State Of The Air Report Gives Rapid City, Sioux Falls High Marks For Clean Air

(April 27, 2011)—

The American Lung Association’s annual State Of The Air report released today gives South Dakota high marks for outdoor air quality. Rapid City was recognized as one of the “cleanest U.S. cities” for both particulate and ozone pollution, Sioux Falls also made the clean cities list for ozone pollution.  For particulate pollution measured in a 24-hour period, the state scored all “B” grades, with the exception of an “A” in Brown County. For ozone pollution, South Dakota did even better: the four counties given a grade (Custer, Jackson, Mead and Minnehaha) all earned an “A” grade for ozone.

Counties with air quality monitors included in the report were Brookings, Brown, Codington, Custer, Meade, Minnehaha and Pennington.  The report analyzed data collected from the 2007-2009 time period.

According to the report, the cleanest cities in the U.S. for air pollution are Honolulu, HI and Santa Fe, NM. The city with the worst overall air pollution is Bakersfield, CA. To see the entire report, go to www.stateoftheair.org

For information on cleaner-burning fuels that help prevent air pollution, like E85 ethanol and biodiesel, visit www.CleanAirChoice.org.