During last week's smoke-filled days, the DEP's internal process excluded NEPA from air pollution alerts because...
"it does not forecast for particulate matter at all for NEPA because it is not typically a problem there."
We beg to differ. The article on DEP's "process" is below.
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DEP's internal processes excluded NEPA from air pollution alert from smoke from Canadian wildfires
BY JIM LOCKWOOD STAFF WRITER
The state Department of Environmental Protection excluded Northeast Pennsylvania in an air pollution alert Tuesday because an internal system was not set up to include NEPA, the agency said Thursday.
As a result, the agency might revise how it issues such air-quality forecasts and alerts.
A DEP “Code Orange” air-quality warning issued Tuesday did not include NEPA and instead was declared for the areas of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Lehigh Valley-Berks and the Susquehanna Valley of south central Pennsylvania.
But the air quality as of 6 p.m. Tuesday in a large swath of NEPA surrounding Lackawanna County had the worst air quality in the United States for fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke, according to AirNow.gov.
The Times-Tribune on Wednesday asked the DEP why NEPA was excluded from the Code Orange alert.
In an emailed reply Thursday from DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly, the agency said it based its Code Orange on a forecast system that, by default, only covers those four most populous areas of the state that are routinely monitored for ozone and fine particulate matter.
During summer, forecasts for ozone only are done in those four most-populous areas, plus eight additional areas: Altoona, Erie, Indiana, Johnstown, Mercer County, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, State College and Williamsport.
Generally, fine particulate matter in air is a winter-season problem. The DEP has not developed forecasts for particulate matter for NEPA because this pollutant generally is not an issue in the state or during summer months.
“The forecasting system DEP uses will be looked at after this event to see what we can modernize,” the agency said. “Events like wildfire smoke are relatively infrequent and when they do occur rarely have this level of impact.”
“The meteorological situation was nearly perfect to funnel high levels of wildfire smoke directly down the eastern seaboard of the United States. The models that are used to predict smoke impacts underestimated the impacts actually seen on the monitors on the ground,” the DEP explanation continued. “The state forecast team will be reevaluating how forecasts are issued, what areas are covered and which parameters have forecasts developed.”
AirNow’s “Air Quality Index,” which is publicly accessible on AirNow.gov, cites the Pennsylvania DEP as the source of the real-time data of air pollution found on that website.
In a follow-up question, The Times-Tribune asked the DEP why it used its forecast regions and models to craft its Code Orange Alert, but not its own real-time data posted on AirNow.gov.
The agency responded that it does not forecast for particulate matter at all for NEPA because it is not typically a problem there.
“For Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, DEP has an ‘ozone only’ forecast process in place. Not PM (particulate matter),” the DEP replied. “Going into Tuesday,” a monitor in Scranton detected fine particulate matter in the air, “however, we do not have a protocol in place to issue this forecast from that model. We are working on one.”
“That forecast process was modified Tuesday night going into Wednesday due to the severity of the episode and to communicate what was happening properly to the public and the DEP was able to forecast and thus issue a Code Red for the entire state,” the agency said.
That Code Red, the DEP’s severest alert, was issued Wednesday for the entire state, advising all residents to limit outdoor activities, especially older people, children, those active outdoors and those with lung or respiratory conditions, such as asthma, emphysema or bronchitis.