow the spread of coronavirus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The best way to protect yourself from wildfire smoke? Stay inside\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While masks are a good option, public health officials say \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">the most effective way to keep yourself safe from wildfire smoke is to stay inside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below is an interactive, crowdsourced air quality map from the private company PurpleAir. Read more \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\">information on air quality and how it’s measured\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.purpleair.com/map?#9.33/37.7482/-122.4927\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This advice to stay indoors may not feel particularly helpful or possible during a heat wave, or with impending evacuation orders if you live in an area directly affected by wildfires. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District recommends that “when wildfires are affecting air quality, staying indoors with windows and doors shut is the best way to protect your health”, if heat allows:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"singleTwitterStatus","attributes":{"named":{"id":"1704288547967218052"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The California Air Resources Board also recommends mechanical air cleaners with a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter that collects very small particles and does not emit harmful substances. These air cleaners can dramatically reduce indoor particle levels, in some cases by more than 90%. \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/air-cleaners-ozone-products/california-certified-air-cleaning-devices\">See a list of air cleaning devices here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t have air conditioning — which makes closing doors and windows especially difficult during a heat wave — consider getting some battery-operated fans and reducing activities that increase indoor air pollution, like burning candles, cooking on gas stoves or vacuuming. We also have\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976551/how-to-get-or-make-a-free-low-cost-air-purifier-for-your-home\"> instructions on how to make your own low-cost air purifier.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story was originally published on Aug. 21, 2020.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11834305/masks-for-smoke-and-covid-19-what-kind-is-best","authors":["11526","8648"],"categories":["news_457","news_8","news_356"],"tags":["news_2928","news_27350","news_29029","news_27504","news_27804","news_27626","news_27651","news_4463"],"featImg":"news_11834613","label":"news"},"news_11961902":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11961902","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11961902","score":null,"sort":[1695238243000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"bay-area-smoke-thickens-air-quality-warning-issued-through-thursday","title":"Bay Area Smoke Thickens, Air Quality Warning Issued Through Thursday","publishDate":1695238243,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Bay Area Smoke Thickens, Air Quality Warning Issued Through Thursday | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Follow live updates from KQED reporters\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">a Spare the Air alert\u003c/a> for Wednesday and Thursday as smoke from multiple wildfires burning in far Northern California continues to blanket parts of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from the fires in Siskiyou, Trinity and Humboldt counties began creeping into parts of the Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days\">on Tuesday afternoon\u003c/a>. By Wednesday morning, air quality in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San José had reached unhealthy levels, officials said, triggering the air quality alert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1976747,science_1930023 label='What to Know About Air Quality']“Yesterday, the impact began around noon over the north bay,” said Duc Nguyen of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District at a press conference Wednesday morning. “As the day progressed, more dense plumes from over the ocean entered the Golden Gate and filtered out across the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">Spare the Air alerts\u003c/a> are issued if pollution reaches unhealthy levels. The alert puts into effect a ban on burning wood, manufactured fire logs or other solid fuel indoors and outdoors. It also encourages people to decrease their driving and to protect their health by staying indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During wildfires, air quality officials look for dangerous levels of particulate matter in the air, known as PM2.5. The amount of pollutants and particulate matter is measured on an air quality index, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976747/what-the-air-quality-index-actually-means\">known as the AQI\u003c/a>. As of 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the AQI for parts of the Bay Area had reached above 150, categorized as “unhealthy” levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health experts are advising people in affected areas to keep outdoor activities short and light, and stay indoors with windows closed if possible. This is especially true for sensitive groups, such as people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and pregnant people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke can irritate the eyes and airways. Coughing, a dry scratchy throat and irritated sinuses are common symptoms from overexposure to unhealthy air, and it can trigger wheezing in those who suffer from asthma, emphysema or COPD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although smoke was noticeable in many neighborhoods around the Bay Area on Tuesday, air quality officials said they didn’t notify the public earlier because the 24-hour average air quality was at moderate levels, Nguyen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Initially we did not expect to see this amount of smoke,” said Charley Knoderer, manager at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District at the press briefing on Wednesday. “A lot of the models we looked at predicted lower concentrations than what actually came into the Bay Area. So we had to up our forecast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires and smoke are \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires\">growing more common as changes in climate\u003c/a> have impacted