Gov't to beef up air quality monitoring during Olympic Games
By Kim Se-jeong
The Ministry of Environment will bolster its air pollution monitoring efforts for Gangwon Province during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The ministry said a special monitoring mission will kick off on Feb. 15 until the end of March. The world’s largest Winter Olympics events are scheduled to run from Feb. 9 through March 18.
The Gangwon region is considered relatively safer than the western region when it comes to air pollution but the authorities said the efforts would be needed to provide approximately 50,000 people expected to visit PyeongChang during the games with accurate information. Korea’s bad air quality has been heralded in the news internationally.
The biggest part of these efforts is to deploy mobile air pollution measuring devices to four major points across the Olympic venues ― Olympic Stadium, athletes’ village, Jeongseon Alpine Skiing Center and Phoenix Snow Park ― where big crowds are expected.
One additional unit will be set up at the Yeongdong coal power plant, located approximately 30 kilometers east of the stadium, which is considered one of the major pollution sources in the region and the monitoring team will run round-the-clock particulate matter inspections during the games. The authorities are anticipating lower particulate matter levels near the power plant, as its operation decreased by half starting from Jan. 1, as ordered by law last year.
The monitoring team will also mobilize images from the ocean and outer space measuring devices to inspect all major air pollution sources in the region The ministry said a special monitoring mission will kick off on Feb. 15 until the end of March. The world’s largest Winter Olympics events are scheduled to run from Feb. 9 through March 18. besides the coal power plant, PyeongChang and Gangneung have several cement manufacturing plants which are considered major dust sources.
The Korea Meteorological Administration’s mini super computer will also be mobilized to produce a high resolution air quality model for the Gangwon region.
When the pollution levels reach a dangerous level, the authorities said it will halt vehicle operation and construction work. The air pollution information will be available on weather.go.kr and airkorea.or.kr.