DEP: Equipment malfunction in Beaver Falls resulted in erroneous air quality readings

MONACA, Pa. (KDKA) - Many people in Beaver County woke up Friday morning to alerts on their phones about poor air quality. This caused a lot of concern, especially for sensitive groups like the elderly and asthmatic.

People were extremely worried after waking up to red color air quality maps and numbers 400 and higher, which means hazardous conditions.

KDKA later learned from the Allegheny County Health Department and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that there was nothing to be alarmed about.

The Pittsburgh region ranks high in having the worst air quality in the world. Pollution from industry and traffic is tough on lungs and Pittsburgh's topography makes it worse.

So when people woke up Friday morning to an angry-colored map and air quality numbers in the hundreds, it sent them into a panic.

"We got a lot of industry down here, a lot of plants, a lot of emissions that are still being pumped into the air here," said Ed Pociernicki of Raccoon Township. "We got the sun radiation and the airplanes dropping their stuff. None of it's good."

The Allegheny County Health Department released a statement on Twitter, saying many apps try to predict what PM2.5 levels will be as the day goes on. 

"When the levels are increasing, the apps show a higher PM2.5 level for the rest of the day," the health department said. "When there is a weather inversion, the apps over predict PM2.5 levels until late morning. Allegheny County monitors measure air quality hourly. They do not predict readings."

When the county health department tweeted Friday morning, it said its monitors had been measuring "good" to "moderate" air quality levels for PM2.5, SO2 and ozone.

The DEP sent KDKA a statement saying the erroneous air quality readings were because of an equipment malfunction at the DEP's Beaver Falls monitoring station.

The issue was with a monitor for PM10 but has been corrected, the DEP said, adding other air monitors across the area were reading between 10 and 20 micrograms per cubic meter of PM10, which would be considered in the "good" air quality range.  

While improving air quality is still a work in progress, the health department and DEP are working to make more information available to people who are affected by poor air quality.

"My mother has asthma," said Erik Schaeffer from Shippingport. "During the spring season, it was a lot worse for her to breathe around here to the point we didn't have her come out to Monaca."