soil and foliage, leading to an increase in the intensity, size, severity and duration of wildfires in California and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Bay Area residents remember the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11837787/the-week-in-photos-an-orange-sky-to-a-charred-big-basin\">orange sky\u003c/a>” day in September 2020, when wildfire smoke was scattered and absorbed by sunlight, creating an orange haze across the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologist Daneil Alrick said the air quality was actually somewhat better back on the orange sky day, however, because much of the smoke was trapped higher in the atmosphere than the smoke creeping into the Bay Area this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the case of the smoke today, we don’t have that same set up,” Alrick explained. “We have more smoke at the ground level, but it’s not quite as dense and thick as a smoke plume as we had during that [2020] event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"With smoke from northern wildfires expected to continue, health experts are advising people to keep outdoor activities short and to stay indoors with windows closed if possible.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1695313242,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":16,"wordCount":595},"headData":{"title":"Bay Area Smoke Thickens, Air Quality Warning Issued Through Thursday | KQED","description":"With smoke from northern wildfires expected to continue, health experts are advising people to keep outdoor activities short and to stay indoors with windows closed if possible.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Bay Area Smoke Thickens, Air Quality Warning Issued Through Thursday","datePublished":"2023-09-20T19:30:43.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-21T16:20:42.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11961902/bay-area-smoke-thickens-air-quality-warning-issued-through-thursday","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/liveblog/wildfire-smoke-in-the-bay-area\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Follow live updates from KQED reporters\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">a Spare the Air alert\u003c/a> for Wednesday and Thursday as smoke from multiple wildfires burning in far Northern California continues to blanket parts of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke from the fires in Siskiyou, Trinity and Humboldt counties began creeping into parts of the Bay Area \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days\">on Tuesday afternoon\u003c/a>. By Wednesday morning, air quality in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San José had reached unhealthy levels, officials said, triggering the air quality alert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1976747,science_1930023","label":"What to Know About Air Quality "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Yesterday, the impact began around noon over the north bay,” said Duc Nguyen of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District at a press conference Wednesday morning. “As the day progressed, more dense plumes from over the ocean entered the Golden Gate and filtered out across the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sparetheair.org/\">Spare the Air alerts\u003c/a> are issued if pollution reaches unhealthy levels. The alert puts into effect a ban on burning wood, manufactured fire logs or other solid fuel indoors and outdoors. It also encourages people to decrease their driving and to protect their health by staying indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During wildfires, air quality officials look for dangerous levels of particulate matter in the air, known as PM2.5. The amount of pollutants and particulate matter is measured on an air quality index, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1976747/what-the-air-quality-index-actually-means\">known as the AQI\u003c/a>. As of 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the AQI for parts of the Bay Area had reached above 150, categorized as “unhealthy” levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Health experts are advising people in affected areas to keep outdoor activities short and light, and stay indoors with windows closed if possible. This is especially true for sensitive groups, such as people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and pregnant people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smoke can irritate the eyes and airways. Coughing, a dry scratchy throat and irritated sinuses are common symptoms from overexposure to unhealthy air, and it can trigger wheezing in those who suffer from asthma, emphysema or COPD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although smoke was noticeable in many neighborhoods around the Bay Area on Tuesday, air quality officials said they didn’t notify the public earlier because the 24-hour average air quality was at moderate levels, Nguyen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Initially we did not expect to see this amount of smoke,” said Charley Knoderer, manager at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District at the press briefing on Wednesday. “A lot of the models we looked at predicted lower concentrations than what actually came into the Bay Area. So we had to up our forecast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires and smoke are \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires\">growing more common as changes in climate\u003c/a> have impacted soil and foliage, leading to an increase in the intensity, size, severity and duration of wildfires in California and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many Bay Area residents remember the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11837787/the-week-in-photos-an-orange-sky-to-a-charred-big-basin\">orange sky\u003c/a>” day in September 2020, when wildfire smoke was scattered and absorbed by sunlight, creating an orange haze across the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meteorologist Daneil Alrick said the air quality was actually somewhat better back on the orange sky day, however, because much of the smoke was trapped higher in the atmosphere than the smoke creeping into the Bay Area this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the case of the smoke today, we don’t have that same set up,” Alrick explained. “We have more smoke at the ground level, but it’s not quite as dense and thick as a smoke plume as we had during that [2020] event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11961902/bay-area-smoke-thickens-air-quality-warning-issued-through-thursday","authors":["11840"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_32193","news_20628","news_2936","news_29851"],"featImg":"news_11961892","label":"news"},"news_11961815":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11961815","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11961815","score":null,"sort":[1695172265000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days","title":"As Smoke Returns, Bay Area Air Quality Expected to Worsen Over Next Few Days","publishDate":1695172265,"format":"standard","headTitle":"As Smoke Returns, Bay Area Air Quality Expected to Worsen Over Next Few Days | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:30 a.m. Wednesday: \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Bay Area Air Quality Management District upgraded its air quality advisory Wednesday morning to a Spare the Air Alert, which is in effect through Thursday due to continued impacts from wildfire smoke blowing into the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alert bans the burning of wood or any solid fuel, both indoors and outdoors. Air quality across much of the Bay Area has degraded to mostly ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ and ‘unhealthy’ Air Quality Index (AQI) levels, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2023/2023_039_aqadvisoryupgrade_091923-pdf.pdf?la=en&rev=f8ccae09226d449992be1be9110cfcb0\">the air district said\u003c/a>, urging residents — especially children and people with respiratory conditions — to limit outdoor exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\">\u003cem>Explore an updated Bay Area air quality map\u003c/em>.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 6 p.m. Tuesday:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAir quality across most of the Bay Area took a nosedive Tuesday afternoon as smoke from wildfires burning in the far northwestern quadrant of the state crept into the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early Tuesday, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/news-and-events/page-resources/2023-news/091923-aq-advisory\">issued an air quality advisory through Wednesday\u003c/a> due to the smoke, and urged residents to remain cautious and limit their outdoor exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1926793,science_1930023]“Wildfire smoke can be unpredictable,” Juan Romero, an air district spokesperson, told KQED. “So we tell people to take the precautions necessary to avoid exposure. If you smell the smoke, stay indoors with your windows and doors closed if you can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Romero also recommended setting air conditioners to recirculate air, and said people with respiratory diseases like asthma should take extra care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By late Tuesday afternoon, as the smoke thickened, San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said air quality had reached the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” threshold and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SF_emergency/status/1704285443720986688?s=20\">encouraged residents to wear face coverings when going outside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 5 p.m., readings at official air monitoring sites in San Francisco and West Oakland had reached the red, “unhealthy” category, with PM2.5 indexes of 161 and 154, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A low-pressure system is expected to continue drawing smoke from the far-northern wildfires, with northerly and northeasterly winds carrying it down the coast as far south as Central California over the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1704242174064525672\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Numerous lightning strikes touched off the fires in mid-August, and have produced heavy smoke for weeks, creating occasionally unhealthy-to-hazardous air quality in northwestern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest of those blazes is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2023/8/15/smith-river-complex/\">Smith River Complex\u003c/a>, which began in Del Norte County and has since crossed into southern Oregon, burning a total of more than 140 square miles. Smoke from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2023/8/16/happy-camp-complex\">Happy Camp Complex\u003c/a> in Siskiyou County, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/8/5/six-rivers-srf-lightning-complex\">Six Rivers Complex\u003c/a> in Trinity and Humboldt counties — and from other fires in southern Oregon — is also being funneled down the coast and contributing to the current poor air quality in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Natalia Navarro and Dan Brekke contributed to this story. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert Wednesday morning as smoke from fires in far northern California continues to blow into the region.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1695230019,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":489},"headData":{"title":"As Smoke Returns, Bay Area Air Quality Expected to Worsen Over Next Few Days | KQED","description":"The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued a Spare the Air Alert Wednesday morning as smoke from fires in far northern California continues to blow into the region.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"As Smoke Returns, Bay Area Air Quality Expected to Worsen Over Next Few Days","datePublished":"2023-09-20T01:11:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-20T17:13:39.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:30 a.m. Wednesday: \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Bay Area Air Quality Management District upgraded its air quality advisory Wednesday morning to a Spare the Air Alert, which is in effect through Thursday due to continued impacts from wildfire smoke blowing into the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alert bans the burning of wood or any solid fuel, both indoors and outdoors. Air quality across much of the Bay Area has degraded to mostly ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ and ‘unhealthy’ Air Quality Index (AQI) levels, \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/communications-and-outreach/publications/news-releases/2023/2023_039_aqadvisoryupgrade_091923-pdf.pdf?la=en&rev=f8ccae09226d449992be1be9110cfcb0\">the air district said\u003c/a>, urging residents — especially children and people with respiratory conditions — to limit outdoor exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930023/map-heres-your-daily-air-quality-report-for-the-bay-area\">\u003cem>Explore an updated Bay Area air quality map\u003c/em>.