Mendenhall Valley air emergency, wood burning ban in effect

(Image courtesy National Weather Service)
(Image courtesy National Weather Service)

The City & Borough of Juneau issued an air emergency and wood burning ban in the Mendenhall Valley on Tuesday.

It happens a couple of times a winter, when a weather phenomenon known as an inversion causes cooler air and fine particulate matter to get trapped near the ground. Wood smoke is a key contributor to the particulate matter, which can be hazardous to breathe.

The City & Borough of Juneau tracks fine particulate matter in the Mendenhall Valley from a state monitoring station on top of Floyd Dryden Middle School.

City and state officials use this station on top of Floyd Dryden Middle School to measure air quality in the Mendenhall Valley. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Air Quality)

The station is run by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Air Quality and reports hourly readings online.

More information about the air emergency and burn ban is available on the CBJ Lands page or on the air pollution hotline at 586-5333. Report enforcement issues to Juneau police at 586-0600.

“The elderly and the young children and people with asthma are affected by the quality of the air first,” says  Dan Bleidorn, deputy lands manager with the City and Borough of Juneau. His division is responsible for monitoring the air quality and issuing the emergencies.

“If we had not called an air emergency, it could get to the levels where it would affect just about anybody, anybody who’s outside.”

Bleidorn says the state’s threshold for unsafe air begins at 35 micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter. Tuesday night, it peaked near 80 micrograms. During the day Wednesday, it topped out around 47 before dropping off. It averaged about 25 micrograms Wednesday.

Geri Swanson is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Juneau office. She says the cool, clear conditions associated with inversions look likely to persist for several days.

“We’re looking at the cooler temperatures – or, looking for the high pressure through probably at least Saturday, if not longer. I’m not really seeing a big change coming up anytime soon.”

The ban does not apply to wood pellet stoves, which burn hotter and cleaner.

Jeremy Hsieh

Local News Reporter, KTOO

I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?

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