Industrial Fire in Longview Causing Smoke Impacts in the Vancouver/Portland Area

Residents in the Vancouver/Portland area woke up to unhealthy air quality levels this morning. Air quality deteriorated overnight due to transported smoke from an industrial fire at Nippon Dynawave Packaging in Longview that started yesterday evening.

    Source: EPA Fire and Smoke Map, 9am

The smoke arrived in the Vancouver area around 8pm last night--the hourly PM2.5 timeseries below shows the smoke transport down the Columbia River in the evening hours and impacting the air quality monitors in Vancouver; the Longview monitor is upwind of the fire location so did not observe elevated PM2.5 concentrations. 

We are starting to see decreases in PM2.5 concentrations as mixing and ventilation increases this morning, and clearing should continue throughout the day. However, smoke impacts in Vancouver will likely persist through tomorrow as the fire continues to smolder and a marine layer traps any smoke near the surface. 

Also contributing to smoke in the area is a fire at an abandoned K-Mart building in northeast Portland.

The Southwest Clean Air Agency has issued a Air Pollution Advisory for Clark and Cowlitz Counties today through Friday, July 21. We'll continue to monitor the situation and update the blog as needed.