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original story, 6 p.m. Tuesday:\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAir quality across most of the Bay Area took a nosedive Tuesday afternoon as smoke from wildfires burning in the far northwestern quadrant of the state crept into the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Early Tuesday, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/news-and-events/page-resources/2023-news/091923-aq-advisory\">issued an air quality advisory through Wednesday\u003c/a> due to the smoke, and urged residents to remain cautious and limit their outdoor exposure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"science_1926793,science_1930023","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Wildfire smoke can be unpredictable,” Juan Romero, an air district spokesperson, told KQED. “So we tell people to take the precautions necessary to avoid exposure. If you smell the smoke, stay indoors with your windows and doors closed if you can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Romero also recommended setting air conditioners to recirculate air, and said people with respiratory diseases like asthma should take extra care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By late Tuesday afternoon, as the smoke thickened, San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management said air quality had reached the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” threshold and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SF_emergency/status/1704285443720986688?s=20\">encouraged residents to wear face coverings when going outside\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 5 p.m., readings at official air monitoring sites in San Francisco and West Oakland had reached the red, “unhealthy” category, with PM2.5 indexes of 161 and 154, respectively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A low-pressure system is expected to continue drawing smoke from the far-northern wildfires, with northerly and northeasterly winds carrying it down the coast as far south as Central California over the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"singleTwitterStatus","attributes":{"named":{"id":"1704242174064525672"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Numerous lightning strikes touched off the fires in mid-August, and have produced heavy smoke for weeks, creating occasionally unhealthy-to-hazardous air quality in northwestern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest of those blazes is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2023/8/15/smith-river-complex/\">Smith River Complex\u003c/a>, which began in Del Norte County and has since crossed into southern Oregon, burning a total of more than 140 square miles. Smoke from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2023/8/16/happy-camp-complex\">Happy Camp Complex\u003c/a> in Siskiyou County, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/8/5/six-rivers-srf-lightning-complex\">Six Rivers Complex\u003c/a> in Trinity and Humboldt counties — and from other fires in southern Oregon — is also being funneled down the coast and contributing to the current poor air quality in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Natalia Navarro and Dan Brekke contributed to this story. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11961815/as-smoke-returns-bay-area-air-quality-expected-to-worsen-over-next-few-days","authors":["182"],"categories":["news_19906","news_457","news_8"],"tags":["news_2928","news_20628","news_20120","news_27626","news_2936","news_3","news_29851","news_4463"],"featImg":"news_11961831","label":"news"},"news_11960699":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11960699","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11960699","score":null,"sort":[1694516429000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"oil-industry-sets-back-efforts-to-increase-fines-against-polluting-california-refineries-yet-again","title":"Oil Industry Blocks Effort to Increase Fines Against Polluting California Refineries … Again","publishDate":1694516429,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Oil Industry Blocks Effort to Increase Fines Against Polluting California Refineries … Again | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>California’s oil industry has once again quashed an attempt in the state Capitol to increase penalties on refineries that violate air quality laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the fourth time in a decade that the industry has successfully killed or delayed such an endeavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest proposal was put on hold last week, just days before the Legislature finishes its work for the year on Sept. 14. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who authored the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/bill/AB1465/2023\">bill\u003c/a>, said the move was prompted by concerns some lawmakers would vote against it because it wasn’t weakened enough to satisfy California’s main oil industry group, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became apparent that we were going to need more time to work on AB 1465 with our sponsor, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and with opposition groups who engaged us on the possibility of additional amendments,” Wicks said in an email on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WSPA represents the oil companies that own all of the Bay Area’s petroleum refineries. The region’s Chevron, Valero, PBF, Marathon and Phillips 66 plants have for decades produced gasoline and jet fuels that have powered major components of the region’s transportation sector. But they have also received \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/rules-and-compliance/compliance-assistance/notices-of-violations/novs-issued\">hundreds of notices of violations\u003c/a> from local air regulators in recent years, stemming from minor flaring incidents to severe accidents that forced nearby residents to stay indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those incidents prompted Wicks to propose tripling the maximum penalty amounts oil companies would pay when their refineries violate air quality regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Asm. Buffy Wicks at a July 11 hearing\"]‘This morning in Martinez, which I drive through on my way here, there was a toxic dust release. This is happening in our communities all the time.’