In this episode of Storylines, hosts Juliana and Ricky get the dirty details on air quality. First, they talk with ADEQ Meteorologist Matt Pace about the science behind air quality in the Valley. Then, they sit down with Ari Halpert from Maricopa County to learn how we are making our air cleaner in the Valley and how you can help.

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your daily commute?

Or how transportation impacts the community you call home?

Maybe you want to explore outside your community and don't know where to start.

Well, you're in luck because this is where you hop on.

I'm Julianna Vazquez- Keating.

And I'm Ricky Tejada.

We work for Valley Metro and together we'll discover all the ways that public transit enhances lives across the cities we serve.

And we might even make some new friends along the way.

Welcome to Storylines. Ricky, while there's a lot to love about living in Arizona, our summer weather can be pretty rough sometimes.

That's true. For every cool winter, there's an extra hot summer. For all our sunny days, when it rains, it really pours.

On today's episode, we're talking about a part of our climate that's a bit less visible, air quality. While it may be less noticeable than the heat, air quality can also impact our health.

We sat down with someone from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to learn more about it.

I'm Matt Pace, an Air Quality Meteorologist with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

Matt, big thank you for joining us today. Could you briefly describe ADEQ's role in managing and monitoring air quality in Arizona?

There's a lot when it comes to air quality and monitoring air quality in Arizona, and when you look at the air quality division here at ADEQ, it's really broken up into four different areas. The first one is the air quality improvement planning area, and they're the ones that really develop the plans, the strategies that go into place for an area to maintain an air quality standard or at least achieve the air quality standard. Then there is the vehicle emission control area that really focuses on getting the vehicles tested. You've probably driven through a testing station here in the Valley or if you live down in Tucson. They're the ones that manage that process. Then there's the permit and compliance section that looks at air quality permitting of industrial facilities. They look and make sure those permits are being followed. And then there's where I come in, the monitor and assessment unit. Those are the people that go out, they monitor the air quality across the state with monitors. They check the accuracy of that data. And then where I especially come in is the air quality forecasting. We issue the high pollution advisories, the high pollution watches, the wildfire smoke forecasting. But we should notice that's what ADEQ does, but really there's a lot that goes into all the different agencies as well around the entire state. Maricopa County, Pima County, Pinal County, they all do monitoring. Maricopa County Association of Governments, they work to issue compliance, permits. So it's a big group effort when you're looking at air quality in Arizona.

Wow, it sounds like a lot goes into planning this stuff. So how do you think air quality in Arizona compares to other states across the country? Are there specific challenges unique to our climate or geography?

Yeah, Arizona is extremely unique when it comes to geography. Everyone thinks it's just flat with dust moving around. We've got a lot of topography here, especially in the Valley. There's mountains that surround us. We sit down in a bowl, and that's one of the challenges we have. When you think about the wind pattern here in Arizona, or at least in Phoenix, the wind generally comes off the mountains. So you get that nice east to west wind in the morning. During the afternoon what happens that completely reverses around and we have wind that comes from the southwest up to the east northeast. So you get this sloshing effect everything that gets stuck in this bowl all the emissions, the smoke, the dust, it just sits in the area unless there's enough wind to push it out. The other thing is, we live in Arizona. It's a desert. It's dry. Anytime there's wind, what do we get? We get a lot of dust that moves through. And then finally, we all know this, Arizona gets about 95 percent plus of the possible sunshine it can get. And when you look at ozone, ozone needs sunlight to form. And typically, here in Arizona, we get a lot of sunlight, we get the precursors for ozone, and we do have higher levels of ozone here than in other parts of the country. So certainly, a very unique place when you look at the weather, when you look at the topography, and when you look at the air quality.

Don't we just love living in, Arizona?

In the Valley.

You have to love it.

So, we seem to have quite a few high pollution advisories in the summer months. What are the criteria for declaring a high pollution advisory day?

