Wenatchee, East Wenatchee among communities in state's yearlong mobile air pollution study

WENATCHEE — Starting next month, vans fitted with air monitoring equipment will drive set routes through Wenatchee and East Wenatchee as part of a statewide study to find pockets of air pollution that the state's fixed monitors can miss.

The state Department of Ecology's High Resolution Mobile Monitoring study will collect data for about a year in more than 20 communities, mostly ones where residents already face economic or health disparities and may be more exposed to air pollution, and in areas chosen by participating tribes. Wenatchee and East Wenatchee are the only North Central Washington communities on the list. Moses Lake, Yakima and the Tri-Cities are also included.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for air monitoring scientists and communities," said Nate May, the Ecology scientist leading the study. "This study should pay big dividends in better understanding local differences in the air we breathe."

Washington meets all national air quality standards, according to Ecology, and the agency runs about 150 stationary monitoring sites that track pollution over years. Those sites show long-term trends but can't show how air changes from one block to the next. The vans will measure pollution continuously as they drive, and each route will be repeated several times over the year.

Along with standard pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, the study will track ultrafine particles and volatile organic compounds, which are measured less often. Scientists narrowed the list to a few dozen target compounds by reviewing pollution sources and earlier monitoring data.

The vans will look like delivery vans with an Ecology logo. They have no cameras and collect only air quality data, the agency said.

The study is paid for with money from the state Climate Commitment Act, the cap-and-invest program. Spheros Environmental holds the contract, working with Aerodyne Research, FluxSense and the University of Washington. UW researchers designed the routes.

Vehicles are expected to hit the road in December. After the year of data collection and a few months of analysis, Ecology plans to make the findings public in 2028.

Ecology will show one of the vans to reporters at its Lacey headquarters Nov. 16. More information is at ecology.wa.gov; search "mobile monitoring study."