Lincoln health department says weekend air quality readings were wrong

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department on Monday announced that incorrect high Air Quality Index values for the Lincoln area were reported this weekend.

Officials said this is due to a malfunctioning air monitor that measures ground-level ozone.

“Ground-level ozone is a pollutant that is not emitted directly by any equipment or processes,” Gary Bergstrom, the department’s Air Quality Section supervisor, said in a press release. “It is a pollutant that is formed through a chemical reaction in the atmosphere. It typically requires significant heat and sunlight to reach unhealthy levels, and weather conditions in the Lincoln area were not favorable to produce such high ozone values. An error code on the malfunctioning monitor indicated to us that the data produced by the monitor on Saturday and Sunday was not reliable.”

Bergstrom said that ozone readings from monitors in Omaha showed good air quality throughout the weekend and that Lincoln’s ozone levels were likely similar.

The health department took the malfunctioning monitor offline for maintenance and replaced it with a backup monitor.

The monitor taken offline will undergo a full series of tests before being returned to service, officials said.

Although the problem with the monitor was addressed, Bergstrom explained that there was a substantial time lag before corrected data was reflected on your phone or computer.

As a result, outdated or inaccurate AQI readings may have remained visible to the public for some time after the problem was fixed.

Bergstrom said that such monitor errors are very rare.

The AQI for Lincoln is updated hourly and is available at airnow.gov.