The Trump administration has halted air-quality monitoring at every national park in the country, though following media reporting, there are indications the stoppage will now be short-lived. The National Park Service falls under the Interior Department, which issued stop-work orders last week to the two contractors who run the monitoring program, the Washington Post reports, citing an internal email. It notes contractors Air Resource Specialists and Desert Research Institute previously collected data on visibility-reducing haze and harmful air pollutants like ozone and particulate matter at all 63 national parks—data that's considered in a number of ways, including when federal officials decide whether to grant permits to nearby industrial facilities.
"Monitoring data [allows] us to better understand air quality in individual parks while gaining a valuable nationwide perspective on air quality conditions and trends," according to the NPS. News of the pause came after the State Department ended its own air-quality monitoring program, involving embassies and consulates around the world, in March. The NPS and the Interior Department didn't initially respond to a request for comment. But after the Post's report was published Monday, an NPS rep said the stop-work orders would be reversed. Some NPS employees told the Post they'd filed requests to restore the contracts with DOI management and were waiting for a review. A retired NPS official noted most states didn't have the resources to do this kind of air-quality monitoring on their own. (More National Park Service stories.)
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