AIR QUALITY MONITORING ACTION IS NEEDED…NOW!

The following is an email I sent on 12/14/2021 in response to an EPA Grant Competition offered to local communities to improve their air quality monitoring capabilities; I found out about it on the listserv for CCLC ( Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate). Ms Archuleta is Cassie Archuleta, the head of the Air Quality Department in Fort Collins:

Dear Larimer County Commissioners and Ms. Archuleta: 


I would like to bring to your attention, if you were not already aware,  of this EPA Notification of a grant competition for $20 million for Community Air Pollution Monitoring; please find attached. The public meeting for it will be on January 11, 2022. It is targeted at “communities with health outcome disparities.” 


I think if the data on respiratory illnesses in Larimer County were summarized, I believe it would have communities that qualify. The bad ozone conditions here in the summer must certainly be having its effect. Just publishing that data would be useful in and of itself.


If the state air quality regulators were serious about discovering the sources of what’s causing all this ozone — instead of just installing ozone monitors to tell us how bad it is, and what days to stay indoors — they would have installed an array of BoulderAIR monitors from Wellington to Pueblo by now. Instead, the cities and counties have had to take on this job in piecemeal fashion, as you well know. It is no way to manage a regional air pollution issue.


If Larimer County were to coordinate with the five other BoulderAIR monitoring stations from Boulder to Erie, we would be able to find the real causes of our air pollution. And then, and only then, will we be able to start to managing this pollution problem with data driven results. 
I hope some staff can be directed to evaluate this opportunity; and hopefully take advantage of it. 


Best regards,
Rick Casey 

PS — This is the positive response from Commissioners Kefalas and Stephens in reply:

One thought on “AIR QUALITY MONITORING ACTION IS NEEDED…NOW!”

  1. I might add that I received an affirmative reply from Commissioners Kefalas and Stephens in response to my email within the following week…which I subsequently added to my post as a screenshot to prove it.

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