[/pullquote]There are a variety of fine amounts refineries can face, but the general limit on those fines is currently $10,000. Environmentalists and some Bay Area elected leaders have described those penalties as part of the mere cost of doing business for companies like \u003ca href=\"https://chevroncorp.gcs-web.com/static-files/359d5f9b-5519-476e-976c-8ace50143c49\">Chevron, which earned $6 billion in the second quarter of this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wicks’ bill would increase the ceiling on fines to $30,000 per violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But WSPA has opposed any attempts to crack down on air quality violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even before Wicks sidelined the bill last week, the industry group had already convinced legislators to significantly change the proposal several months ago by expanding its scope. Under the changes, the fines would also apply to dozens of industrial facilities that release chemicals into the air, including refineries, that are covered by Title V of the federal Clean Air Act. In the Bay Area there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/permits/major-facility-review-title-v/title-v-permits\">dozens of such sites\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no public policy rationale for singling out refineries,” wrote Shant Apekian, vice president of California policy and strategic affairs at WSPA, in a letter to Wicks in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that complaint arose this spring, lawmakers did not amend the bill until June — and not everyone was happy with the change. Several industry and public agency associations, including the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, urged legislators to vote “no” on the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unlike refineries, which are privately held for-profit corporations, public wastewater agencies provide an essential public service and all costs to the agency, including penalties, are borne by the rate-paying public,” the group wrote to legislators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though lawmakers in the Senate approved the change, WSPA continued to fight against the bill. It’s a debate that has taken place behind closed doors — not in public committees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the bill has \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1465\">sailed through all of its legislative votes\u003c/a> and was headed for a full vote in the state Senate when, last week, Wicks abruptly asked that the proposal be moved to the “inactive file,” essentially scuttling any debate or votes until next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those involved in conversations with Wicks and WSPA say that decision was driven by a push by the petroleum association to make the proposal effective only in rare cases — in WSPA’s words, only when “discharge results in a significant increase in hospitalizations, residential displacement, shelter in place, evacuation or destruction of property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But air district officials say that definition is too narrow, because refineries often violate air regulations in less extreme incidents that are still dangerous to human health. They argue the standard the industry is arguing for won’t actually provide a deterrent or change how refineries do business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Stories' tag='refineries']For example, last November the PBF refinery in Martinez \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">released nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered, industrial chemicals, much of it landing on residential neighborhoods\u003c/a>. The accident led to investigations by the EPA, FBI, Contra Costa County regulators and the air district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the changes the oil industry wants to make, that release would not be covered by the proposed fine increases, local air regulators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In our view, the purpose of the bill is to strengthen penalties for those types of events, not to protect them,” said air district spokeswoman Kristine Roselius, adding that the changes proposed by WSPA “would have provided an economic incentive to large facilities such as refineries, to downplay events as they were happening if they felt they could avoid higher penalties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this kind of successful pushback sounds similar, that’s because it has happened every time a refinery fine increase proposal has emerged in Sacramento over the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, just as another Wicks bill to do something similar was about to get a vote in the state Senate, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923242/watered-down-state-bill-to-punish-refinery-pollution-gets-scrapped-after-oil-industry-pushback\">she killed it because it was watered down so much\u003c/a> that even the industry dropped its opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) proposed tripling some of the most serious penalties for refineries. Amid opposition from the oil industry — and, on the other side, pushback from environmentalists and the mayors of Richmond and Benicia, who said the proposal wasn’t strong enough — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660005/facing-widespread-opposition-lawmaker-ends-effort-to-increase-refinery-penalties\">that bill never even got a hearing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, then state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) introduced legislation to raise such penalties on the heels of a major fire at Richmond’s Chevron refinery, the worst refinery accident in the Bay Area in the last few decades. That bill died on the Assembly floor, also after opposition from oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as the debate rages on in Sacramento, the problem for communities around these refineries persists. The day Wicks presented this year’s bill — at its final hearing before a Senate committee — the Contra Costa County refinery owned by PBF Energy released petroleum coke dust. Some residents described the dust as a “flaky ash.” The pollution came eight months after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">much more severe chemical release from the same facility\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This morning in Martinez, which I drive through on my way here, there was a toxic dust release,” Wicks said at the July 11 hearing. “This is happening in our communities all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"It’s the 4th time in a decade that the industry has successfully killed or delayed an attempt in the state Capitol to increase penalties on refineries that violate air quality laws.