Kane County staff told the Energy & Environmental Committee on Aug. 15 that an outdoor air monitor installed at the county building in July is returning data that shows repeated spikes in fine particulate matter and occasional exceedances of federal thresholds. "Since the air monitor has been in place, there's been...days above 100," said Sam Bilgin, the staff presenter, describing recent PM2.5 readings.

Nut graf: County staff and a public commenter said much of the summer's poor air quality coincided with smoke from Canadian wildfires, and committee members asked staff to explicitly note wildfire attribution in future materials. "On 06/28/2023 and 06/29/2023...I couldn't even breathe," said David Young, a public commenter, adding that those dates were driven by Canadian wildfires.

The presentation summarized air-quality indicators tracked under federal standards: ground-level ozone (threshold cited as 0.07 parts per million) and fine particulate matter PM2.5 (threshold cited as 35.4 micrograms per cubic meter). Bilgin said the county's monitor has logged elevated PM2.5 on multiple days and that the county stations used for official EPA reporting previously sampled every third day but now sample daily. The monitor's display is mounted near the building entrance and the county posts updates and guidance on evacuation-of-outdoor-activity thresholds; staff said they will post Instagram alerts and link to Health Department guidance when AQI reaches unhealthy levels.

Speakers and members discussed interpretation and reporting. Bilgin and other staff said wildfire smoke has been a major factor in summer spikes; David Young and committee members asked staff to add explicit notation of wildfire contribution to future presentations. A committee member noted that the Chicago metropolitan area is designated a nonattainment area under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and that wildfire smoke can interact with existing local pollution to raise peak concentrations.

Technical and outreach details cited in the meeting: the county monitor reports PM2.5 and CO2, and provides indoor/outdoor comparisons; county staff described an online QR code and links to real-time data (IQAir and AirNow) for residents to follow the monitor. Bilgin gave historical counts from the station network, saying there were roughly "around 40 something days where the ozone was above that 0.07" and that, since February 2015, the presentation showed "67 days above 100" (PM2.5/AQI metric) across the range of monitoring days.

Directions and next steps captured at the meeting included: staff will add clearer attribution to slides (wildfire vs. local sources) and will publish or link the monitor's live feed on county web pages and social channels; staff will continue to check the monitor and to post guidance when AQI is unhealthy. Committee members requested follow-up from IEPA data and clarification about whether state or federal reports explicitly attribute spikes to wildfires.

Ending: Staff encouraged residents to check the county's monitor feed and the Health Department for guidance on protecting health during poor-air days; the committee requested that future presentations clearly indicate where and when wildfire smoke dominated readings rather than leaving those peaks unattributed.