See Also
Idaho's
Air Quality State Implementation Plan
Contact DEQ
Regional
Office
Air Quality Managers
State
Office
Air Quality Division
Mike
Edwards
(208)
373-0438
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Air Quality:
What Causes Haze?
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| Categories of Haze |
| In
developing a strategy to reduce haze, states categorize sources
of pollution into four categories:
Mobile sources
are moving sources of pollution including emissions from on- and
off-road vehicles, trains, agricultural equipment, and gas-powered
lawn mowers.
Stationary or Point
sources are single sources of pollution that are easily identified
and measured, such as smoke stacks from factories. The classification
usually applies to emissions sources at large industrial facilities.
Area sources
are smaller individual sources that emit small amounts of air pollution
but, when taken as a whole over a larger area, may significantly
impact air quality. Examples include:
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- Dry cleaners. Dry cleaners use
chemicals that release volatile carbon compounds. Alone,
a single dry cleaner may not severely impact air quality.
However, there are dry cleaners in almost every Idaho
town, and in some locations, dozens of dry cleaners.
Together, these dry cleaners may emit a significant
quantity of pollution that can affect air quality.
- Farm animals: Manure from farm
animals emits ammonia which can combine with other pollutants
to form fine particulate matter, a haze-causing pollutant.
A single animal may not impact air quality, but together,
Idaho's thousands of livestock have an impact.
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Paint: Paint often
contains evaporative chemicals that emit volatile compounds,
which can mix with other pollutants to form fine particulate
matter. Every time a house or business is painted, inside
or out, these chemicals are released into the environment
and can affect the quality of our air.
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Natural
sources of air pollution such as volcanic emissions, windblown dust,
and smoke from wildfires are not caused by human activity. |
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Regional
haze in Idaho's Class I areas
is attributable to a variety of natural and human source of air
pollution and is greatly impacted by climate.
During the summer months, visibility impairment in Idaho's Class
I areas is often caused by smoke from fires caused by wildfires,
prescribed burning, and agricultural burning. As a result, the
state participates in an active smoke management program to carefully
monitor and evaluate human-causes of smoke.
Due to topography and weather patterns, parts of Idaho are subject
to wintertime inversions. During an inversion, colder, heavier
air settles into the valley while warm air sits above the inversion.
This causes air stagnation as the cold air and accumulating air
pollution is trapped. Although many Idaho Class I areas are remote,
local sources of air pollutions such as wood burning, vehicle,
and local industrial emissions are still present. The pollution
builds up under the inversion until a strong weather system moves
through and mixes the air. The haziest days in Idaho's Class I
areas are often correlated to inversion conditions.
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| Idaho's Contribution to Regional
Haze |
Haze-forming pollution can travel
hundreds of miles. Under the regional haze rule, states must take
actions to address visibility in their own state, and to prevent degradation
in other states.
Overall, Idaho's air quality is good. As such, it serves an important
role in the West as a clean air corridor. In the West, clean air corridors
are geographic areas that provide a source of clean air to the 16
Class I areas of the Colorado Plateau including Grand Canyon National
Park. When the winds blow Idaho air toward the Colorado Plateau, monitors
in these areas record good visibility. As a clean air corridor, Idaho
must carefully track emissions growth and limit new pollution sources
that may affect air quality in these corridors and ultimately the
16 Class I areas. |
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