PORT TOWNSEND — The Olympic Region Clean Air Agency has approved the idea of installing a new air-quality monitoring station at Grant Street Elementary School and is now considering how to fund it.
The monitoring station intended for Grant Street, which would be the second in Port Townsend, would cost about $20,000, and the cost of operation is estimated at about $10,000 a year, said Dan Nelson, spokesman for the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, or ORCAA.
“We are still trying to get funding for this,” he said. “It’s not a done deal.”
Jefferson County Commissioner Phil Johnson said he was informed by the staff at ORCAA, of which he is board president, that a monitoring station could be placed at Grant Street.
“This is a step forward in the right direction,” Johnson said.
“It will let us get accurate information about air quality.”
March 15 request
The action follows a March 15 request from the Jefferson County Board of Health that ORCAA move the present monitor from Blue Heron Middle School at 3939 San Juan Ave. to either Grant Street Elementary School at 1637 Grant St. or Jefferson Healthcare hospital at 834 Sheridan Ave.
The idea is to place the monitor more directly in line with the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill’s emissions and bring monitoring closer to the city’s most vulnerable populations.
The request was made in light of the mill’s $55 million expansion of its biomass cogeneration facility, which is expected to be completed in 2013.
It will generate 25 megawatts of electricity, about half of which will be used at the mill and the rest sold as renewable energy on the market.
A coalition of environmental groups, including local PT AirWatchers, has fought the expansion of the biomass burning facility at both the Port Townsend mill and at Nippon Paper Industries USA in Port Angeles.
The $71 million Nippon biomass facility also is expected to be completed in 2013.
Blue Heron monitor to stay
Johnson said Tuesday that the Blue Heron monitor would stay in place.
It would work with the Grant Street monitor to provide thorough indication of local air quality, he said.
“The original reason for monitoring the San Juan valley still exists because of all the wood smoke in that area, so we want to keep that going,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the operating cost of the new station possibly could be decreased if high school students were involved in the monitoring process as part of their class study.
Nelson said he didn’t know how the students’ role in the monitoring would occur.
“We have nothing in place like this right now, but it’s something we would love to explore,” he said.
Teacher Marcia Van Cleve said she likes the idea and wants to make the monitoring part of her science classes.
Student monitoring
“The kids will collect the data and then send it off electronically,” Van Cleve said.
“This will be a unique opportunity for them; it will allow them to see how they can apply what they learn in the classroom in the real world.”
Grant Street Principal Steve Finch said several people had talked about putting an air-monitoring station on the school in the past, but the idea didn’t gain traction until Johnson got involved.
“This is a great place to collect air-quality data, since it is important for the kids to be breathing clean air,” Finch said.
Finch did not know where the monitor would be located but assumed it would be on the roof to protect it from vandalism.
While the monitoring system is meant to collect information about the mill’s effect on the atmosphere, Finch said the monitor should not have any political implications.
“It’s good if kids get involved with this,” Finch said.
“But it doesn’t mean that anyone here is worried about the mill or that we are doing anything else than collecting data.”
________
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
