I stumbled upon a section of the EPA’s website where you receive an entire rundown of the county you live in. I will go through the air and water quality of Portage County.
Air quality in Portage County
The Air Quality Index (AQI) reports daily air quality. This tells you how well your air is doing in your area. It also measures health effects you might face during the day.
According to EPA.gov, the quality average for the county has a rating of “good.” From 2012 to 2015, 66.7% of the days have had this rating. The other 33.3 % have received a rating of “moderate.”
Water Quality
Water quality monitoring is an aspect to protecting water resources. State, Tribal, and Federal agencies must monitor lakes, streams, rivers, and other types of water bodies to determine the quality of the water.
In Kent, the public drinking water is considered “good,” but the recreational use water has not been tested. As for the aquatic life use, well, it’s not the same situation.
The use of this water has been determined as “impaired.” According to EPA.gov, the reason is due to, “Direct Habitat Alterations, Flow Alteration(s), Natural Limits (Wetlands), Organic Enrichment/Low Dissolved Oxygen, Sedimentation/Siltation and Unknown Toxicity.”
The human health use is also impaired. The cause of this is marked as, “cause unknown.”
Both of these sections of the county’s resume seem pretty good for the people who live there. The website also states that the most greenhouse gasses come from power plants; most of the county’s energy comes from natural gas and the county has a 2.00 Radon Zone.
