--- title: Mysterious Ash Covers Parts of Washington and Oregon description: A strange ashy substance is falling from the sky in parts of Washington state and Oregon, but no one knows where it came from. canonical: https://time.com/3699904/ash-washington-oregon/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-07T14:36:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:47.947Z article:section: Science og:title: Mysterious Ash Covers Parts of Washington and Oregon og:description: It could be from a Russian volcano og:url: https://time.com/3699904/ash-washington-oregon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mysterious Ash Covers Parts of Washington and Oregon twitter:description: It could be from a Russian volcano twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Mysterious Ash Covers Parts of Washington and Oregon > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 7, 2015 2:36 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 7, 2015 2:36 PM UTC A strange ashy substance is [falling from the sky](http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/07/us/northwest-mystery-ash/index.html) in parts of Washington state and Oregon, but no one knows where it came from. “While the substance is likely ash is from Volcano Shiveluch, they are a number of volcanoes that are currently active. The source of the material has not been scientifically confirmed,” energy officials said. ### See the Worst Place to Breathe in America  A passenger train travels through town past a refinery in Bakersfield, Calif. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Oil pumps and scarred earth can be seen for miles in an area of North Bakersfield called the Bluffs. A Cogeneration Plant sits in the middle of the fields and is one of California's top polluters. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  A dust storm blows through Bakersfield, Calif. Dust is a pervasive problem in the area. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Yareli Gonzalez, 7, suffers from asthma and receives two nebulizer treatments per day, indefinitely. Gonzalez lives in Shafter, a rural farming town in Kern County, Calif. Kern County sits at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, an area known for having the worst air in the nation due to dust, smog and high levels of ozone. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Asthma educator Sharon Borradori, left, shows Margarita Hernandez, center, and her husband, Severo Velasco, right, how their 2-year-old son, Mauricio Velasco will use an inhaler when he's older. Mauricio was recently released from the hospital after suffering from an extreme asthma attack. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Children practice sports on a field at Bakersfield High School which backs up against the train yard that runs through the middle of town in Bakersfield. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Young football players exercise on the stadium of Bakersfield High School. Bakersfield High is the oldest high school in town and the mascot, the Driller, is directly tied to area industry. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Benjamin Swall, 14, waits for his brother's football practice to end at Bakersfield High School. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Red Simspon, a country music legend and Bakersfield native, smokes a cigarette outside of the Rasmussen Senior Center in Oildale, north of Bakersfield. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Merced Mendoza moves irrigation pipe in a field that will be used to grow alfalfa. The field is adjacent to and owned by Kern Oil and Refining Co. Mendoza is a leader for a men's group at Victory Outreach Church in Bakersfield that rents the land from the refinery to grow alfalfa that is then sold to a local dairy for feed. The money earned from the feed helps fund the men's program for the church. This symbiotic relationship between resource companies and the community are played out throughout the region. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Percolation ponds fill up with runoff water from nearby Belridge Oil Fields in Eastern Kern County. As the water evaporates, leaving oil residue, hydrogen sulfide, methane and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are released in to the air. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Dust devils can be seen reaching toward the sky during dry months in Bakersfield. Dust is a pervasive problem that contributes to diminished air quality. The problem is exacerbated by the current drought in California. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Lucy Clark, 72, lives in the foothills north of Bakersfield. Her home sits at 2200 feet, which is about the elevation where the visible layer of smog begins to hang in the air. Because of this, Clark, who suffers from asthma, wears a mask every day she walks out to get the mail. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Elk Hills Power plant provides electricity to power Occidental Elk Hills oil field. Oxy's Elk Hills field is one of the largest oil fields in the United States and the natural gas power plant can produce 550 megawatts of electricity. Lexey Swall—GRAIN  Samantha Olivarez, 9, left, and her cousin, Daisy Olivarez, 7, play in front of their home in Arvin, Calif. The homes across the street were evacuated after a gas pipe leaked underground. According to reports, the 40-year-old pipe was leaking for as long as two years before it was detected. Olivarez's family is worried about possible health risks in the area due to the pollution. Lexey Swall—GRAIN Volcano Shiveluch is on the Kamchatka peninsula in extreme northeast Russia and spewed a 20,000 foot ash plume in January. But officials say the substance could be coming from an entirely different part of the globe. Other theories include dust picked up by wind or leftover ash from last year’s wildfires in Oregon in Idaho. 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