PORT ANGELES — The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency will raise fees on local jurisdictions to maintain programs amid state and federal funding cuts.
Agency Executive Director Fran McNair told Clallam County commissioners Monday that the per-capita fee will rise from 45 cents per person to 75 cents per person beginning next year.
“We’re not doing this because we want to,” McNair said.
“We’re doing this because we need to be able to pay for the programs that we’re providing for the jurisdictions.”
The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, or ORCAA, is the regulatory and enforcement authority for air quality issues in Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties.
Clallam County is paying ORCAA about $19,000 per year based on unincorporated population.
The fee hike means that Clallam County will pay an additional $12,881 — or $31,881 total — from its general fund next year.
Jefferson County’s annual fee will rise from about $9,400 to $15,600 under the same formula.
Port Angeles’ fee will go from about $8,635 to $14,392. Port Townsend’s fee will jump from about $4,144 to $6,907. Sequim’s ORCAA fee will go from $3,000 to $5,000. Forks’ fee will rise from $1,660 to $2,766.
The other counties and cities within the Olympic region will see the same per-capita fee increase based on population.
ORCAA is facing a 40 percent funding cut from the federal government, McNair said.
It has $130,000 available to pay for $677,000 of budgeted, community-based programs next year, McNair said.
State funding for ORCAA has also declined along with the price of oil, she added.
“Basically the RCW (Revised Code of Washington) says if your funding sources for state and federal funding decline, you must go back to the local entities to make up the difference,” McNair said.
“So that’s why we’re increasing the assessment.”
ORCAA also collects non-fee revenue from businesses that have air operating permits such as Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles.
Local jurisdictions are assessed a fee for “community-based issues” such as wood stove complaints and odor complaints, McNair said.
Under state law, ORCAA has the ability to collect a property tax from individuals.
“I don’t want to do a property tax,” McNair told commissioners.
“So we have strictly done the per capita.”
ORCAA has not raised its fees since 2007.
“Part of our issue is we didn’t keep up with the cost,” McNair said.
ORCAA has air quality monitors in Port Angeles, Port Townsend and on Cheeka Peak near Neah Bay.
“We want to make sure that your air quality is good and stays good,” McNair said.
“And you do have good air quality.”
The largest contributor to air pollution on the North Olympic Peninsula is wood stove burning, McNair said.
“The more we can get out and educate people about woods stoves and how to burn cleaner, more efficiently, is better,” McNair said.
Later this spring or this summer, the University of Washington will release the results of a UW-ORCAA study on ultrafine particles on the North Olympic Peninsula, McNair said.
Meanwhile, ORCAA is conducting saturation studies in several counties to determine the size of air particles.
Trace amounts of ozone have been detected at Cheeka Peak during the summer months.
“I don’t think [ozone] is too much of a problem on the Peninsula,” McNair said.
“The I-5 corridor is an area where ozone is a problem with mixing of chemicals. So we’re always looking for those kinds of things that create health problems, and our goal is clean air, healthy environment.”
Asbestos, McNair said, has been a “big problem” in recent years.
“We actually go out into the community and work with organizations to make sure — we don’t want people getting lung cancer — to make sure that they get their asbestos permit and their demolition permit before they do their work,” McNair said.
McNair said she lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency to extend a deadline for Nippon to get its new biomass boiler up and running.
She and other ORCAA officials have spoken at chamber of commerce meetings on the North Olympic Peninsula and have staffed farmers markets and home improvement fairs.
Clallam County Community Development Director Mary Ellen Winborn and Jefferson County Commissioner Phil Johnson are members of the ORCAA board of directors.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
