Virginia’s air quality continues to get better. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality monitors the air in several metro areas around the state, and the numbers say it has improved a lot in the last two decades. No alerts have been issued for the Roanoke area, for instance, since 2012. And this year, for the first time since such monitoring began, the Richmond region had none. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
DEQ NEWS RELEASE: As we enter fall, daylight hours grow shorter, temperatures get cooler and ground-level ozone levels are expected to remain well below their summer peaks. As a result, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has suspended daily ground-level ozone forecasts until next spring. However, daily air quality forecasts for particle pollution will continue without interruption for these locations and will continue to be emailed daily and posted on the DEQ Air Quality Monitoring Data page and the AirNow website.
This has been a historic year for our air quality. For the first time since ozone pollution monitoring began in the 1970s, Richmond didn’t experience any days with poor air quality, when sensitive people are advised to reschedule strenuous activities (days when the Air Quality Index reaches “Code Orange” or “Code Red” levels). This is down from a high of 76 days with poor air quality in 1993. Northern Virginia experienced four exceedances, down from a high of 74 days in 1991.
