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Aircraft - Spokane Clean Air receives calls from concerned individuals inquiring about air pollution from aircraft flying overhead. Although we don't have actual emissions inventory data on aircraft, we believe aircraft emissions have a low impact on local ambient air quality compared with other sources, such as on-road mobile and non-road construction & farming equipment. This is in part due to the sheer number of cars and trucks, but also because these sources emit pollutants at ground-level, as opposed to miles up in the atmosphere. By the time emissions from aircraft make their way to the earth's surface, they've become very diluted and pose very little, if any, human health risk. The only location in Spokane County where you would see air quality impacts of any significance would be on the airport property. Aircraft and other non-road engines are subject to more stringent emissions limits. Click on "aircraft" below.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ) protects public health and the environment by regulating air pollution from motor vehicles, engines, and the fuels used to operate them, and by encouraging travel choices that minimize emissions. These "mobile sources" include cars and light trucks, heavy trucks and buses, nonroad recreational vehicles (such as dirt bikes and snowmobiles), farm and construction machines, lawn and garden equipment, marine engines, aircraft, and locomotives.
Nonroad engines are used in an extremely wide range of applications, each involving great differences in operating characteristics, engine technology, and market dynamics. EPA has adopted emission standards for nearly all types of nonroad engines, equipment, and vehicles. These standards apply for each of the categories shown below.
- Aircraft
- Diesel Boats and Ships (commercial ships, recreational craft, etc.)
- Gasoline Boats and Personal Watercraft (boats, personal watercraft, etc.)
- Nonroad Diesel Program (farm, construction, mining, etc.)
- Forklifts, Generators, and Compressors (forklifts, generators, etc.)
- Lawn and Garden (lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chainsaws, etc.)
- Locomotives
- Snowmobiles, Dirt Bikes and ATV's (snowmobiles, dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles, etc.)
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