The growing population of the Puget Sound area is unwittingly harming the quality of the air at Mount Rainier National Park, creating ground-level ozone that, even in low levels, can have harmful effects on humans, plants and animals. Pollution drifting up to the mountain also is contributing to visibility problems for all who live within view of the famous Northwest landmark. The station is one of three Ecology operates near the mountain at Enumclaw and Eatonville.
Vehicle emissions are major ingredients of harmful, ground-level ozone.
Summer winds sweep this pollution up to the mountain from Puget Sound, making Mount Rainier a crucial barometer of the air-quality problems in Western Washington. In King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, people are driving 74 million miles each typical workday, Burg said. That's about three-quarters of the distance to the sun, which is 93 million miles. Vehicle use is growing faster than the population. Ozone on the ground has a different effect than ozone in the upper atmosphere that protects the Earth from the sun's harmful rays.