Ewa Gentry less smoky on New Year's

Advertiser Staff

A Honolulu engineering and scientific consulting firm that monitors New Year's Eve air quality said fireworks smoke over the Ewa Gentry area decreased 60 percent this year.

But the company, Oceanit, said there was a large increase in smoke over Hawai'i Kai. The increase was attributed to families moving into that area.

Oceanit has only two monitoring stations.

Oceanit said smoke at both locations peaked at 2 a.m. Jan. 1 and returned to normal levels by 7 a.m.

State health officials, who monitor air quality at five locations statewide, said last week that federal clean-air violations were not violated. Only one of the state's monitoring stations — at the Kapolei Business Park — showed an increase over the previous year.