In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Expo ’74, we’ll be sharing clean air success stories. National air quality standards were established by the U.S. EPA in 1971. It would take Spokane the better part of three decades to attain clean air standards for PM and CO.

Up until the mid-1990s, the Spokane area regularly failed clean air standards for carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM).

From the 1960s through the mid 1990s, we experienced dramatic reductions in air pollution. Unfortunately, some of these improvements have been eroded in recent years due to wildfire smoke. Since 2012, fine particulate matter (smoke) has reached unhealthy to hazardous levels on a handful of days most summers. Read more….