Great question. And that's something that we do see quite a bit of here, especially during the summer months. Ozone needs sunlight to form. We get a lot of sunlight. The days are nice and long during that May, June, July, August time period. So, we typically do see quite elevated ozone in the summer months. And that's when we do issue the high pollution advisories when we're forecasted to exceed the federal health standard that's set by the EPA, and that scale’s what's called the air quality index. It's a scale from basically 0 to 500, and the threshold is 100 AQI, and that is the air quality standard. If we go to 101 AQI, we're above the standard. We're forecasting it to be above the standard, and that's when we will issue that high pollution advisory or high pollution watch. And typically, we see about 40 to 50 ozone high pollution advisories during the summer months. We see dust PM 10 high pollution advisories about 5 to 6 times a year. And then, of course, during the winter months, we see a lot of the smoke. The PM 2.5 high pollution advisories generally right around that holiday season. But there's a lot of unique stuff that comes in and results in those as well. We get wildfire smoke, we get transport. There's a lot of different things we have to look at when issuing those high pollution advisories.

So, is this like when I see like a no, burn day? How do you guys measure that?

And that goes back to that teamwork part of things. So here at ADEQ, we have a team of meteorologists that look at the air quality. We look at what's going to happen. We forecast the high pollution advisories that are going to happen. So, during the Christmas time period, Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, you probably do see the no burn day signs. It's a no burn day for Maricopa County. So, while ADEQ issues the high pollution advisories, we don't actually issue the no burn day. That's actually Maricopa County that issues the no burn day for the valley again to reduce the amount of emissions, hoping we don't exceed, and then everyone could just breathe a little bit easier on the holidays. But typically, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, some of the worst air quality that we see all year long happens on that day.

Gotcha, and can you explain the process that ADEQ uses to create the air quality forecasts?

Air quality forecasting is really fun because what you're doing is you're taking a weather forecast, you're making a weather forecast first, you're then on top of that applying an air quality forecast. How is that weather going to impact the air quality? Is it going to push everything out of the Valley, out of this bowl that we live in? Is it going to transport more things in? Are wildfires in Canada, are wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, is that smoke going to wrap around into Arizona resulting in poor air quality of ozone of smoke? So, we have to look at all the current conditions, the satellite, the current observations, radar. We look at all the forecast models, create this conceptual model in our head to apply that to the forecasting of air quality. So, we're very lucky here at ADEQ to have a team of four meteorologists that are looking at this every workday to make sure that we are getting that forecast out on time and alerting the public of high pollution advisory around the state.

So not only are you looking at our environmental factors, you're also looking at environmental factors from other states. Like you said, if there's wildfire smoke that can affect our air quality as well?

Yeah, a lot of stuff goes into air quality. It's not just what's happening locally. We even saw just, the other day smoke from California wildfires moving into the Valley. That impacts air quality. And the Pacific Northwest. We have high pressure sitting right over Arizona for a good portion of the summer. Well, that's a clockwise flow around that area of high pressure over Arizona. So all of that smoke can wrap around through Idaho down into Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and finally into Arizona. And while we might not get the smoke at the surface, there's actually precursors in that smoke that can drop down to the surface and result in high levels of ozone. So, it gets very complex when you're looking at air quality, even here, right in the Valley.

Wow. I feel like we'r e getting kind of a lesson in meteorology here. It's awesome.

It's fun. I love to nerd out about the weather and air quality.

We love it.

As you know, we are big champions for clean air. From your perspective, how can public transit usage contribute to improved air quality in the Valley?

So when we look at air quality as a whole, what we're trying to do is we're trying to reduce the emissions in any way possible. And really the big things here in the Valley is reducing dust. reducing smoke and then reducing emissions from the cars. Remember that ozone is not directly emitted from a car. What happens is ozone is created from what's called NOx, and VOCs. Those are just big fancy acronyms that you use, but essentially, it's stuff that comes out of tailpipes, from gasoline burning engines. VOCs, that new car smell, those are gases being released from plastics. Paint will release VOCs. Plants themselves will release VOCs. So, what we're trying to do is reduce those. And if you can get the cars off the road, you're going to reduce the amount of emissions that you have. So certainly, the more people that use public transportation, you're removing those cars from the road, essentially limiting the amount of NOx, the amount of VOCs out there, which should result in lower levels of ozone. Of course, there's other things that come into play when we're looking at transport coming in and out. But if people can just do their little part of reducing that, eventually it will take hold and it will get better over time. So that's why we do urge public transportation usage when we do issue high pollution advisories, just to reduce those emissions further.

