Portland Air Toxics Solutions (PATS)

DEQ selected the Portland region as the state’s first geographic area for development of an area-wide air toxics risk reduction plan. This project is called Portland Air Toxics Solutions, or PATS. While the public health risk from air toxics in Portland is similar to the risk in other major urban areas throughout the nation, DEQ's priority is to minimize this risk to Oregonians. PATS will allow DEQ to focus new emission reduction efforts in the Portland area with a more comprehensive and scientific approach.

PATS Advisory Committee Geographic focus

Why Portland? How will it work?

Fact sheet: Oregon’s Geographic Approach to Reducing Air Toxics PDF

PATS Advisory Committee

Beginning August 2009, Portland Air Toxics Solutions Advisory Committee will have six meetings. The purpose of the committee is to recommend strategies for a 10-year plan to reduce toxic pollutants in the air we breathe. The plan may consist of regulatory and voluntary measures to reduce the air toxics causing the most health risk in the Portland region including portions of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. There will be opportunity to comment throughout the advisory committee process.  

• Committee Meeting Schedule

More About Portland Air Toxics Solutions

Where will DEQ focus Portland Air Toxics Solutions?

The Portland air toxics geographic area will include sections of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties. DEQ has delineated the Portland air toxics geographic area by listing the census tracts representing areas of higher air toxics risk. These areas are more densely populated or undergoing population growth and development. The boundaries of this area may change as DEQ performs more detailed technical analysis of the sources, distribution and concentration of air toxics in the Portland region. DEQ is also collaborating with Washington’s Southwest Clean Air Agency to evaluate air toxics in Clark County, which is part of the Portland-Vancouver airshed. Below is a map of the current PATS study area:

Why is DEQ Designating Portland as the First Air Toxics Geographic Area?

Compared to other areas of the state, the Portland region has the highest risk to the population from air toxics. Along with national estimates of air toxics emissions, Portland monitoring studies conducted between 1999 and 2005 helped confirm the presence of air toxics above levels that are protective of public health. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from wood and debris burning, benzene from auto exhaust and soot from diesel engines are currently the air toxics of most concern in the Portland area.

DEQ also conducted a modeling study called the Portland Air Toxics Assessment (PATA), which included the influences of local topography, weather and emission patterns. This local scale model, coupled with better detail about the location of emissions, including traffic data, gave DEQ the capability to predict problem areas within the Portland region. For each pollutant, model estimates were plotted as maps that DEQ shared with community members and other stakeholders to provide more detail about air toxics concentrations across the city.

How will Portland Air Toxics Solutions Work?

Wide arrays of sources contribute to air toxics in the Portland area. Vehicle emissions, wood stove and fireplace use, and emissions from day-to-day activities such as using gas powered mowers and fumes from paint are the largest contributors. Large industrial and commercial sources also contribute but to a lesser degree and many of these types of sources are already regulated under permits by DEQ to control toxic air emissions. At the heart of the geographic approach to reducing air toxics is the concept of evaluating at risk holistically from all sources in an urban area, and developing an area-wide plan to address emissions from sources in proportion to their contribution to the problem.

Under PATS, DEQ will collaborate with a broad group of partners and an advisory committee to develop and implement a ten-year air toxics emission reduction plan. This plan could include both mandatory and voluntary air toxics reduction measures needed to reduce risk. Because air toxics, particulates, greenhouse gases and compounds that form ground-level ozone (smog) are produced by many of the same sources, PATS will link with other ongoing and future regional air pollution reduction efforts. After DEQ has developed an air toxics reduction plan for Portland, we will proceed to address other Oregon communities with elevated risk from air toxics.

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