National Smoke Monitoring and Alert System (Report Recommendation 44)

(a) Establishment The Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, acting through the Director of the National Weather Service, and in conjunction with the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, the Secretary of the Interior, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall establish a nationally consistent smoke monitoring and alert system to provide consistent, real-time information and forecasts on air quality impacts from wildfire smoke, including wildfire smoke in the built environment. (b) Increase in smoke sensors In carrying out subsection (a), to ensure adequate and accessible data, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall increase the availability and use of air monitoring devices for wildfire smoke, including, to distinguish wildfire smoke from other forms of air pollution, increasing the availability and use of— (1) speciation monitors; and (2) nonregulatory air monitors. (c) Use of satellites In carrying out subsection (a), the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall explore the use of satellites. (d) Public county-Resolution smoke alert system for public health and roadways safety In carrying out subsection (a), not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, acting through the Director of the National Weather Service and in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall establish a public county-resolution smoke alert system for public health and roadways safety which shall be based on levels of particulate matter. The system established under this subsection shall be in addition to the National Weather Service Dense Smoke Advisories, which are based on visibility. (e) Collection and dissemination of air quality and smoke alert information In carrying out subsection (a), the Director of the National Weather Service shall collect all air quality forecasts, including through AirNow, public notifications, and alerts for smoke issued by Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial air agencies and disseminate them through weather forecast office networks to enable the Wireless Emergency Alerts System to be extended to support smoke communications to protect public health. (f) Forest Service personnel and smoke monitoring equipment In carrying out subsection (a), not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service, in coordination with the Secretary of the Interior, shall expand the personnel and smoke monitoring equipment of the Forest Service to increase the capacity of the Forest Service to assess wildfire smoke, including wildfire smoke in the built environment, and carry out prescribed fires. (g) Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program personnel and smoke monitoring equipment In carrying out subsection (a), not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior shall expand the personnel (including air resource advisors) of, and smoke monitoring equipment available to, the Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program established under section 1114(f) of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (43 U.S.C. 1748b–1(f)). (h) Expansion of emergency response capacity (1) In general In carrying out subsection (a), the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall expand the emergency response capacity, including personnel and equipment, of the Environmental Protection Agency— (A) to measure air pollution from wildfires that involve combustion of hazardous materials; and (B) to communicate information during smoke events resulting from wildfires. (2) Definition In this subsection, the term hazardous materials means explosive, flammable, combustible, corrosive, oxidizing, toxic, infectious, or radioactive materials that, when involved in an accident and released in sufficient quantities, put some portion of the general public in immediate danger from exposure, contact, inhalation, or ingestion. (i) Improvements to existing systems In carrying out subsection (a), in order to maintain the Environmental Protection Agency AirNow framework and technology as a state-of-the-art, real-time resource for providing robust and actionable information to protect public health from wildfire smoke, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall, as the Administrator determines appropriate, improve and modernize such AirNow framework and technology, including by making improvements to and otherwise modernizing AirNow.gov, AirNow-Tech, the AirNow Environmental Protection Agency and Forest Service Fire and Smoke Map, AirNow Forecast Submittal System, and the AirNow mobile app. (j) Authorization of appropriations There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $32,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2035.