For around 17 years, Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality has collaborated with communities to sustain its Air Quality Flag Program.
Whether it be for health reasons or to do their part in reducing pollution, program coordinator and air quality meteorologist Michael Graves said the program provides an easy way for community members to keep track of the air quality.
“We have updated webpage and online resources,” said Graves. “And that also includes a toolkit for schools and organizations not in those Flag Program boundaries. And it offers air quality-related guidance to help them.”
Organizations like nonprofits and places like state parks can be part of the flag programs, but Graves said schools are their most common participants.
“We have updated webpage and online resources,” Graves said. “And that also includes a toolkit for schools and organizations not in those Flag Program boundaries. And it offers air quality-related guidance to help them.”
He said they’ve replaced their red flag with an orange one to indicate a high pollution advisory.
“Originally we had four flags: Green, yellow, orange and red. And so we have a new physical flag design based on a ‘green, yellow, orange’ system. The green and yellow flags haven't changed much. They just say ‘good’ and ‘moderate,’ respectively. The orange flag now says ‘high pollution advisory.’”
Graves said they’re dropping the red flag because of how little it was used during the school year.
“We also have a new digital flag option for schools that might want to display their flags on marquees,” said Graves. We will provide the official images for that and also text that schools can use if they have marquees that only display text.”
With these new changes, he said, he’s anticipating that more schools will join.
