Maintaining and improving the air quality in the area is an important part of keeping Bend a desirable place to live. Bend is fortunate that local governments, citizens’ groups, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are working together to ensure that Central Oregon’s sky remains blue and clear, and our citizens remain healthy without concerns of air pollution. Policies at the end of this chapter provide direction for local actions to reduce air pollution.

Both the federal and state government establish air quality standards for various pollutants, and may impose strict and costly control measures for communities that exceed the standards. In Bend, the two air pollutants that are of concern and monitored on a regular basis are carbon monoxide (CO) and very small particulate matter (PM10). Automobile exhaust and other incomplete combustion are typical sources of CO production. Bend has exceeded the CO standards twice since 1987, and both occurrences were in 1987.

A variety of materials such as wind-blown dust, field and slash burning, wood stove smoke, and road cinders used for winter sanding can produce fine particles that fall into the PM10 air pollution category. Figure 10-1 shows PM10 emission sources measured during the winter of 1994-5. The PM10 air quality standard has been exceeded twice since 1987, most recently in the winter of 1996. A new particular matter standard is being established by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency. The impact of this new standard on Bend is unknown at this time.

Although the few occurrences of exceeding these two air quality standards have not been of sufficient frequency to have Bend designated as an air quality “non-attainment area,” the forecast of significant population and economic growth for Bend and Deschutes County increases concerns about Bend’s ability to maintain compliance with the air quality standards.

In 1989, a group of citizens sharing a concern for Bend’s air quality started a true “grass-roots” effort to ensure that Bend’s air would remain clean and healthy. This group, known as the Bend Clean Air Committee, consists of individuals that represent local, state, and federal government agencies, the scientific community, the medical community, industry, environmental groups, and concerned citizens. Since its beginning, the Bend Clean Air Committee has been very proactive and its efforts have included:

The existence of the Bend Clean Air Committee was a factor in the federal government’s $100,000 grant in 1994 to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Bend, and the Bend Clean Air Committee. The grant paid for monitoring carbon monoxide and particulate pollutant levels in Bend and for developing strategies to maintain compliance with the national air quality standards. Additional information on meteorological conditions in Bend and air quality standards is in two Comprehensive Plan resource documents titled Goal 6: Air, Water, and Land Resources Quality and the Bend Air Quality Project Phase II Work Plan.