wood smoke monitoring sites and that a permanent monitoring station in Issaquah is not warranted. Ecology will publish a final report in 1997.
    Ozone (O3). The summer of 1996 brought the Puget Sound area four periods of very warm weather (temperatures in the low to mid 90s). Ozone levels above .10 ppm were recorded at monitoring stations southeast of Seattle. The agency called four Smog Watches, because hot stagnant meteorological conditions were expected to persist and elevate ozone levels close to the federal standard. Smog Watch is a voluntary pollution prevention program that urges citizens to curtail polluting activities during air stagnation periods. The season's highest value met the 1-hour standard of .12 ppm (rounded down from .121 ppm) on August 10 at the Enumclaw monitoring site. This value, even when combined with other exceedances over that past three years, still demonstrated compliance with the ozone air quality standard.
    Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). Sulfur dioxide releases above background levels continue to be detected at air monitoring sites but are well below the federal standards for this pollutant.
     Lead (Pb). No monitored values reached 50% of the federal standard.
    Visibility/Regional Haze.
    This year's data summary includes a new discussion of visual range. We continue to study the extent to which visibility degradation occurs in our region due to air pollution, and this new section details our work in this area.
    Plans for air monitoring in 1997-98.
    New federal standards for particulate matter (PM10and PM2.5) and ozone went into effect federal standards for particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and ozone went into effect September 16, 1997. The new fine particulate

matter PM2.5 standard requires additional monitoring and possibly the establishment of new monitoring stations. While we will be reducing some manual PM10 sampling, this new standard represents a significant increase in the monitoring service that PSAPCA provides to the Puget Sound region. The atmospheric profiler located at the NOAA Campus in Seattle will receive a major software upgrade in the fall of 1997. This is expected to improve the reliability and data resolution of this important meteorological tool used to help us determine conditions for burn bans and our voluntary Smog Watch program.
    We are considering the possibility of relocating some of our existing PM10 manual method monitoring sites during the coming year. These sites have fulfilled their objectives of characterizing air quality in specific areas. Closing these sites would allow us to meet other new monitoring requirements for the new federal standards. These changes will in no way affect our ability to protect public health. Due to low ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) detected at monitoring stations in Tacoma, Seattle and Everett, our internal air monitoring work group is evaluating the agency's future role in the monitoring of SO2. We expect a recommendation in early 1998.
    We are planning to conduct a pilot survey of particulate matter pollution in and around the Duwamish Valley, in anticipation of a new PM2.5 site to be installed there.
    We are currently working with the Department of Ecology to provide near real-time air quality monitoring data on the Internet World Wide Web.

For more detailed information follow this link.

Data Quality Assessment