In 1969, we began our work as the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority. With a handful of staff, our initial focus was setting up air sampling stations. Air sampling back then was real high tech: fallout buckets and sticky-taped jars.
Our early efforts where addressing the real obvious sources of air pollution–industrial smokestacks belching thick, black smoke. Staff contacted each of these facilities to learn about their processes, products, and equipment in order to estimate their emissions.
Read more about our air pollution challenges and successes over the years in these articles:
Winter 2018-19 On the Air newsletter feature: 50th anniversary of SRCAA
Winter 2008-09 On the Air newsletter article – 40th anniversary of SRCAA
30th anniversary of SRCAA
Part 1 – The 1960s-70s, Summer 1999
Part 2 – The 1980s, Winter 1999
Part 3 – The 1990s, Spring 2000
National Air Quality Trends
The U.S. Environmental Protection agency provides a national air quality trends report annually.
We’ve reached a significant milestone…
August 2025 marked the end of the federally-mandated, 20 year maintenance period, effectively ‘closing the chapter’ on the decades-long quest to attain and maintain clean air standards for carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM10 – particles measuring 10 micrometers in diameter and smaller).
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Spokane was failing health-based clean air standards, established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In 2005, EPA officially designated Spokane County as an ‘attainment area’ for both CO and PM10. What followed was the 20 year maintenance period which just ended in August 2025. Details about the efforts to achieve and maintain clean air can be found in this new fact sheet: Success Story: Carbon Monoxide and Particulate Matter. A 25-minute Tower Talks podcast features this success story, which was followed by a front page article in the Spokesman Review.
While we can celebrate success with reducing CO and PM10, we are currently faced with unhealthy levels of fine particle pollution (PM2.5- particles measure 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller). The PM2.5 standard was established in 1997. From 2012 through 2024, smoke from wildfires has resulted an annual average of 5.5 days of unhealthy levels of PM2.5. Other key sources of PM2.5 include wood heating, outdoor burning, and diesel exhaust.
Spokane County Air Quality Trend Charts
Click on each chart to bring up a larger version for easier viewing.
