Darrington, Marysville tackle wood smoke to address poor air quality

DARRINGTON — Dan Rankin pointed to a white plume rising from a chimney. He noted the waxy filter it created, masking the trees behind.

The mayor of Darrington then drove through the town, pointing out households that had replaced wood stoves with more air-friendly alternatives.

Tucked in a North Cascades mountain valley, Darrington is uniquely vulnerable to pollution from wildfires and residential wood burning. The logging town, along with more populated parts of Marysville and Monroe, has some of the worst air quality in Snohomish County, according to the county’s Climate Vulnerability Tool.

Two decades ago, Rankin worked with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to install the town’s first air quality monitor. At the time, the town’s air ranked worst in the state on some winter days. Through robust outreach programs, Rankin and state experts taught the town’s nearly 1,400 residents about the climate and health risks of wood stoves and other wood burning.

Darrington’s air quality has improved over the past decade. The town hasn’t enacted a burn ban in five years.

But air pollution levels in Darrington still approach the federal standard for healthy air. A slight increase in wood stove use could trigger the need for a burn ban, according to a Clean Air Agency report published in 2020. When wildfires raged in the fall of 2022, Darrington temporarily had the worst air quality in the world.

Rankin is working with the local fire department and other agencies to boost fire and wood smoke education.

“We have a lot of people moving here who may not understand how a simple thing like a recreational fire can be something more, very quickly,” he said.

It’s “impossible” to tackle air pollution and other climate issues in Darrington without help, Rankin said. It’s especially difficult with a population that makes about half the county’s median income.

“How can they afford to go from firewood to heat pumps?” Rankin asked. “And the town isn’t any different. We really pinch pennies here.”

Across the county, residents in neighborhoods with lower air quality are disproportionately low-income, minority and more likely to have underlying health conditions, according to the Climate Vulnerability Tool. They’re also less likely to have jobs, transportation access or health insurance compared with those in other parts of the county.

Last year, the American Lung Association gave Snohomish County an ‘F’ grade for air quality, citing smoke from wildfires and wood stoves as the leading factor. Wood smoke releases PM2.5, or tiny particles that can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, stroke, cancer and early death, according to the Snohomish Conservation District.

Snohomish County has programs to help residents pay for environmentally-friendly heating and make their homes more fire and weather-proof. In 2022 and 2023, the Snohomish Conservation District worked with Darrington on a wood chipper program, where residents could chip their excess wood for free instead of burning it.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency also offers $500 to residents who change out their wood stoves for gas, electric or more modern wood stoves that meet federal standards. The program has led to more than 8,000 recycled wood stoves over the past 16 years across Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.

When the program first started, Rankin said, most Darrington residents welcomed the chance to change out their old stoves. But over the past decade, outreach about the program has dwindled.

At this point, the agency keeps up the program through online advertising and occasional resident questionnaires, said Graeme Carvlin, an air quality scientist at the Clean Air Agency who has helped monitor wood smoke in Darrington and Marysville.

“There are still a lot of older stoves out there,” Carvlin said. “We see the need to continue our wood stove recycling program to help people achieve cleaner air.”

Data from Purple Air, a worldwide community-led air monitoring network, shows the problem is not just in Darrington. In Marysville, high wood stove use causes consistent air pollution spikes in the evening, said Gillian Mittelstaedt, director of the Tribal Healthy Homes Network and Partnership for Air Matters, a nonprofit that educates residents about their air quality.

In more populated cities, tree planting is a top priority for improving air quality, said Linda Lyshall, executive director of the Snohomish Conservation District. The district has partnered with Everett, Marysville and the Tulalip Tribes to increase tree canopy over five years. So far, the district has planted thousands of trees.

Most low-income neighborhoods have less tree cover than affluent neighborhoods, according to a report from The Nature Conservancy in 2021. The conservation district used the state’s health disparities map to determine neighborhoods to target for the project.

Mittelstaedt wants to see the state and county take a more active role in offering wood stove change outs, home repairs, air filters and other air quality efforts. She’s advocating to get more money to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and to state programs that reduce vehicle emissions and wood smoke.

“You can do all the outreach and teaching,” Rankin said, “but until you can put dollars behind it to incentivize these programs, it’s a really daunting task to overcome.”

Sydney Jackson: 425-339-3430; sydney.jackson@heraldnet.com; X: @_sydneyajackson.