Record Heat, Dirty Air Alerts For Milwaukee This Year

I routinely post the DNR's after-the-fact ozone warnings - - a sample is here:

Advisory for Ozone (Orange)

Start Time:	4:00PM CT Monday, July 2, 2012
End Time:	1:00AM CT Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Counties:	Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine

and I note that the Journal Sentinel has summed them up, too:

Despite declining pollution levels, Milwaukee County has had the highest number of ozone advisories this year since 2000, according to state figures.

The warnings also have jumped for counties along the Lake Michigan shoreline, where ozone levels tend to be their highest, Department of Natural Resources data show.

The spike in ground-level ozone, or smog, poses special problems for people with lung disease, children and older adults, but also for healthy people who are active outdoors.

Now let's have the editorial board begin a campaign to have the DNR re-establish the dirty air early warnings that Walker ended a few weeks after he became Governor, so that people with lung diseases have a fighting chance to avoid the smog and particulates and ozone before their conditions are exacerbated.

From DNR records quoted in a March, 2011 posting here:

One of two notification systems - - the "watch," akin to weather "watches" that precede storm warnings, is being ended, says the agency in an email - - so if you have asthma, for example, you won't know the air conditions are favorable to constrict your breathing until you are already on your way to your desination.

Surprise!

Remember that Pat Stevens, a lawyer who worked for the road-builders, home-builders and the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce,  is now managing the agency's air quality section.

This is the email text sent Friday morning, and it comes on the heels of another cutback at the DNR to make business happy - - reducing OWI enforcement on snowmobilers in the North Woods:

From:

"Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources"

 

To:

As of March 15, 2011, the Wisconsin DNR will no longer issue Air Quality Watches for ozone and particle pollution due to limited staff resources and the potential increase in the number of air quality notices under proposed revisions to federal air standards.

In the past, an air quality watch was issued when conditions were favorable for pollutants to reach unhealthy levels.

Watches are also being eliminated due to their confusion with Air Quality Advisories which are issued when pollution concentrations actually reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups.

Air quality notices are issued as a public service by the DNR in partnership with the National Weather Service. They are not mandated by rule or law.