West Silver Valley gets attainment status

For the western portion of Shoshone County, air quality has been a constant battle — one that is still being fought today.

However, a small, but important victory was scored recently in the fight against particulate matter as the West Silver Valley was designated as “attainment” in the 2021 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had submitted a request to have the area redesignated based on improvements to the overall quality of the air and a reduction in fine particulate pollution (PM2.5).

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an air pollutant that is a concern for people's health when levels in air are high. These microscopic particles can be found both inside and outside; Outside, the large portion of them come from vehicle emissions (cars, trucks, buses, off-road vehicles, construction equipment and locomotives), but can also come from the burning of fuels like wood stoves, coal furnaces or wildfires.

Some of the more common indoor sources of PM2.5 are tobacco smoke, cooking (frying, sautéing and broiling), candles or oil lamps, and fireplaces and fuel-burning space heaters.

For the past few years, the west end of Shoshone County, particularly the city of Pinehurst has existed under the stigma of not being able to achieve attainment status, due to a variety of factors — both human and natural — and has been designated as a nonattainment area for PM2.5 since 2015. Which means it violated the federal health-based annual standard for this pollutant.

During the long colder seasons in North Idaho, residents rely heavily on wood stoves (sometimes year-round), vehicles are started and left to idle to ‘warm up’ and other several simple acts that people don’t factor into air quality when they perform them.

In Pinehurst, where the DEQ air quality monitoring station is located, there exists an atmospheric inversion that effectively traps the polluted air in the area and forces it to slowly cycle out.

To combat this issue, the DEQ, with help from an EPA Targeted Airshed Grant, recently completed a five-year program where they traded out old, inefficient wood stoves for more efficient, cleaner burning ones with the residents of the West Silver Valley Airshed (Cataldo to Big Creek) and from 2016 to 2021, DEQ worked with the West Silver Valley community to upgrade more than 200 old wood stoves to the new EPA-certified units.

“It was great to be able to help folks get a new stove and show them the best ways to burn. My favorite thing about this program was the time I got to spend with the folks up in the Silver Valley,” said DEQ’s Coeur d’Alene regional air quality coordinator, Dan Smith. “As more and more families move to the Silver Valley, we need to help newcomers keep our air quality where it is today. This includes burning dry wood, using a new EPA-certified stove and following best burning practices.”

Shoshone County Fire District No. 2 Chief Mark Aamodt also commented on how the upgrades have improved the safety of in-home wood stoves due to the removal of the older stoves.

“We’ve seen a reduction in the number of structure and chimney fires since the program began,” Aamodt said. “Replacing older, out-of-date chimneys and stoves has had a tremendous positive effect on public safety in the valley.”

With improving air quality as a priority, the DEQ has also installed more than 60 wood sheds, which allow firewood to properly dry before burning (which lowers the PM2.5 level caused by running a wood stove), and they also have partnered with the Kellogg School District to develop an education program centered on air quality.

“Attainment is a large step for the Silver Valley,” Shoshone County commissioner Mike Fitzgerald told the News-Press. “Attainment relates directly to the overall health and quality of life for residents, alleviates the stigma and perception of poor air quality to visitors and business who want to come to the valley, and signals that our community is improving our recognition of the problem and burning in a more responsible and productive fashion.”