Monday, March 18, 2024

Leavenworth air quality monitor malfunctions during smoke episode

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During the recent smoke episode, which impacted the entire state, the air quality monitor in Leavenworth was not functioning properly. First, the monitor was reading that the smoke condition was not as bad as it actually was. Then, monitor was reading the smoke condition was worse than it actually was. 

As you can imagine, this led to some confusion on the part of locals wanting to know the air quality conditions in town. In addition, no doubt, visitors were checking the air quality before deciding to come to Leavenworth. 

The huge smoke event started on Aug. 3. Michael Ragan with the Air Quality Program at the Washington State Department of Ecology said they were made aware the Leavenworth monitor was reading cleaner than the actual conditions. 

“This monitor is actually a U.S. Forest Service monitor. We host it on our site. We actually provide them technical support for that. They operate it and it is their site, but we are a partner with them,” Ragan said. “We contacted the person who was the monitoring contact and said it looks like there is an obstruction in there. Occasionally things happen, like sucking up a bug, which will create some issues.”

In situations like this, Ragan said you just have to go out to the monitor and see what is going on. A calibration was attempted, but that procedure was made more difficult because of the unprecedented level of smoke.  

“We do a ‘zero’ in a span on these monitors. We have a zero filter. However, the air was so dirty, we couldn’t get a true zero out of it. The operator is not an expert trained in calibrations, not to know the inner workings of this,” Ragan said. “They did their calibration, which they are supposed to do, but could not get a true zero. It ended making the instrument the exact opposite of the way it was before. Now, it was reading on the high side, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it is more protective than if it was reading lower.”

This is not something they are used to, Ragan said. The decision was made to set the monitor back to it’s original settings pre-obstruction to try and get a reading closer to reality. They had to wait until there was cleaner air to run it through a substitute type filter to get the reading down to zero. 

They would up cleaning the data off the system, he said. 

“Ultimately, they are going to review it. Is it truly bad data? Is it data we can accept? They’ll make that decision in the next 90 days,” Ragan said. “We’re back online now and it appears to be functioning fine. Under predicting before, then over predicting. This kind of stuff does not happen often. Of course, we don’t get events like this often either.”

It’s unknown how long the Leavenworth air quality monitor was out of whack. Ragan said these instruments go through calibrations on a nightly basis to check and make sure they are good. The operators actually visit them once or twice a month depending on circumstances. 

“You never know when a bug is going to crawl in there. We typically put screens on there to keep from sucking up a bug. It’s like a vacuum cleaner that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Things crawl around. It doesn’t take much to affect an inlet,” he said. 

Air quality monitors across the state did get some extra attention due to the smoke event, he said. Some issues were created by the different types of monitors utilized by the WSDOE. 

“Our monitoring network is composed of particulate matter, which is our smoke issue, but we also have other monitoring which is sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide,” Ragan said. “Those dots read differently when there is smoke out. They still appear green. People were concerned, particularly in Seattle and Tacoma, where they have monitors where one is showing green and the one next door is red. Why is the air clean there? It isn’t. It’s just a different monitoring technology, not particulate.”

Ragan said they are providing better information across the state, more than just the particulate matter. 

“That is very important to us. It’s basically wintertime or wildfires burning. We see more of that during the winter or wildfire,” Ragan said. “The good news is a lot of people are paying attention, which is good for their health. We want that. It’s good to have a place to go where they can predict what they need to do. It’s okay to have events or run or stay inside.”

Certainly, central Washington has experience with smoke from wildfires, but this was just a huge statewide event, he said. 

“We saw monitor values near Neah Bay, the cleanest place in the state, usually with values of 2-3 micrograms. It has over 200 micrograms, which is just unbelievable,” Ragan said. “We’re hoping it doesn’t repeat itself.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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