A new report by the American Lung Association shows various cities in Arkansas have more room for improvement when it comes to air quality.
The annual State of the Air report released Wednesday shows Little Rock ranks 75th among cities in the U.S. in terms of ground-level ozone pollution.
Laura Turner, senior manager of advocacy for the American Lung Association, says Little Rock did see some improvement in its ranking for both short-term and year-round particle pollution.
“That can be a lot of things; it could be dust, [it] can be pollen and mold, acid droplets, chemicals, metallic compounds, soil and dust, smoke and soot,” Turner said. “So it’s not just pollution from power plants or anything like that, it can be lots of different sources.”
According to the report, eight of the 11 Arkansas counties which report air quality data were included in a list of “cleanest counties” for particle pollution. Among those are Garland, Ashley and Arkansas counties. Fayetteville and Washington County ranked especially well in terms of air pollution, with the city having zero unhealthy air quality days in the last year for the 12th consecutive report.
According to the report, Little Rock’s ranking for short-term particle pollution improved, with the city ranked at 118th nationwide. Turner says cities across the country are making progress on minimizing air pollution, largely due to the efforts of federal environmental regulators.
“When we’re talking to the EPA… we’re so happy that they’re looking at their measures and taking public comments,” she said. “We want to see those limits be stronger so that it can protect more people, especially these vulnerable people. Because even one unhealthy air day of ozone or particle pollution can be damaging to our lungs.”
Turner says state and local governments should seek to leverage funds from the federal Inflation Reduction Act to help tackle pollution.
“I think that’s a pretty simple ask because there’s money for the having to improve infrastructure that could be how you can improve air quality monitoring… there’s not a whole lot of monitors, and it kind of makes you wonder what we might find and how we could improve even better,” she said.
Turner says federal funds could also be used to boost zero-emission vehicle infrastructure which hopefully leads to more widespread adoption. The full report can be viewed online.
