The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has developed a low-cost air-quality sensor that will allow the agency to place more monitors throughout the state.
The DEQ-developed “SensOR” air-quality monitor comes at a cost that is $5,000 to $10,000 cheaper than previous models used in the past.
Its development comes in the wake of several industrial air pollution incidents in recent years, which heightened citizen activism around toxic air from industrial pollution.
Air Quality Monitoring Specialist Zach Koch displays the SenOR, a new low-cost air quality monitoring device created by the Department of Environmental Quality’s Laboratory for use at designated sites across Oregon.
Oregon DEQ
The new monitor uses a light sensor to measure particulate matter that is less than one-twenty-fifth the size of human hair.
“This is really a testament to the resourcefulness and expertise of our lab team. It is due to their hard work and creativity that we are able to provide the public with more accurate data on the quality of the air in their region,” DEQ’s Air Quality Administrator Ali Mirzakhalili said.
Before the development of the SensOR, the DEQ found it difficult to place additional sensors throughout the state, given the high costs of traditional air quality monitors.
In 2017, the same year that Portland residents began pushing for a tougher government response to industrial air pollution, the Oregon Legislature funded an additional 30 monitoring sites for DEQ's Air Quality Index. It's an interactive website that allows the public to check local conditions. The funding prompted the development of a new low-cost sensor.
Tom Roick is the DEQ’s air quality monitoring manager. He said the low costs of the new sensors are allowing the DEQ to place more monitors throughout the state.
“We’re filling in gaps in our network — so we're putting up sensors in places such as the coast and even all the way east, in Ontario in the east side of the state where in the past we haven’t had monitoring data,” Roick said. “The idea is simply to expand and provide more information to the public are particulate concentration across the state.
Scientists in the DEQ's Hillsboro lab spent several months calibrating the SensORs with air quality monitors already in use to ensure the accurate and reliable data.
The SensOR monitors have been placed at eight new Air Quality Index sites in Bend, Brookings, Chiloquin, Coos Bay, Florence, Forest Grove, northeast Portland and Redmond.
The DEQ expects to nearly double the number of air quality monitors within the next year.