DNR-issued air quality alert included Clinton

By Rebecca Boysen/Susan Jessen
Herald Staff Writer

September 30, 2008 11:06 am

— DES MOINES — Fine particulate pollution was measured at levels above EPA health standards at four sites in eastern Iowa on Friday. DNR air quality monitors measured 24-hour average fine particulate (PM2.5) values of 35.6 micrograms per cubic meter at Cedar Rapids and Clinton. Levels of 35.8 and 43.4 micrograms per cubic meter were measured at monitors in Davenport. The EPA’s 24-hour health standard for fine particles is 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
Pollutant levels likely to exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health standards for fine particles were still present over most of eastern Iowa Saturday morning, and were predicted to remain elevated until westerly winds help to clear out the pollution. By 11 a.m. Saturday, the reading at the Clinton sites had dropped to 27.5 micrograms per cubic meter. The moniotoring sites in Clinton are located in Chancy Park along Camanche Avenue and Rainbow Park, one block north of Main Avenue on Second Street.
Today’s air quality was rated in the good range, according to the Iowa DNR Web site.
Todd Russell, of the Iowa DNR, reported in a telephone interview “levels (Monday morning) were down well below any level of concern... less than half what they were on Friday.” Russell added events of this type involve air stagnation, where pollution builds up slowly over time — once a weather front comes through, the pollution clears out relatively quickly. “It happens a few times every year,” he explained.
The Department of Natural Resources always recommends that Iowans with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly, and children limit prolonged outdoor exertion when particulate counts exceed 35 micrograms per cubic meter.
EPA’s national air quality map is available online at www.airnow.gov.
For more information contact Todd Russell at (515) 494-6412.