Rock County’s Public Health Department has begun monitoring air quality around Beloit and Janesville.
Health Department Director Katrina Harwood says the county has set up new air monitors around to collect 24-hour data on the air quality.
She says monitors are set near industrial operations and other areas where the county has heard public concerns about air quality.
One location is at Blackhawk Technical College. That is one of two monitoring locations set up near Alliant Energy’s large, gas-fired power plant in the town of Beloit.
Earlier this year, a group of residents spoke out against a planned expansion at Alliant. Some of them said they worry about the impacts on the air in Beloit. Some other air monitoring locations are near schools in Beloit.
The health department seeks to learn whether air quality could require ongoing monitoring by the Department of Natural Resources using more elaborate systems that analyze a broader range of air pollutants.
You can check out the new air monitors at PurpleAir, a site dedicated to 24-hour monitoring of air quality sensors nationwide.
