MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (WDVM) — United States Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced a new monitoring program for air quality in West Virginia.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday a $446,716 grant for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection particulate matter 2.5 monitoring program. The program will help monitor and evaluate the air quality in the state.
“Monitoring in different regions of the state to see if maybe certain parts of the state are more highly affected by certain industries and certain manufacturing,” Capito said.
“Certainly in the eastern panhandle there is a lot of economic activity, there is a lot more traffic sometimes going up through I-81 so having this monitoring will help determine what kind of matter we have in our air and how we might address those problems,” Capito also said.
Senator Capito said the funds will reach the eastern panhandle. Other areas of air quality like “indoor air” are also part of the mission. “For our sanitarians, the ones that go out to inspect facilities and places like that they regulate to make sure everyone is following our indoor air regulations, make sure its good air quality for patrons, air businesses inside as well as about 20 feet outside of entrances windows vents and things like that,” Robert Deener said, an epidemiologist for Berkeley county health department.
With this grant, the monitoring system will help ensure that air quality in West Virginia stays as clean as possible.