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We may be breathing in the last smoky days of 2022 on Capitol Hill but get used to them. Seattle is seeing more unhealthy air than ever — and state fire suppression efforts don’t prioritize air quality.

Meanwhile, as much as the smoke and haze is a concern, Seattle also now has too many days when the bad air has nothing to do with wind currents and burning forests in places like Skykomish.

Recent measurements from IQAir show Seattle logging more than twice the allowable number of days with unhealthy air, according to US Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

Those bad air days fall into two categories — half of them, IQAir says, are due to particulate matter in the air from events like longer, more intense wildfires.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources which manages state fire suppression efforts including controlled forest burning says the response to the Bolt Creek Fire which has dragged on due to a historically dry October is by the books despite the wildfire’s impact on air quality around the more densely populated areas of Puget Sound.

A DNR spokesperson tells CHS the response strategy comes down to suppressing a fire in a remote area where homes and property around Skykomish are not threatened.

“Over half of the fire is burning into roadless areas in the Wildsky Wilderness with very steep ground,” the DNR said in a statement. “This portion of the fire is producing most of the smoke. It is unsafe to put firefighters into these steep and remote areas. The firefighters are diligently working to keep the fire from burning homes or impacting critical infrastructure, such as the railroad, powerlines, and Highway 2. Even in these areas, there are cliffs and extremely steep slopes that are not safe for firefighters and have continued to bring trees over the highway.”

When winds blow from the east, DNR says,” the smoke moves west towards the I-5 corridor causing the poor air quality.”

That strategy means state crews were reduced on the Bolt Creek response as threats to homes and the highway were reduced. At its height, around 450 people were fighting the fire when it threatened Highway 2 and nearby homes. Currently, around 225 are assigned to the fire, DNR says.

From the point of view of the state’s fire suppression efforts, the strategy has been a success with the Bolt Creek fire now “burned up to containment lines on its southern edge” and “largely burned out against these firelines,” DNR says.

As of Monday, October 10th, the fire was an estimated 13,278 acres and 36% contained. Officials estimate full containment will take the rest of the month — much of it achieved by letting the flames burn out  — or rain that could arrive after next week. Nearby residents have endured closed roads and repeated evacuations.

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people in cities around the Puget Sound including Seattle are living through another smoke season. CHS reported here in mid-September on the arrival of unhealthy air quality levels in Seattle from the Bolt Creek smoke.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, the agency created to manage air quality in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties — “home to more than 4.1 million people, over half the state’s population,” PSCAA boasts — tells CHS its purview doesn’t include influencing the state’s fire suppression response and a spokesperson said the agency at this time has not jurisdiction over fire and emergency management.

The more frequent air alerts are new. Prior to about five years ago, Seattle met federal guidelines for the allowable number of unhealthy days in both the particulate category — and the other category of air quality you should be concerned about even when smoke season ends.

Measurements show Seattle also now registers more than twice as many unhealthy high ozone days. That air quality measurement is driven by factors including emissions and greenhouse gases. A growing population, increased development, industrial emissions, and ongoing use of fossil fuels for motor vehicles are to blame. Seattle officials have taken a “2/3 cars, 1/3 development and industry” approach to the problem with a focus on public transit and less driving joining other environmental strategies in the Seattle Climate Action plan. Officials will also — for the first time — incorporate climate change factors as Seattle sets about updating its comprehensive growth plan and moves away from its old “urban village” strategy. City Hall’s own footprint is being adjusted with a transition away from fossil fuels and a move to prepare all city-owned buildings to run on clean energy by 2035.

Meanwhile, those seven or more days a year with unhealthy wildfire smoke air are likely to continue — terrible twins to those seven or more days a year with unhealthy ozone levels.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s office says more needs to be done to strengthen the state’s wildfire response including “ensuring we have adequate funds from the Legislature for the resources to react to fires and to proactively manage forest health to reduce the risk of additional intense “wildfires,” a spokesperson tells CHS.

“Long-term, we must continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change,” the Inslee spokesperson said. “Climate change is absolutely contributing to the record intensity of wildfires we’ve seen more of in the 21st Century.”

The DNR says the funding and resources are being used to both build up the state’s ability to quickly suppress incidents while also doing more to make forests less susceptible to wildfire including controlled burning. Those investments are key to reducing “catastrophic fires” but also addressing concerns about smoke and air quality, DNR says.

For Seattle this October, rain is finally in the forecast — but that should come closer to Halloween, of course. Sunday is predicted to bring another day of 80 F temperatures in the city. If it happens, the National Weather Service says it would be the latest on record in Seattle. In the last 100 days, 77 have been above normal in Seattle, the NWS says.

Out near Skykomish, the Bolt Creek Fire still burns and is still pumping out smoke. It is just blowing in another direction.

“The fire is still a threat and will remain so until falls rains are sufficient to extinguish the fire,” the DNR says.

UPDATE 10/17/2022 9:20 AM: This CHS report examines some of the details in the “should” around fighting fires like Bolt Creek. After a very smoky weekend around the Puget Sound, wildfire expert and host of the Life with Fire podcast Amanda Monthei is one voice sharing details of how it is being fought and why.

We recommend reading the whole @amonthei thread in which Monthei, who says she worked in public information for the state’s Bolt Creek Fire response earlier this year, discusses the strategy employed along Highway 2, why fires like this need to burn, and, importantly, what tradeoffs these kinds of decisions means for the Puget Sound including Seattle and the area’s many communities vulnerable to what she says will likely be many years of bad and dangerous summer air:

Happy Sunday—it’s still smoky in Northwest Washington and the frustration is palpable as we approach six weeks of high AQI. With all the questions I’ve been seeing on this, I’d like to try to explain why the smoke is so bad and why we need to prepare for more smoke now. (1/?)

— Amanda Monthei (@amonthei) October 16, 2022

CHS is planning to talk with Monthei more about her thoughts. Stay tuned.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.