Klamath Air Quality Advisory Committee

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particulate matter in 1997 and then revised those standards in 2006. Klamath Falls failed to meet the federal 2006 fine particulate standard also known as the PM_2.5 standard. In response to this failure to meet the standard, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) must prepare a study and a plan by December 2012 to show how Klamath Falls will meet the PM_2.5 standard by 2014. Part of this plan must include strategies that local citizens and companies can implement to reduce PM_2.5 pollution in Klamath Falls.

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Fine particulate is extremely small particles of matter that, when inhaled, can be lodged deep into human lungs and can cause heart or respiratory ailments especially in the young, the elderly and those with respiratory or circulatory problems. Sources of fine particulate matter include fuel burning equipment, automobiles and some dust related sources.

DEQ has assembled an advisory committee that represents different perspectives in the Klamath Falls area.DEQ plans for the Committee to meet up to 14 times over the course of about a year. The advisory committee will meet once a month through early 2012.

DEQ and the County will provide technical information and assistance to the committee. We are interested in ideas to bring the community together to improve air quality enough to meet the air quality standards in Klamath Falls. The group will be asked to devise actions, strategies, ideas, rules, incentives and other mechanisms to reduce air pollution in Klamath Falls. These actions will be weighed technically to determine their effectiveness in pollution reduction and the group will recommend the appropriate actions to DEQ. The focus of this advisory committee will be strategy development, not technical applications. A separate local technical group, called the Klamath Air Quality Science and Technical Committee, has been established to review the technical applications DEQ uses to measure emissions.