EGLE adds western Upper Peninsula’s first air monitor

Bryan Lomerson started his morning with two fawns ambling down the gravel road toward an air monitor recently installed in Negaunee Township by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

EGLE environmental technician Brian Lomerson, left, explains the air monitoring system to Drew Yesmunt and Joe Scanlan, both of whom will oversee the site.

 

Lomerson, an environmental technician at EGLE for 20 years, finds the wildlife and solitude a benefit of working at the site. “It’s a chance to slow down,” he said.

The air monitor site, one of more than 40 spread throughout the state, is the first serving the western half of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Tucked away in a grove of oak, white spruce and birch trees just outside the Marquette city limits, the gray metal monitor stands about four feet tall and sits atop a raised wooden platform bordered with fencing. It shares space at a dead-end turnaround located on township property.

The air monitor sits nestled in a grove of trees on a remote parcel in Negaunee Township.

 

The fine-particulate monitor in Marquette County will exclusively measure PM2.5, a regulated air pollutant regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through its National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). According to the EPA, particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter can get deep into a person’s lungs and some may even enter the bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (also known as PM2.5) post the greatest health risk.

Because of this, measuring and evaluating PM2.5 is a statewide priority for EGLE, said Susan Kilmer, air monitoring section manager for EGLE’s Air Quality Division (AQD).

“Areas in the Upper Peninsula have experienced wildfire smoke, which contains PM2.5, from western states as well as Canada,” Kilmer said. “Having another PM2.5 monitor in the Upper Peninsula provides another reliable measurement and source about this pollutant.”

Brian Lomerson shows off the inner mechanics of the Western Upper Peninsula’s first air monitor.

 

Data from the new monitor will post in near real-time to both EPA’s Air Now website, as well as DEQMIAIR.org. Citizens can directly access this information, sign up for notifications and make informed decisions about outdoor activities, Kilmer said.

Air quality analysts will track the monitor and related equipment that currently provides immediate notifications of system issues, such as a power failure or problems with air flow, temperature or the control board. The monitor collects data continuously, with software asking for new concentrations every 10 seconds.

The $30,000 monitor was funded by a federal direct award through the American Rescue Plan Act, which provides grant opportunities to upgrade equipment and establish new monitoring sites. After consulting with local environmental groups, the monitor was installed in Negaunee Township because of its location in the most populated county in the Upper Peninsula and proximity to the cities of Ishpeming and Marquette.

The Upper Peninsula’s only other air monitor is located at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge, which is one of EGLE’s rural background sites.

“Citizens have asked for more air monitoring in the UP for many years,” Kilmer said.

Former Marquette AQD district staffer Lauren Luce coordinated with township officials to make the air monitor station a reality. EGLE analyst Joe Scanlan will oversee the site with environmental engineer Drew Yesmunt, both of whom volunteered for the assignment. In fact, Scanlan helped scout the new monitor’s location. As a former planner for the nearby Negaunee Township, he was familiar with the landscape.

“This was my choice,” Scanlan said. “I’m pretty stoked about this spot.”

While smoke has been a recurrent issue in the Upper Peninsula, timing of the monitor installation appears fortuitous, coming on the heels of an unprecedented wildfire smoke event that choked the state for a good part of last summer.

“We know that the western UP typically gets hit harder than the rest of the state when smoke comes in from the northwest,” said Jim Haywood, senior meteorologist for the Air Quality Division at EGLE. “Until now, we’ve had to rely on what forecasters in Wisconsin and Minnesota were telling us via their monitors, as they would get hit first.

“With the new monitor and forecast region, we’ll have a better idea if smoke is impacting the western UP or not. We were flying blind in that area not knowing if incoming smoke was elevated or reaching the ground. Now we know without guessing and forecast accordingly.”

While there are no plans at this time for additional regulatory monitors in the UP, there may be opportunities for additional low-cost sensors, such as Purple Air monitors that measure continuous PM2.5. These sensors are not used for environmental compliance with NAAQS, but can provide citizens with real-time local data, Kilmer said.

EGLE plans to add a regulatory air monitoring site in both north Detroit and east Detroit in 2024-25. And with a recent change to the PM2.5 NAAQS, EGLE is required to add an additional site in Lansing by January 2027.

The new Negaunee site should prove low maintenance for site operators, who will conduct monthly in-person verification of the monitor’s accuracy.

“But we’re in the UP,” Lomerson said. “There’s weather to deal with, snow to remove, other components to our polling system that could have issues. There are many other opportunities for extra visits.”