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1694545281,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":1199},"headData":{"title":"Oil Industry Blocks Effort to Increase Fines Against Polluting California Refineries … Again | KQED","description":"It’s the 4th time in a decade that the industry has successfully killed or delayed an attempt in the state Capitol to increase penalties on refineries that violate air quality laws.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Oil Industry Blocks Effort to Increase Fines Against Polluting California Refineries … Again","datePublished":"2023-09-12T11:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2023-09-12T19:01:21.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11960699/oil-industry-sets-back-efforts-to-increase-fines-against-polluting-california-refineries-yet-again","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s oil industry has once again quashed an attempt in the state Capitol to increase penalties on refineries that violate air quality laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the fourth time in a decade that the industry has successfully killed or delayed such an endeavor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest proposal was put on hold last week, just days before the Legislature finishes its work for the year on Sept. 14. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who authored the \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/bill/AB1465/2023\">bill\u003c/a>, said the move was prompted by concerns some lawmakers would vote against it because it wasn’t weakened enough to satisfy California’s main oil industry group, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It became apparent that we were going to need more time to work on AB 1465 with our sponsor, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and with opposition groups who engaged us on the possibility of additional amendments,” Wicks said in an email on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WSPA represents the oil companies that own all of the Bay Area’s petroleum refineries. The region’s Chevron, Valero, PBF, Marathon and Phillips 66 plants have for decades produced gasoline and jet fuels that have powered major components of the region’s transportation sector. But they have also received \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/rules-and-compliance/compliance-assistance/notices-of-violations/novs-issued\">hundreds of notices of violations\u003c/a> from local air regulators in recent years, stemming from minor flaring incidents to severe accidents that forced nearby residents to stay indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those incidents prompted Wicks to propose tripling the maximum penalty amounts oil companies would pay when their refineries violate air quality regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘This morning in Martinez, which I drive through on my way here, there was a toxic dust release. This is happening in our communities all the time.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"medium","align":"right","citation":"Asm. Buffy Wicks at a July 11 hearing","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There are a variety of fine amounts refineries can face, but the general limit on those fines is currently $10,000. Environmentalists and some Bay Area elected leaders have described those penalties as part of the mere cost of doing business for companies like \u003ca href=\"https://chevroncorp.gcs-web.com/static-files/359d5f9b-5519-476e-976c-8ace50143c49\">Chevron, which earned $6 billion in the second quarter of this year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wicks’ bill would increase the ceiling on fines to $30,000 per violation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But WSPA has opposed any attempts to crack down on air quality violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even before Wicks sidelined the bill last week, the industry group had already convinced legislators to significantly change the proposal several months ago by expanding its scope. Under the changes, the fines would also apply to dozens of industrial facilities that release chemicals into the air, including refineries, that are covered by Title V of the federal Clean Air Act. In the Bay Area there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/permits/major-facility-review-title-v/title-v-permits\">dozens of such sites\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no public policy rationale for singling out refineries,” wrote Shant Apekian, vice president of California policy and strategic affairs at WSPA, in a letter to Wicks in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that complaint arose this spring, lawmakers did not amend the bill until June — and not everyone was happy with the change. Several industry and public agency associations, including the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, urged legislators to vote “no” on the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unlike refineries, which are privately held for-profit corporations, public wastewater agencies provide an essential public service and all costs to the agency, including penalties, are borne by the rate-paying public,” the group wrote to legislators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though lawmakers in the Senate approved the change, WSPA continued to fight against the bill. It’s a debate that has taken place behind closed doors — not in public committees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, the bill has \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1465\">sailed through all of its legislative votes\u003c/a> and was headed for a full vote in the state Senate when, last week, Wicks abruptly asked that the proposal be moved to the “inactive file,” essentially scuttling any debate or votes until next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those involved in conversations with Wicks and WSPA say that decision was driven by a push by the petroleum association to make the proposal effective only in rare cases — in WSPA’s words, only when “discharge results in a significant increase in hospitalizations, residential displacement, shelter in place, evacuation or destruction of property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But air district officials say that definition is too narrow, because refineries often violate air regulations in less extreme incidents that are still dangerous to human health. They argue the standard the industry is arguing for won’t actually provide a deterrent or change how refineries do business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","tag":"refineries"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For example, last November the PBF refinery in