The latest data on the First State’s air quality shows mixed results.
This year’s “State of the Air” report from the American Lung Association finds all three Delaware counties to have had fewer unhealthy days of high ozone compared to the previous year’s report.
But it counts Kent and New Castle Counties as part of the Philadelphia Metro Region which was ranked as the 17th most polluted city in the nation for particle pollution and as the 21st most polluted with ozone smog.
The American Lung Association Director of Environmental Health Kevin Stewart points out much of the air pollution in the First State is not created locally.
“It’s downwind from a major source of air pollution that it really can’t do a whole lot about. In other words, it’s the victim of being downwind of big polluters.”
Delaware filed four petitions to reduce emissions from upwind state power plants in West Virginia and Pennsylvania in 2016 that were ultimately rejected by the EPA.
The Lung Association continues to give the southern part of Delaware higher marks. The Salisbury-Cambridge metro area, which includes Sussex County, continues to be on the list of cleanest areas in the nation, while the Philadelphia metro area ranked 39th worst.
The worst marks in the state went to New Castle County, which got a “C” in particle pollution and an “F” in ozone smog.
