Southwest Clean Air Agency

Trying to Reach Someone? phone

The Southwest Clean Air Agency has a new phone system and extensions for staff have changed. If you are trying to reach someone at their old, two-digit extension, press 1 first. For example, extension 36 is now extension 136. We apologize for any inconvenience this change has caused.

Clark County	Prohibited
Cowlitz County	Prohibited
Lewis County	Prohibited
Skamania County	Prohibited
Wahkiakum County	Restricted

Fire Safety Burn Ban Status

Click on your county to the right for updates on the status of Fire Safety Burn Bans where you live. The Department of Natural Resources has banned all burning except recreational fires on forest land July 15 through September 30, 2010. The Fire Safety Burn Ban for Skamania County began July 1, 2010. A Burn Ban for Clark County and Cowlitz began July 15, 2010 and will remain in place through September 30, 2010, or until further notice. In Lewis County, all outdoor burning is prohibited until further notice. For current burning restrictions in Wahkiakum County, contact Wahkiakum County Public Works at 360-795-3067.

For more information about burning in your county, click on the county link at the right or call the Southwest Clean Air Agency at 360-574-3058. Read more.

Burn Barrel Exchange for Lewis County Residents

Lewis County residents can swap their empty burn barrels for free compost bins as part of an effort to limit wildfires and air pollution.

The use of burn barrels is illegal in Washington. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Lewis County Solid Waste are working together on a project that will collect and destroy barrels in Lewis County. They want to reduce the risk of wildfires in the county, along with the harmful smoke that wildfires produce.

Outdoor residential burning, which is illegal in most parts of Washington, is a leading cause of wildfire ignitions across the state. Wildfires destroy property, harm the environment and endanger people.

They also produce smoke that can harm people. Breathing fine particles in smoke can cause health problems like asthma, emphysema and lung cancer.

Lewis County residents can exchange their empty burn barrels during three events while supplies of compost bins last.

Packwood: July 31 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Packwood Elementary School, 12990 U.S. Highway 12 (back field).
Morton: Aug. 2 through 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the East Lewis County Transfer Station, 6745 U.S. Highway 12.
Centralia: Aug. 2 through 7 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Lewis County Central Transfer Station, 1411 S. Tower Ave.

The agencies are using a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the work.

Ecology and DNR are working to schedule events in other counties. Those events also will be funded with federal grant money. Event details will be posted on Ecology’s Air Quality Program website.

Have a boiler that requires an annual tune up?

The Southwest Clean Air Agency now has an interactive combustion monitoring worksheet available as a Microsoft Excel file. This new worksheet will help facilities correctly report emissions after testing their combustion devices. SWCAA also has an example of this worksheet filled out and available as a PDF. These documents are located on our Forms page under Miscellaneous. SWCAA encourages facilities to use this worksheet in place of the form included with the permit because it interactively corrects the test results for drift, span gas and oxygen level, thus eliminating the need for a manual calculation. The form also has a few built in warning messages to alert the user to common problems that can result in the emission tune up not providing valid results. Please use this new worksheet and provide us with feedback. If you have questions about how to use this worksheet, call us at 360-574-3058.

Important Information for Metal Fabrication
and Finishing Facilities

The Southwest Clean Air Agency is providing this information because your facility may be subject to a new EPA regulation, 40 CFR 63 Subpart XXXXXX National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) Area Source Standards for Nine Metal Fabrication and Finishing Source Categories. Read more.

Important Information for Surface Coating
and Paint Stripping Facilities

The Southwest Clean Air Agency is providing this information because your facility may be subject to a new EPA regulation, Subpart HHHHHH National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP): Paint Stripping and Miscellaneous Surface Coating Operations at Area Sources. New sources must be in compliance immediately, and existing sources (those in existence before September 17, 2007) must be in compliance by January 10, 2011. Read more.

EPA School Monitoring in Longview

The Southwest Clean Air Agency participated in the EPA Schools Monitoring Initiative. This monitoring project was part of an EPA national school monitoring program. St. Helens was one of 62 schools in 22 states that were part of this project. For more information about this project and see results online, visit www.epa.gov/schoolair.

Results are available on EPA's website and analysis indicates air quality is well within acceptable health-based standards. Read more.

Bright Idea
If every American household replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about 75% less energy, last up to 10 times longer and produce 90% less heat than standard incandescent bulbs. Using a compact fluorescent light bulb can save more than $30 in energy costs over the lifetime of the bulb.

For more information, visit EnergyStar.gov.

Cleaner Diesel School Buses and Local Government Diesel Fleets
Since the Washington State School Bus Retrofit Program was funded in 2003 by the Washington state legislature, more than 650 school buses in southwest Washington have received diesel oxidation catalysts. Thanks to this program, retrofitted buses now emit 30 percent less air pollution in the form of fine-particles coming out of the exhaust pipe.

A second phase of this project included installing 350 Closed Crankcase Ventilation Systems (CCVS) on diesel school buses. This equipment will reduce the amount of diesel fumes that build up inside the buses and will further protect the lungs of school children. Also, approximately 50 diesel school buses were able to be installed with diesel multi-stage filters.

A third phase of this project involved reducing the diesel emissions of local government diesel fleets and private company diesel fleets. More than 100 diesel oxidation catalysts were installed on local government fleets and more than 80 diesel oxidation catalysts were installed on private company fleets. Organizations assisted included Clark County Solid Waste, City of Centralia, Clark County Public Works, Vancouver Fire Department, City of Camas, Cowlitz 2 Fire and Rescue, City of Washougal, Washington DOT, City of Kelso and Glacier Northwest (Cal Portland). City of Vancouver, Clark Public Utilities and City of Longview were assisted with similar projects through other funding.