Air quality monitoring in rural areas of Montana is expanding to track pollutants like wildfire smoke, which can affect people with asthma and other chronic health conditions.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality recently installed a permanent air quality monitor in north central Montana with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Hill County health officer Kimberly Berg said the new device replaces a broken temporary one DEQ had installed in Havre a few years ago to help fill a gap in data coverage.
She said the community uses the data to guide activities like school sports.
“All too often, we don’t notice that the particulate matter in the air is actually getting into our lungs until it’s really making it hard for us to breathe,” said Berg.
DEQ Air Research & Monitoring Section Supervisor Kelly Dorsi said the state is tapping multiple EPA funding sources to fill data gaps across Montana.
“Something that’s changed in the last several decades is that, in Montana, the public’s appetite and interest in air quality monitoring data now exceeds the regulatory mandate for monitoring.”
EPA funding will allow the DEQ to install air monitors in Dillon, Cut Bank, Choteau, Eureka, Glasgow and Glendive in addition to Havre.
The state this winter also won a $452,871 EPA grant through the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan to supply communities with more affordable devices. Dorsi says the funding has yet to be distributed, and schools interested in joining the state’s priority list can contact her directly.
Kelly Dorsi, MT Department of Environmental Quality
Kelly.Dorsi@mt.gov
Office: 406-444-6695
Click here to view live data at DEQ’s newly-updated website, Today’s Air.
