The Cheeka Peak NCore and IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring for Protected Visual Environments) ambient air monitoring sites went offline last month. Unfortunately, the monitoring site will remain offline indefinitely.
On February 26, the location lost power due to a fault in the buried power cable supplying electrical power to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) VORTAC station, as well as seismic sensors, and air monitoring activities atop Cheeka Peak. Clallam County PUD cannot safely repair the faulty power line.
The FAA VORTAC station, short for “VHF Omnidirectional Range Tactical Air Navigation,” is a multifunctional beacon for aircraft, aiding pilots in maintaining accurate course headings and staying on predefined airways.
Power restoration would require cable replacement, yet there are no plans currently to restore the power line. As a result, ORCAA is working closely with the Makah Tribe to find an alternate site that meets all scientific and logistical criteria.
New Sensors
ORCAA plans to install additional atmospheric fine particulate sensors across our region over the next two years. These new sensors, named SensWA, were developed by the Washington Department of Ecology (ECY). As ECY staff build the new sensors, they will be distributed to ECY regional offices and local air agencies. Ultimately, ORCAA anticipates having at least two of the SensWA sensors deployed in each of our six counties to supplement our existing permanent air monitoring network.
Updates to our air monitoring web pages and tools will soon reflect these changes.
On the air quality monitoring map, bubble pins will continue to represent the original air monitors maintained by ORCAA for over twenty years. Squares will appear on the map to indicate the other sensors and monitoring stations as they come online.
In January 2025, ORCAA mounted the first sensor in Forks.
