By Garrett Christensen on Monday, January 16th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
OREGON – (Release from the Department of Environmental Quality) The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality today launched a public survey to help its Air Quality Monitoring Team determine and prioritize 20 locations for new SensORs to measure air quality from wildfire smoke across the state. SensORs, which were first developed by DEQ’s Laboratory in 2019, are lower-cost monitors that collect timely particulate matter 2.5 data and display it over DEQ’s Air Quality Index.
Currently, DEQ has more than 70 PM2.5 monitoring locations across Oregon. As a result of the devastating fires in 2020, the 2021 state legislature passed Senate Bill 762, which provides funding for 20 more SensORs to be deployed in regions with few to no monitors.
While DEQ has compiled a list of proposed areas, it would like public input to refine and prioritize it before starting the process of determining specific sites.
For more details, find the enitre press release at https://bit.ly/3GWS0vt.
For questions about the survey, send an email to Questions.AQM@deq.oregon.gov.