EPA Study Finds Air Pollution Dropping in Illinois

A report out by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds that pollution levels stayed the same and even improved throughout the state.

The agency gathered data from 80 monitoring sites across the state, and concluded that air quality was good or moderate 96 percent of the time in 2009. The study focused on an array of pollutants, including toxins, soot, and dust. There were 13 days last year when air quality was considered unhealthy for sensitive groups in certain areas, compared to 14 days in 2008. EPA Spokesperson Maggie Carson said pollution tends to be a larger problem in more congested cities, like Chicago and the St. Louis Metro East area. She said there weren't any major red flags raised about the air quality in Central Illinois.

"Central Illinois generally has pretty good air quality," she said. "We're blessed by a lot of white collar, a lot of agriculture (jobs), and neither of these contributes tremendously to air quality problems."

According to the report, The Quad Cities has the lowest level of pollution with good air quality 86 percent of the time in 2009. Other communities to follow include Peoria, Champaign, Normal, and Decatur, which had good air quality more than 78 percent during the same period.

Still, Carson said there are still environmental challenges that the state has to overcome.

"As long as we have industry, as long as we have cars burning gasoline on our roads, we're going to have air quality issues that we're going to have to deal with," she said. "It's just a fact of life in modern American and in this state.