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Nov. 21, 2022
Air Management To Receive American Rescue Plan Funding For Monitoring Projects
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s (DNR) Air Management Program was selected to receive $500,000 in funding over three years through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) competitive grant awards process. In May 2022, the DNR submitted the application, “Microscale Ambient Air Monitoring and Emission Inventory of HAPS, Ozone and PM2.5 with focus on Port of Milwaukee and Surrounding Communities.”
In early November, the EPA announced 132 projects in 37 states would receive funding. In Wisconsin, the DNR, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the City of Madison were all awarded funding for similar but separate air quality projects. With this funding, the Air Management Program intends to focus on learning more about air quality and emissions in the Milwaukee area.
“Through the DNR’s work with the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee was identified as having one of the highest rates of asthma-related emergency room visits in the country,” said Gail Good, Air Management Program Director. “With three years of focused funding, the DNR will work with its community partners towards the shared goals of raising awareness of local air quality, understanding asthma triggers in the Milwaukee area, and improving air quality related health outcomes.”
The DNR will use its air monitoring stations at the Milwaukee Sixteenth Street Health Center, UW School of Freshwater Sciences and the Milwaukee DNR Southeast Region office as baseline monitors for this community-based project. Over the course of three years, new air quality sensors and mobile monitoring will be deployed in and around those locations with a goal of engaging the communities and identifying and mitigating hotspot areas.
For decades, the Air Management Program has monitored ambient air quality to meet federal requirements outlined in the Clean Air Act. This is done using high-tech monitoring equipment that meets federal monitoring method requirements for use in a regulatory capacity and for informing the public of the current air quality.
“This new funding provides an opportunity for the DNR to better understand hyper-local air quality and provide outreach to the communities to allow citizens to become aware and engaged in their local air quality,” said Katie Praedel, Air Monitoring Section Chief.
Information on the existing state network of air monitors can be found on DNR’s Wisconsin Air Quality Monitoring Data website.
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