So besides utilizing public transit, how else can our listeners help improve air quality?

Yeah, think about the little ways that you can reduce your emissions, even if it's just a small little thing that you can do, no matter what, even something as simple as instead of using that leaf blower, and you can see that big cloud of dust that's coming off your property when you're, blowing off your driveway or your sidewalk, just simply use a broom instead, and it'll produce a lot less emissions. Same thing, just think about idling your car. Instead of, you know, sitting in the drive thru line for a few minutes, just park and go inside. Then your car's not sitting there idling. And if you're in the school pickup line, if any of you sit in the school pickup line and you're there for 30 minutes plus, the weather's getting a lot nicer. Roll down the window, turn off your car, you're not releasing those emissions. And then just reduce the number of trips you have. Get on the bus, take it to the store, and come back really quickly. Instead of getting your car, driving to the store, come back home, go somewhere else, just combine all of your trips together. So there's a lot of little things that you can do just to reduce those emissions over time.

Air quality is just one part of ADEQ's work to create a cleaner Arizona. Could you briefly describe the department's other programs?

Yeah, so ADEQ's mission is really to protect and enhance public health and the environment within Arizona. And to do that, you have to look at a lot more, obviously, than just air. Air is certainly a big part. But the other two areas that we look at is water and waste. Those are really important to everyone across Arizona. And they're working diligently just as hard as air quality to make sure everyone in Arizona, all Arizonans, can have that equal, good air quality, good water and waste is very important.

Wow, you gave us a lot of great information on how air quality is measured in Arizona. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

The big thing is there has been really good work in Arizona and really across the country, and it's all related to the Clean Air Act, has really done its job to make the air quality better across really the entire country. But looking at Arizona itself, and I know we still have the high pollution advisories, there's still days that we do have poor air quality. But when you look at data since about 2015, we've seen a 27% reduction of emissions. Even though we continue to see population increase, we continue to have our economy grow, and that does equate to better air quality for everyone around the state and even the country. So there is great work that's being done, and we are seeing the results from that. But now it's really just stay informed about the air quality by using our forecast, by looking at the data that we have, to really make the most informed decision that you can to protect your health, and then also just to reduce the emissions as much as possible.

Juliana, it's great to hear that air quality is improving in the V alley.

As we know, transit plays a crucial role in improving it. As Matt pointed out, creating a cleaner Arizona is a collective and ongoing effort. Now, let's talk with Maricopa County's Air Quality Department to learn how we can all contribute.

My name is Ari Halpert. I'm the Communications Department officer for the Maricopa County Air Quality Department.

Could you give us a brief overview of Maricopa County's role in managing air quality in the Valley?

Absolutely. So Maricopa County Air Quality Department is a regulatory agency. We report to specifically, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and indirectly to the state and the EPA. We regulate industries and organizations that have the potential to emit air pollutants into the air. We also, provide outreach information, through various campaigns to promote clean air habits, education and information to encourage county residents to be involved in the solution to reduce air pollution for our county.

Can you walk us through the process of declaring a no burn day? What factors are considered?

Right, so a no burn day is declared when a specific criteria pollutant may reach the federal health standard for that specific pollutant. For example, during the summer season, we have a problem with ground level ozone. So when our monitors start to read levels, indicating that a ground level ozone pollution concentrations in Maricopa County may reach the federal health standard. we issue a no burn day and the same applies to during the winter season and really year-round, when we have high levels of dust or smoke pollution. That's when we issue a no burn day through social media, press releases, the public that has signed up for these alerts to let them know that it is prohibited to burn wood. And the purpose of that is to encourage the residents to not add more contamination and to protect the health of, you know, ourselves, our families, and our neighbors.

So do we see more no burn days in the wintertime, say like around the holidays?

