18-051 DOH_Air Quality Guidelines for Hawaii County NR FINAL

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In addition to the DOH and EPA monitors, the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and South Coast Air Quality Management District in California also provided expert staff, equipment and monitors to this network. There are 15 new monitoring stations in place, which brings the total network to 34 monitoring stations. Monitors track sulfur dioxide (SO), hydrogen 2 sulfide (HS) and particulate matter. Most monitors are placed around the active fissure area, 2 but there are also monitors in the southern and western areas of the island. The monitors provide real-time data on SO and HS levels. The public viewer shows a map of 22 the monitoring stations color-coded based on the average concentration of all data received over 30 minutes and is updated every time a new reading is received. The color air monitoring stations will change depending on the level of health risk. Blue indicates gas levels are healthy, orange indicates moderate levels, and red indicates unhealthy conditions. To learn more about Hawaii County’s evacuation guidance on hazardous gas exposure, visit: http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/lava-related/#ToxicGasPolicy. To sign up for alerts from Hawaii County, visit https://countyofhawaii.bbcportal.com/. All alerts are posted at http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/active-alerts. Additional county resources are available at http://www.hawaiicounty.gov/lava-related/. In addition to existing real-time and historic air quality data, the new SO and HS data can be 22 accessed on the Interagency Vog Dashboard at https://vog.ivhhn.org/current-air-quality or by going directly to www.epa.gov/kilaueaairdata. # # # Media Contacts: Janice Okubo Communications Director Hawaii Department of Health (808) 586-4445 janice.okubo@doh.hawaii.gov Nahal Mogharabi Press Officer U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1 (213) 514-4361 mogharabi.nahal@epa.gov