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Despite progress, valley's air needs improvement By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Medford's air is cleaner than it was 16 years ago. Fewer homes burn wood for heat, most industries use low-emission equipment and drivers must test their vehicles' pollution control devices if they want to renew their licenses. But this bowl-shaped valley where inversions trap pollutants is still several steps away from satisfying federal air quality guidelines. The Medford-Ashland Air Quality Commission took a step forward Thursday when it voted to change the database used in computer models that will help create a maintenance plan for reducing fine particulates in the Rogue Valley's air. "This will tell us where we are and where we're going," said John Becker, of the Medford Department of Environmental Quality. Medford had been a "non-attainment area" for carbon monoxide, but has since submitted a maintenance plan to the Environmental Protection Agency. Medford remains a non-attainment area for fine particulates, but the state is creating a maintenance plan to submit to the EPA, Becker said. Until now, the state used the polluted winter of 1985 as a worst-case scenario in its computer modeling to help create that plan. But on Thursday, the 14-member committee that advises Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality voted to use weather data from the most inverted, polluted days in 1998 through 2000 as the yardstick. "We don't want to return to 1985," said Gary Stevens, program manager for Jackson County's Department of Health & Human Services. In November and December 1985, there were 19 days straight when Medford residents breathed cold, stagnant air that trapped wood smoke, carbon monoxide and other pollutants. A downtown pollution meter reached a high point around Christmas Eve 1985. "Our air is cleaner than it was in 1985," said air quality committee member Gary Grimes, retired from the Medford Department of Environmental Quality after 20 years. He's now environmental director for Timber Products Company. He attributes the improvements to fewer woodstoves, increased use of natural gas and industry installing equipment to cut emissions. "We see the benefits - we've had no violations," Grimes said. Medford hasn't violated federal air quality standards for fine particles since the early 1990s, Becker said. Jackson County's wood-burning advisory program shows evidence of the cleaner air; Jackson County hasn't issued a "red day" - a 24-hour woodstove burning ban - in more than two years. "It's a success story," said committee member Russell Strader, of Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. But Sierra Club member Bob Palzer, a retired Southern Oregon University professor, cautioned members not to relax, citing a 1960s study listing Medford as having the nation's most severe inversion episodes. "Are we going to be able to hold the gain we made or will we go the other way as more people move to our valley and our population increases?" Palzer said. The most obvious health problems associated with dirty air may be bronchitis or asthma. But fine particulates have the potential to cause cancer, said Stevens. "They can stay deep in the lungs and become absorbed in the tissue," Stevens said. It's not just dust kicked up from unpaved roads flying through the air, but complex carbon compounds, some high in silica content. Most susceptible are senior citizens, people with heart or lung problems, those doing strenuous outdoor activities and children, who have a low body mass and spend more time playing outdoors, Stevens said. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.