Maricopa County residents and businesses will now be able to
receive real-time text alerts when dust pollution reaches levels
that are potentially dangerous. The Rapid Response Notification
System was launched on Wednesday by the Maricopa County Air
Quality Department and is intended to both warn residents of
health hazards and to prompt people to take action to reduce the
amount of dust in the air. The system uses the existing 12
monitors located around the Valley to measure the particles, but
with new software it is able to send air quality data to the
department every five minutes. Now officials will be able to
take action the moment a problem is identified. The need for
such a system became evident after party-goers in south Phoenix
stirred up enough dust to cause one monitor to register levels
above those allowed by federal standards. The party was on a
Saturday night and the violation was not discovered until
Monday. “We’d like to move forward and avoid this happening
again,” said Holly Ward, public rel