La Salle air monitor from Carus may be operable in a few weeks

The air monitor provided to the city of La Salle in July by Carus LLC may be fully operable in a few weeks, said Alderman Joe Jeppson on Monday.

Jeppson provided an update on the air monitor at Monday’s La Salle City Council meeting.

“We’ve come to the conclusion we have some faulty hardware and it’s being replaced or being sent back,” Jeppson said. “It’s on back order it will be here in two to three weeks, four weeks at the most.”

The monitor was donated by Carus in response to residents asking about the potential environmental impact following the company’s Jan. 11 fire at its La Salle plant.

Carus paid for three years of WiFi to allow public access to the air monitor, through a web hosting service.

Volunteers from the Sierra Club had advised residents to pursue an air monitor to measure for possible air pollution. A review of continuous monitoring from the air monitor at La Salle Public Library indicated a significant increase in three-hour averages the day of the fire and slowly increasing levels as Carus brought its processes back online, said Denise Trabbic-Pointer, a certified hazardous materials manager volunteering her time in La Salle, at a previous council meeting. Pointer indicated these findings should warrant further testing.

“Carus has heard these concerns and wants to offer our neighbor’s further reassurance that emissions from our operations are not polluting the environment or the air around their homes by donating an air quality monitor to the city,” said Richard Landtiser, vice president of innovation, technology, and environmental health and safety at Carus in a July news release.

The air monitor was one of the requests from residents to Carus. After meeting with aldermen Bob Thompson and Jordan Crane, Carus decided to donate an air monitor and set up a task force made up of residents, city officials and Carus administrators to come up with a plan in the event of another emergency.

La Salle also has an air monitor located at the public library at 305 Marquette St.