While these conditions are not all controllable, healthy air quality levels can be attained by managing what is controllable. Seattle air quality is the total of constant daily emissions, weather patterns, and pollution events. When will the air quality improve in Seattle? Shifting towards cleaner energy and more fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles, clearing forest underbrush with prescribed fires, and further advancing limits on emission sources are all means that have the potential to again reduce Seattle air pollution levels within federal attainment levels. Driving Seattle’s declining air quality is a combination of population growth, new industry and construction, the increased frequency and severity of wildfires, and EPA rollbacks on a variety of emission sources.Ī growing population and economy does not need to be a reason for more emissions, however. Prior to the 2015 to 2017 monitoring period, Seattle had met federal attainment levels for the allowable number of “unhealthy” PM2.5 and ozone days. Since 2016, all key measures for PM2.5 and ozone pollution have been on the rise.
More concerning is a trend of recently declining air quality in King county, of which Seattle is the county seat. Other days in Seattle tend to achieve “good” to “moderate” US AQI ratings. The frequency of Seattle’s pollution spikes is thereby more than double the targeted allowance.įrom a broader perspective, the 14.2 unhealthy pollution days represent just 4 percent of the year. 1 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends no more than 3.2 unhealthy pollution days each year for each pollutant. On average, Seattle experiences 14.2 unhealthy pollution days a year, with 7 owing to high ozone and 7.2 owing to high PM2.5. Despite “good” US AQI levels over recent years, Seattle failed to meet federal targets for allowable unhealthy ozone days and unhealthy PM2.5 days in 2019.
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