Martinez \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">released nearly 50,000 pounds of powdered, industrial chemicals, much of it landing on residential neighborhoods\u003c/a>. The accident led to investigations by the EPA, FBI, Contra Costa County regulators and the air district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the changes the oil industry wants to make, that release would not be covered by the proposed fine increases, local air regulators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In our view, the purpose of the bill is to strengthen penalties for those types of events, not to protect them,” said air district spokeswoman Kristine Roselius, adding that the changes proposed by WSPA “would have provided an economic incentive to large facilities such as refineries, to downplay events as they were happening if they felt they could avoid higher penalties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this kind of successful pushback sounds similar, that’s because it has happened every time a refinery fine increase proposal has emerged in Sacramento over the last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, just as another Wicks bill to do something similar was about to get a vote in the state Senate, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923242/watered-down-state-bill-to-punish-refinery-pollution-gets-scrapped-after-oil-industry-pushback\">she killed it because it was watered down so much\u003c/a> that even the industry dropped its opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa) proposed tripling some of the most serious penalties for refineries. Amid opposition from the oil industry — and, on the other side, pushback from environmentalists and the mayors of Richmond and Benicia, who said the proposal wasn’t strong enough — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11660005/facing-widespread-opposition-lawmaker-ends-effort-to-increase-refinery-penalties\">that bill never even got a hearing\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, then state Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) introduced legislation to raise such penalties on the heels of a major fire at Richmond’s Chevron refinery, the worst refinery accident in the Bay Area in the last few decades. That bill died on the Assembly floor, also after opposition from oil companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as the debate rages on in Sacramento, the problem for communities around these refineries persists. The day Wicks presented this year’s bill — at its final hearing before a Senate committee — the Contra Costa County refinery owned by PBF Energy released petroleum coke dust. Some residents described the dust as a “flaky ash.” The pollution came eight months after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952517/martinez-refinery-chemical-release-poses-no-long-term-hazard-tests-find\">much more severe chemical release from the same facility\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This morning in Martinez, which I drive through on my way here, there was a toxic dust release,” Wicks said at the July 11 hearing. “This is happening in our communities all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11960699/oil-industry-sets-back-efforts-to-increase-fines-against-polluting-california-refineries-yet-again","authors":["258"],"categories":["news_19906","news_457","news_28250","news_8","news_13"],"tags":["news_2928","news_20628","news_20389","news_20179","news_33166","news_20962","news_27626","news_18543","news_21107","news_26179","news_33167"],"featImg":"news_11960719","label":"news"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. 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Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. 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Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. 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On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. 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For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us","airtime":"SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm","meta":{"site":"news","source":"wnyc"},"link":"/radio/program/on-the-media","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/","rss":"http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"}},"our-body-politic":{"id":"our-body-politic","title":"Our Body Politic","info":"Presented by KQED, KCRW and KPCC, and created and hosted by award-winning journalist Farai Chideya, Our Body Politic is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those very issues.","airtime":"SAT 6pm-7pm, SUN 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Our-Body-Politic-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://our-body-politic.simplecast.com/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kcrw"},"link":"/radio/program/our-body-politic","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-body-politic/id1533069868","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9feGFQaHMxcw","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/4ApAiLT1kV153TttWAmqmc","rss":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/_xaPhs1s","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Our-Body-Politic-p1369211/"}},"pbs-newshour":{"id":"pbs-newshour","title":"PBS NewsHour","info":"Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.","airtime":"MON-FRI 3pm-4pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"pbs"},"link":"/radio/program/pbs-newshour","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/","rss":"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"}},"perspectives":{"id":"perspectives","title":"Perspectives","tagline":"KQED's series of of daily listener commentaries since 1991","info":"KQED's series of of daily listener commentaries since 1991.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Perspectives-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/perspectives/","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"kqed","order":"15"},"link":"/perspectives","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"}},"planet-money":{"id":"planet-money","title":"Planet Money","info":"The economy explained. 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The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.","airtime":"SAT 4pm-5pm","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/reveal","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/","rss":"http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"}},"says-you":{"id":"says-you","title":"Says You!","info":"Public radio's game show of bluff and bluster, words and whimsy. 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