Lane County gets failing air-quality grade as wildfire smoke drives worst readings

Oakridge had 37 days of unhealthy air or worse in 2022, while Eugene-Springfield had three. That gap is now part of why Lane County received a failing grade in the American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air report, a warning that hits hardest on the days wildfire smoke turns outdoor work, school sports and even routine errands into a health risk.

The report, released April 21, counted 149,534 Oregon children breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution and listed Eugene-Springfield among the worst U.S. metro areas for particle pollution. But Lane Regional Air Protection Agency says the county’s grade can look more alarming than daily life in Eugene or Springfield because the association uses the worst readings anywhere in the county. A hot spot like Oakridge can pull down the whole score.

That matters in a county where the worst air is not spread evenly. Oakridge has long seen some of Lane County’s highest particulate readings because of its valley location, local wood smoke and repeated large wildfire events. The agency says the same pattern now reaches farther than one town, as hot, dry summers intensified by climate change make wildfire smoke a recurring part of life across Lane County. Smoke can blow in from fires in California, Washington and Idaho, and even travel across the Pacific Ocean before settling over the Willamette Valley.

The public-health burden falls hardest on children, older adults and people with asthma or other respiratory problems. Lane County and Oregon health guidance tells those residents to follow their breathing plans and avoid strenuous outdoor activity when air quality reaches Orange or Red. For families trying to keep summer normal, that means checking air alerts before practice, before a shift outdoors and before opening the windows in the morning.

Oregon’s monitoring data underline why the concern extends beyond one bad wildfire season. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s 2022 air-quality annual report identifies PM2.5, PM10 and ozone as the state’s main air-quality concerns, and says DEQ and LRAPA monitor them closely. The smoke problem has also become a statewide issue, with nearly 33 million people nationwide living in counties that received failing grades for all three air-pollution measures in the 2026 report.

Lane County has seen progress, especially in the Oakridge-Westfir airshed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in September 2021 that the communities met the fine particulate standard under the Clean Air Act, and LRAPA said in 2022 that a second $2.7 million Targeted Airshed Grant would continue air-quality work there. Even so, the 2026 grade shows how quickly wildfire smoke can erase local gains when the worst days are counted countywide.