The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Air Quality Division has launched the Community Air Action Planning (CAAP) pilot program to better understand local air quality challenges and identify solutions in historically overburdened areas through collaborative community involvement. The initiative will be undertaken in three phases over three years. DEQ has worked with a steering committee of advocates, community-based organizations, and state and local government representatives to design the program’s framework and a method for communities to participate.
Over the next two years, DEQ will lead community-scale monitoring efforts and facilitate capacity-building initiatives in four communities: Chiloquin, McMinnville, Medford, and the Gresham neighborhoods of Rockwood and Wilkes East. The first community-scale monitoring effort begins this month.
Learn more about CAAP on the program’s webpage, and listen to a recent radio interview with DEQ Air Quality Public Affairs and a participating community leader.