Absolutely. So, Maricopa County has a very unique, topography and geography. So, to start, during the winter season, we experience what we call temperature inversions. This is when instead of temperatures starting from hot air down at the surface and the higher up you go in altitude, it cools down. So this is an ideal situation because this pressure profile allows for air to flow out. During winter seasons, this temperature inversion creates kind of a lid over the Valley and we're kind of shaped like a bowl. So when we have change in temperature, meaning we have cool air down on the surface or near the ground, hotter air and then cool air again, we create a type of lid that traps polluted air near the surface where it can be inhaled by humans and pets as well. So that's why no burn days are typically issued during the winter season. And it has to do with this weather or atmospheric condition.

That's really interesting. I think I'm going to think about that now every time I see when there's a no burn day.

Yes and in fact, I'm sure during the winter season and even just cooler weather, you've been driving down the freeway and look, at the horizon and see this kind of layer of dust. That's a very clear visual that there's a temperature inversion and until the temperature heats up throughout the day, that lid will remain there. So when this happens, you know, all of this polluted air gets trapped and it can remain there for days and even weeks. And that's why we have wood burning restrictions during this time, because we want to prevent more contamination getting into the air. And we also want to stay below the federal health standard. And this is all to protect, not just our environment, but the health of residents. We have noticed that there is a correlation between no burn days and visits to the ER, because the public or residents that experience respiratory issues like asthma, are more susceptible to feel the effect of air pollution. So it's very important that we follow these rules and no burn alerts, in order to, you know, be part of the community and think if I'm burning wood for recreational purposes, it might be fun for me at that moment or my family, but it's really going to that pollution is going to linger. for days and weeks and it can be detrimental to, what we call sensitive groups and sensitive groups are a category of, the public that include the elderly children, those with chronic respiratory conditions and asthmatics.

Wow so you're not only protecting yourself, you're protecting others.

Exactly.

Maricopa County offers various incentives and programs to promote cleaner habits in the county. Can you highlight a few key initiatives and explain how residents can get involved?

Absolutely. So we have a number of programs that allow county residents and even visitors to sign up for these programs. One of those during the winter season, we have our propane fire pit program. In an effort to improve air quality and reduce air pollution caused by outdoor burning and fire pits. This program allows residents to sign up and receive a 75 dollar voucher to purchase a brand new propane fire pit instead of wood burning from participating Home Depot locations. So, we do want to encourage enjoying the outdoors, enjoying the good weather, without burning wood. We also have our fireplace retrofit program. This is a program designed to reduce air pollution from wood burning fireplaces and provides residents cleaner air to breathe. So, if a home is already plumbed for natural gas, the program will provide a voucher for up to 2000 dollars to cover the cost of the installation of a natural gas log set. And this applies more during winter season, but county residents can sign up for these programs year-round and you can do so by visiting Maricopa.gov/AQ which stands for air quality and visit our tab where we have our programs and outreach incentives and campaigns.

Very nice. Now there's the Travel Reduction Program. That is something that Valley Metro's commute solutions team is very heavily in. Can you explain how it came to be and how it has evolved over the last few years?

Yes. So, a little bit of history. The Travel Reduction Program began in 1989 as part of the state of Arizona's response to a court ruling requiring greater efforts to reduce air pollution. So, approximately 80 million commuter miles are driven each weekday, and they are significant contributor to regional air pollution, specifically ozone and particulate matter. So, one outcome of the ruling was the of TRP or Travel Reduction Program, state statutes that focus on employers and schools. And the goal of this program is to help, again, employers and schools reduce single occupant vehicle trips and or miles traveled to the work site by 10 percent each year for a total of five years and then 5 percent for three additional years. So, this is a way to incentivize schools and businesses that have a staff of 50 employees or more to encourage and incentivize their staff to carpool or use public transportation and the goal is again, to reduce the pollution emitted by single occupant vehicles, to reduce the number of miles driven and reduce the amount of NOx and nitrogen oxides that contribute to ozone pollution.

I'm all about those alternative commute modes. I work really closely with the commute solutions team, so we're always pushing those alternative commutes, no single occupancy vehicle rides. We love all the alternative modes.

