ORCAA notes 2025 accomplishments, including wins in Thurston County

Multiple wins hit the books for the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) in 2025. Locally, a renamed Lacey air monitoring station, ongoing homeless camp burning efforts and a new Yelm sensor topped the list. 

In a year-end recap released on Monday, Jan. 12, ORCAA unpacked accomplishments throughout its jurisdiction, including ones beneficial for Thurston County.
 

The agency noted "the local air quality in our region has some wonderful wins." 

At Mountain View Elementary School in Lacey, ORCAA replaced an aging air monitoring shelter in August 2025. The original facility went up decades ago, courtesy of James P. Werner, the agency's first air quality monitoring specialist, and Robert Moody, the longtime compliance manager. 

The ORCAA Board of Directors voted in November 2025 to honor Werner by renaming the facility as the James P. Werner Monitoring Station, as The JOLT News reported Nov. 13, 2025.

The agency also deployed additional atmospheric fine particulate sensors developed by the Washington State Department of Ecology. ORCAA installed a SensWA sensor near Yelm in Thurston County. Additional sensors went up outside Forks in Clallam County and in Ilwaco in Pacific County. 

Also in Thurston County, ORCAA continued its partnership with Olympia Mutual Air Partners (OlyMAP) to address illegal burning in homeless camps. The collaboration began in 2023. 

Unhoused residents frequently turn to open fires for cooking and warmth, according to the agency. Burning inappropriate materials can produce problem smoke for both camp residents and nearby neighbors. 

OlyMAP staff work directly with camp residents to encourage safer burning practices and arrange regular trash removal. The agency called the partnership "a good example of multiple agencies and associations working together to mitigate problems efficiently and humanely." 

For database modernization, Executive Director Jeff Johnston signed a contract on Aug. 26, 2025, with Unicon International to provide a cloud-based solution, which The JOLT News covered on Sept. 9, 2025. 

Under the new system, permitting and inspection files for more than 600 registered sources, from small gas stations to large wood processing facilities, will get housed. The agency also manages outdoor burning permits, asbestos and demolition notifications, and fields more than 900 burn complaints annually. 

Months of vendor evaluations and a detailed request for proposals preceded the new system's approval. 

Staffing-wise, the agency hired Tyson Justis in February 2025 as the new financial services manager. Justis previously worked for the Thurston Regional Planning Council.

He replaced Lynn Harding, who retired in April 2025 after 22 years of service. Two Inspector 1 positions also got filled with Christian Herr and Rose M. Espinosa Aguilar. 

A permit victory also prevailed on Nov. 14, 2025, after the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) upheld the agency's air permit to Pacific Northwest Renewal Energy. 

The permit, issued on May 14, 2024, authorizes the energy company to establish a wood pellet manufacturing facility in Hoquiam in Grays Harbor County.

Appellants challenged the permit on June 13, 2024. The PCHB found the approval met the requirements of both the federal Clean Air Act and Washington's Clean Air Act. The original appellants have since appealed the ruling through the court system. 

The agency also rolled out wood stove recycling and replacement award programs in fall 2025 for residents of Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties. The Washington State Department of Ecology funds the programs through a wood smoke reduction grant. 

The recycling award gives $500 for removing a qualified wood stove. Replacement awards top out at $2,200 for electric heat pump installations, with $750 for natural gas or propane conversions and $1,000 for electric fireplace or pellet stove installations. 

Farther afield, national core (NCore) air quality monitoring equipment got relocated from Cheeka Peak Observatory to Bahokas Peak in Clallam County after power lines feeding the original site "failed and couldn't be reasonably repaired or replaced" in early 2025. 

ORCAA coordinated with the Makah Tribe and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify the replacement location approximately 3 miles north on Makah Reservation land. 

The restored NCore and IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring for Protected Visual Environments) stations became operational in fall 2025. 

The agency also bolstered transparency efforts after its public records officer completed state certification in 2025. Staff fulfilled 92 public records requests and provided access to more than 1,500 records.  

Administrative staff digitized several years of records and sent nearly 40 boxes of old paper files to a shredding service, with 40 more boxes scheduled for destruction in early 2026. 

The inspection team also produced how-to videos to guide users through online forms for asbestos and demolition notifications, land clearing burn permits and complaints. 

To help guide people through the processes of using the forms, the videos are available here.