New Milford Partners with School to Monitor Air Quality

NEW MILFORD, CT — The town will be partnering with Canterbury School to monitor the local air quality, Mayor Pete Bass has announced.

New Milford and the school are purchasing a machine to measure, monitor and record the air quality before and after the Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVEC) goes online.

On Facebook, the mayor said the move was a response to the concern expressed by several residents over the air quality once the plant is operational.

The plant, being constructed in Dover Plains, NY, will be a 1.1 gigawatt natural gas-fired power plant which the company expects to be the most efficient combined cycle power plant in the state, according to their website. The ground-breaking ceremony for the $1.58 billion project took place in June 2017, and commissioning is expected in the first quarter of 2020.

In his post, the mayor says the town and the school will be using "a AQY 1 or a similar monitoring device," referencing a toaster-sized machine manufactured by Aeroqual in New Zealand. The AQY1 measures particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide, which are the three main pollutants in most cities, and the pollutants known to have the greatest impact on the people who live in them.

Authorities have no doubt that CVEC will add pollutants into the air, but the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection predicts the amount will be within federal guidelines.