Yeah. And we also focus on teleworking since, we went through the pandemic, we noticed, you know, teleworking is a great option for many organizations where that would be a feasible thing. So we encourage, these businesses to offer this option to their staff and it really helps and it's not only helpful for the environment and improving air quality, but it also helps us save on gas and not spend so much time commuting back and forth and improve traffic conditions. So I think it's a benefit all around.

I like to say, when people complain, you know, oh, I'm stuck in traffic. Well, think about that you are the traffic, right?

That's right. I always say that. I say it to myself, like I am traffic.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

It's a great program. It's again, been going since 1989 and it continues to improve every year. And the reason for that is I'm sure you've seen that survey that you get every year, how many miles you travel and how would you be encouraged to use alternative modes of transportation or even telework. And based on those results, we look at the data of how many miles have been saved or in how many miles of traveling could be saved in the future. And this data is used to, you know, show employers and schools the benefit all around. So every survey is really important because that data helps us continue to improve. And, at the end of the day, our goal is to provide clean air, for everyone in the County.

So, beyond the Travel Reduction Program, we hear planting trees can also significantly improve air quality. Can you explain how?

In general, trees are, good, they provide shade, they absorb carbon monoxide and different pollutants. And on our website, we actually have a portion there where we offer information of what kind of trees are native to the area and that would actually help improve air quality. So there's many benefits and also reducing the heat, urban heat effect, would be helpful with more trees. So planting more trees, specifically, those that are native to our land, would benefit air quality in general. And, you know, I could go into all the specifics data, but I don't want to bore you all with, giving you numbers. And really, it would be more helpful if I just showed you chart.

Right.

Of course, trees are important. beneficial to improving our environment in general. But it is important to note that they have to be native to our land because we don't want to bring in anything that, you know, won't survive or makes things worse.

Mm hmm.

That's something to think about because had been thinking about getting like, you know, lemon tree or an orange tree, but are those really helpful or can they be more of a detriment to the air quality?

It really depends in what area. you're in. I have, a citrus tree and I love it, but it really depends on how many and, you know, because there's other components to taking care of these trees. There's a lot more information about what trees really help with air quality, at Maricopa.gov/AQtrees. It's very straightforward and there's a whole study about the different types of plants, that we encourage to be planted in your home.

Nice. And can you share some simple changes our listeners can make to help improve the air quality?

There are many habits that we can implement into our weekly, routine to improve air quality. For example, during the summer season, when the ground level ozone is most prevalent, we can opt to drive as little as possible, fuel your vehicle after dark, Telework, use public transportation and avoid idling as much as possible. So if there's a long drive through line to get lunch, you're going to be idling for a while and that's going to contribute to air pollution. So it's best to just turn off your engine. in order to reduce the amount , of nitrogen oxides and VOCs that are emitted into the air and these are just simple habits that we can do once a week and that's why every year and every summer we launched the help keep those in a way Commit to 1 day campaign to inform county resident, about the dangers of ground level ozone and how we can be part of the solution, to improve air quality.

Those are some great tips. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I would encourage everyone to sign up for high pollution advisory and no burn day alerts to stay in the know, stay healthy. We also have a free app called Clean Air. It will be relaunched very soon and there's all sorts of information on there, including education about the different pollutants in Maricopa County that would affect air quality and the different ways that we can help improve air quality and maintain, our safety and a sustainable future.

Valley Metro is proud to partner with Maricopa County to help local businesses meet their Travel Reduction Program goals.

With our Share the Ride Network, led by our amazing Commute Solutions team, you can track your green trips track the impact, and even find a carpool partner or vanpool.

Plus, you can win prizes just for tracking your trips each month. You can learn more and register at ShareTheRide.com. That's it for this episode of Storylines. Don't forget to subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice so you never miss an episode. For Valley Metro, I'm Juliana

I'm Ricky,

Thanks for riding with us.

We'll meet you at the next stop

Storylines is produced by Alex Tsotsos. Peter Corkery is the executive producer. For Ricky Tejada, I'm Julianna Vasquez-Keating, thanks for listening