Air quality shelters may be in the Grande Ronde Valley's future

Feb. 1—LA GRANDE — Local libraries are places many people go to check out books filled with breathless tension, like Stephen King's "The Shining" or "The President Is Missing" by James Patterson and Bill Clinton.

Soon local libraries may also be buildings people visit to catch their breath.

Some local libraries could be among the sites where air quality shelters are established under the guidelines of a draft of a Community Response Plan for smoke generated by prescribed burns and wildfires.

The air quality shelters would be places people could go to breathe better air. Union County Emergency Service Manager Nick Vora said facilities such as community centers and health care buildings also could be air quality shelters.

"They would be at public places already in place that already have operating hours," Vora said.

The shelters are intended to meet the needs of people who have health conditions that make them sensitive to poor air quality.

"We want to help smoke-sensitive populations," Vora said.

He said a survey conducted by Union County of people with breathing issues indicated many would welcome air quality shelters.

Carrie Bushman, director of Cook Memorial Library in La Grande, said she would be glad to have the city's library serve as an air quality shelter.

"We would be on board with it," she said. "It is a good idea, definitely. We always welcome people at the library."

She noted that the library has served as a heat shelter of sorts in the summer, providing bottled water and air conditioning. In addition, its community room has been made available during operating hours to escape the heat.

Bushman said it would be best if the library could receive air filtration equipment before it served as an air quality shelter. She explained that because the library's ventilation system draws in air from the outside, the air quality in the library is not better than it is in most city buildings during the summer.

Local air quality shelters could be established as early as this summer. Air filtration equipment would likely be added later. This equipment, Vora said, would be purchased with grant funding Union County and the city of La Grande would be eligible to apply for after a Community Response Plan is finalized.

Vora said the Community Response Plan is needed in part because Union County has a large number of people who are sensitive to smoke.

"Many people in the Grande Ronde Valley need in-home oxygen systems," he said.

Statistics in a draft of the proposed Community Response Plan from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emPOWER Program website make this clear. According to the draft, 449 of the 6,555 people in Union County who are Medicare beneficiaries have health conditions that put them at risk and make them dependent on electrical equipment to help with breathing. La Grande, for example, has 3,846 people who are on Medicare, 260 of whom depend on electrical equipment.

"A high percentage of the equipment is oxygen related," Vora said.

The Oregon Health Authority, according to the draft plan, estimates that 3,570 adults in Union County have asthma, 2,013 have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 1,127 have had heart attacks.

The draft plan also contains a Community Health Needs Assessment prepared by Grande Ronde Hospital. The assessment compares mortality rates within Union County to those throughout Oregon. The assessment, according to the plan, indicates that death rates for heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease are higher than average in Union County communities than in the state of Oregon.

The Community Response Plan will be completed in about two months, Vora said. Union County is developing the plan with help from La Grande's public works department, the U.S. Forest Service and the Center for Human Development.

The plan, in addition to establishing air quality shelters, identifies the Grande Ronde Valley population vulnerable to poor air quality and would establish a structure for public air quality notifications when air quality is low. The notifications would provide information, such as available air shelters.

Should the plan become official, it will provide the community with greater flexibility when regulating prescribed burning and other necessary smoke-generating activities, according to the draft plan. One reason is that it would make it possible for Union County to apply for waivers that would allow for more local controlled burning.

Additional controlled burning would ultimately improve air quality in the Grande Ronde Valley because controlled burning reduces the buildup of forest fuels that feed wildfires, said Union County Commissioner Paul Anderes.

The commissioner also said prescribed burns produce significantly less smoke than wildfires. The reason is wildfires burn when conditions are hotter and drier than when prescribed burns are planned. This means forest fuels are more completely consumed, which produces more emissions.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.