The Washington State Department of Ecology has identified 16 areas of the state, including an area in Spokane County, as overburdened communities. Their initial efforts are to add more air quality sensors in these areas to gather more data on fine particle pollution. Our agency is assisting with the installation of these sensors. Learn more about Ecology’s program here. For quick reference, we’ve provided these links to Ecology documents outlining the communities and how they were identified:
- Focus Sheet – High-level overview of identified communities
- Community Summary Report – Information about the overburdened communities that the Ecology has identified as highly impacted by air pollution (same content as this StoryMap).
- Technical Support Document – Technical information that includes indicators, methods, caveats, and data sources used to identify communities.
