PALO VERDE, Ariz. — Emergency sirens designed to alert nearby residents of a problem at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 50 miles west of Phoenix are set for a regular test.
The 70 sirens located within a ten-mile radius of the plant near Wintersburg will sound for three minutes at noon on Wednesday and again at 12:30 p.m. Maricopa County will also test a system that send alerts to cell phones in the area once at 12:15 p.m.
The sirens and cell phone alerts notify people near the plant that they need to turn on their radios or televisions to get news and instructions on how to respond.
The station sent out similar alerts to nearby residents back in 2019. The alert stated: "THIS IS A TEST OF MARICOPA COUNTY WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM. NO ACTION IS REQUIRED."
Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.
The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).
One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.
The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.
The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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