FAIRBANKS — The defeat of Proposition 2 Tuesday by a resounding margin leaves us with the challenge of how to improve air quality in Fairbanks.

The problem on winter days can be detected from University West to North Pole by anyone with a sense of smell.

It also can be detected by anyone with moderate eyesight who travels up into the hills and looks down on the brown haze that covers the flatlands like a lid on a pot.

The citizen initiative a year ago eliminated a sensible set of local rules and small fines that would have dealt with the worst offenders who smoked out their neighbors.

Supporters of that measure said at first that no regulation was needed to deal with air quality, but later they argued that state regulations would take care of the problem. That was based on the expectation that the state wouldn’t do much.

The “Home Heating Protection Act” from a year ago transferred some of the burden for dealing with air quality to the state and removed most of the regulatory powers that the borough could have used.

Over the past year, neither the state nor the borough have taken substantial steps to deal with air quality. The wood stove change-out program and a state grant to test new pollution retrofit devices on outdoor boilers may help, but a more comprehensive approach is needed.

The “Healthy Air Protection Act” on the ballot Tuesday included blanket bans on the use of coal and outdoor wood boilers within the nonattainment area. I think that those two elements, not the other parts of the initiative, led to its defeat. I think that most people agree that it’s wrong to turn your neighbor’s house into a smokehouse.

The assembly and the state Department of Environmental Conservation should not view the election results as a declaration that improving air quality is a dead issue.

On the contrary, the sponsors of the initiative began a valuable public discussion that the borough and the Parnell administration need to continue. And they need to get started now.

One of the weaknesses of the initiative process is that it bypasses the committee process. It is through open discussion and debate that the supporters and opponents of any proposal can find compromise.

When you work with the people who oppose a plan you learn how to improve it, as opponents are in the ideal position to identify what they regard as weaknesses. Sometimes the critics are correct. Other times they are proven wrong by supporters who defuse the opposition with a better argument.

The initiative last year and the one on the ballot Tuesday could have been improved with the give-and-take that leads to good public policy.

Air pollution in Fairbanks will not go away by pretending it doesn’t exist. Those who point to heavy smoke from summer wildfires as evidence that the winter smoke must not be a health hazard are missing the point.

The pollution levels here on winter days are higher than in most major U.S. cities, and the federally imposed deadline to clean up the air is fast approaching. But this is not a matter of satisfying the bureaucracy with proper paperwork.

Particulate pollution causes lung damage, according to every published study, and the smallest particles tend to do the most harm and lodge deep in the lungs. The threat is the highest to young children, who should be breathing clean air.

Developing a real plan should be a priority for all those elected Tuesday and for the administration in Juneau.