Rulemaking to protect air quality

Ecology's Air Quality Program is working on a new rulemaking, guided by the Climate Commitment Act, to reduce criteria air pollution in overburdened communities. We aim to do this through pollution reduction strategies tailored to the unique needs of the people who live and work in these areas. Rapid economic expansion in the Pacific Northwest created immense prosperity for some in the 20th century at the expense of air quality. Fast-forward to today and we see how overburdened some communities have become because of decisions made before many of us were born.

The federal and state Clean Air Acts certainly helped jumpstart progress toward healthier air. But the echoes of growth, inequitable access to healthcare, and racist property ownership policies like redlining have left some Washingtonians quite literally in the dust… breathing harmful particle pollution.

Driving change through engagement

Anthony Bruma is an environmental planner for Ecology and is leading the rulemaking. He has to juggle a complex web of interests.

"It's going to come down to engaging with both people and businesses, and respecting both their health and economic needs," says Bruma. "How do you put a dozen threads through a needle? Because that's the scenario before us and each thread is critically important to somebody."

This rulemaking is intended to be a thoughtful piece of a larger strategy that can adapt through the years as communities develop and new needs arise. When finalized, the new rule will support other clean air efforts, including a successful round of community grants, an expanded air monitoring network, and a comprehensive report on the health implications of air pollution.

Following the announcement of this rulemaking, Ecology hosted public workshops to discuss statutory topics like criteria air pollutants and data sources, air quality targets, and emission reduction strategies. After considering how these topics may connect, we then shared draft rule language in November 2025.

There have been two informal public comment periods for this rulemaking so far.

• The first was held from November 14, 2024, to August 31, 2025, and related to the public workshops.
• The second was held from November 14, 2025, to February 15, 2026, and related to the draft rule language.

Thanks to helpful feedback, we have continued the development phase of rulemaking by starting rule revisions. For an updated timeline, please see the rulemaking webpage.

Cooper Garbe leads the Rules and Planning Unit within the Air Quality Program. He believes public input is critical for a task as complex and consequential as this rulemaking.

"It's a balancing act, made even more difficult by the complex geographical features and microclimates of Washington," says Garbe. "We're eager to use the helpful input from previous comment periods to update the draft rule and look forward to having experts from across the state weigh in on the next iteration."

There's no doubt that rulemaking is a complex and time-consuming endeavor, which is why Ecology has created a new video to explain the broad strokes of the process.