Air Quality Program 2030 Strategic Plan

The Improving Air Quality in Overburdened Communities grant program is funded/direct by a legislative proviso. Right now in the sentence that references the grant program, it mixes the terms capital budget request and provision together. Yes, there i...↓s a capital budget request, but I think in this context we would want to refer to the proviso only.↓

As the Language Access representative for AQP, we need to ensure we have this wording specifically added where EJ or external communications/outreach is talked about. The work group is currently discussing/suggesting Ecology standards. There will be ...↓more on this later in 2024 and 2025.

Every one of our goals actually mentions either EJ or communications/outreach, so we need to incorporate the necessary languages across WA when we communicate.↓

Ecology AQ employee, former restoration forester, plant ecologist who studied large infrequent disturbance

In general this is a fantastic document- I like the tone, values, goals, and specificity. However, it doesn't seem to address wildfire smoke i...↓n a control way. It just mentions monitoring and communication around wildfire and making sure prescribed burns are minimally impactful. Wildfire smoke is a huge issue when it comes to AQ and any plan to reduce air pollution effectively has to consider it more centrally, not just in a monitoring and communication way but in a preventive way. How are we working with public and private forest managers, utilities, and railroads to grow resilient forests that store carbon, include a natural fire regime and prevent out of control wildfires from starting or spreading? How are we partnering with other states and Canada to support their wildland fire response? How are we going to not only monitor wildfire smoke, how are we going to reduce the number of days people are impacted by it?↓