Is North Dakota Making The Grade On Air Quality?

(April 25, 2012)—

No more “straight A’s” for North Dakota’s air quality. While North Dakota was awarded  all “A”  grades for air quality in the 2011 State of the Air Report,  the 2012 report issued today by the American Lung Association gives two counties “B” grades for particle pollution.  Officials with the health charity note that the 2008-2010 time period covered in the report would not include some recent rapid growth in population and vehicle traffic in the Oil Patch in western North Dakota, and the state’s geography and weather may also play a factor in the state’s high marks for air.

The State of the Air Report covers eight counties with permanent air quality monitors: Billings, Burke, Burleigh, Cass, Dunn, McKenzie, Mercer and Oliver. All of the counties received an “A” grade for high ozone days. Billings and Mercer received “A” marks for particle pollution, but Burleigh and Cass were given “B” grades for particle pollution, showing a slip from last year’s “A” grades. The remaining four counties do not collect data on particulate pollution.

“We know that emissions from North Dakota’s coal-fired power plants, oil fields and diesel engines are all contributing to air quality issues throughout the upper Midwest,” said Robert Moffitt, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association in North Dakota.  “We also know that there are at least 54,000 North Dakotans with lung disease who are at greater risk for exposure to air pollution, which also is a health risk to the very young and the elderly. It is very important that we keep the air clean, both for the people who live here and for those who live in neighboring states.”

Bismarck was one of five municipal areas ranked by the national report as a “cleanest city” for both ozone and year-round particle pollution, other cities in the top five included Duluth, Minnesota and Rapid City, South Dakota. A link to the full report can be found at www.StateoftheAir.org.