Global Clean Air

New science to help policymakers address unequal impacts of air pollution

By Maria Harris / Published: November 13, 2023
NO2 pollution in the United States and the extent to which tools capture differences in exposure by marginalized groups

This graphic maps nitrogen dioxide pollution levels in the United States as quantified by satellite, monitor and model data sources (left) and shows how these datasets differ in estimating inequities in pollution exposure (right)

What’s new: EDF and partners have just published new research that explores how novel data sources, including satellites and computer models, can help improve our ability to map, identify, track and reduce disparities in air pollution exposure and health impacts.

What we know: Air pollution in the United States has declined dramatically over the last several decades, thanks to strong, protective clean air policies. And yet, unjust disparities in pollution exposure remain, with people of color in the United States burdened by higher levels of health-harming pollution than white people, regardless of income. One root cause of this pollution inequity is historic disinvestment in communities of color through racist policies like redlining, along with discriminatory siting of highways and polluting industrial facilities.

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a key health-harming pollutant emitted by trucks, cars and industrial facilities, can vary substantially at fine spatial scales – even from one end of a block to the other. For example, an EDF study in West Oakland, California found that NO2 levels could be up to four times higher in areas of the neighborhood close to truck traffic and other pollution sources.

Research and policy decision-making has historically relied on NO2 measurements from government regulatory monitors—complex and expensive stationary instruments that must meet rigorous standards. Data from these monitors helps the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identify areas where air pollution levels exceed Clean Air Act health standards and guides actions to reduce pollution. However, given how much NO2 concentrations can vary across small distances, it is unlikely we will ever deploy enough of these monitors to enable a full understanding of exposure disparities that exist between population groups.

What this research adds: New datasets, including satellite data, statistical models and photochemical models, can estimate NO2 at a relatively high spatial resolution and across the entire United States. Our new research compared estimates of NO2 levels and racial/ethnic exposure disparities using these novel data sources to estimates based on traditional data from the US EPA regulatory monitoring network.

The new NO2 data sources showed that Black, Hispanic, Asian and multiracial Americans experienced average NO2 levels that were 15-50% higher than those experienced by the US population in 2019. Meanwhile, the non-Hispanic white population experienced levels that were 5-15% lower. In contrast, data from the regulatory monitors indicated more moderate patterns of racial/ethnic disparities, suggesting that the regulatory network does not currently provide a full understanding of inequity in pollution exposure.

NO2
dataset*

How it can contribute to better policies and enforcement
Regulatory Monitors • Monitoring attainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards
• Ground-truthing satellite and model datasets
Satellites • Guiding placement of future regulatory monitors or measurement campaigns
• Identifying potential pollution
Photochemical and statistical models • Tracking and reporting trends over time in pollution disparities
• Estimating NO2-attributable disease burdens and associated disparities
• Quantifying source sector contributions to ambient NO2 (Photochemical models)

Moving forward: This research demonstrates that policymakers and regulators will need to incorporate new sources of data beyond the existing regulatory monitoring network to accurately understand which policies are or could be most effective in helping close the racial-ethnic gap in air pollution exposure.

The table above outlines how satellite and modeling data can complement existing sources. Satellite data can be leveraged to identify pollution hotspots currently not measured by regulatory monitors, which could guide placement of new government monitors and investigations of potential emissions sources. Air pollution models can enable tracking and reporting of pollution disparity trends over time   and make it easier to quantify health impacts.

Integrating these new data sources into regulatory decision-making would improve the coverage of the regulatory monitoring network, enable a more complete understanding of inequities in air pollution exposure and inform policies aimed at mitigating this environmental injustice.

Maria Harris in a Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Learn more about her work here. 

*Table adapted from Table 1 in Kerr et al. 2023

Also posted in Academic, Environmental Justice, Government Official/Policymaker, Homepage, Monitoring, Public Health/Environmental Official, Science / Comments are closed

Environmental justice groups bring Air Tracker to cities in Alabama and California

By Alex Franco / Published: December 12, 2022

EDF’s Air Tracker pollution monitoring tool is now live in two new cities—Birmingham, AL, and Vallejo, CA—as local groups ramp up efforts to understand how industrial activity impacts community air quality and engage both the public and area regulators. 

Who’s using it: GASP, also known as the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, is working to learn more about the impacts of local steel, coke and cement facilities to inform public comments on Clean Air Act Title V permit renewals for these facilities. They also want to use the tool to alert regulators and inspectors of acute pollution events. 

In Vallejo, the Citizen Air Monitoring Network (VCAMN) is actively monitoring particulate matter and wants to use Air Tracker to identify potential pollution sources. The local community is surrounded by a Phillips 66 refinery, NuStar Energy tank farm, Selby toxic slag site and the I-80 interstate highway. Multiple heavy and medium industrial sites—including a wastewater treatment plant, a quarry, a concrete recycling plant and a dry dock for ship maintenance and repair—also reside within the city boundaries.  

“The Air Tracker tool from EDF is an incredible resource for small, local groups like GASP,” said GASP Executive Director Michael Hansen. “We can use it to gather information and form testable hypotheses about air quality issues in the communities we serve. We’re so grateful for the scientists who created the Air Tracker and look forward to using it in our advocacy work.”

Why it matters: We designed Air Tracker in part to help local communities learn about the air they’re breathing and hope to engage with more groups like these before bringing Air Tracker to new areas. 

Go deeper: Learn more about how Air Tracker works, read the blog post about its development or watch a recent Q&A with the team behind it.  

Also posted in Community Organizer, Concerned Citizen, Environmental Justice, Health, Homepage, Partners, Science / Comments are closed

Investigating air pollution inequity at the neighborhood scale

By Maria Harris / Published: November 16, 2022

Air pollution in the United States has declined dramatically over the last several decades, thanks to strong, protective clean air policies. And yet, unjust disparities in pollution exposure remain, with people of color in the United States burdened by higher levels of health-harming pollution than white people, regardless of income.  

One cause of these pollution inequities is the historic legacy of disinvestment in communities of color through racist policies like redlining, along with discriminatory siting of highways and polluting industrial facilities. This results in health disparities and higher vulnerability to the health impacts of air pollution for people who live, work and play in close proximity to its sources. 

Neighborhood-scale air quality data can provide a clearer picture of air pollution’s impacts 

Air quality is often evaluated at the city or county scale, but pollution levels vary at a much finer scale, as do the demographics of neighborhoods shaped by residential segregation.  

Variability in pollution and demographics across census tracts and blocks in Minneapolis compared to the full extent of Hennepin County, MN.

New legislation recently introduced to Congress would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to advance development of hyperlocal air quality monitoring systems that will provide better, more localized data on pollution hotspots and inequity in pollution exposure. Importantly, the bill calls for monitoring “at a geographic scale that is (i) as small as practicable to identify communities; and (ii) not larger than that of a census tract.”

Why is this issue of geographic scale so important? The scale at which data is collected and analyzed can have major impacts on our understanding of pollution disparities. New research from EDF and partners explored whether it is possible to accurately estimate disparities in exposure to air pollution using larger scale data (for example, county averages) or whether finer scale data (census tract or smaller) is needed. 

We found that for two important health-harming pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), using state and county scale data led to substantial underestimates in US-wide racial/ethnic exposure disparities compared to those based on finer scale data—on average, using country vs. tract data would underestimate national exposure disparities by 20%. 

Within individual cities, while census tract scale data was often adequate to characterize disparities, it was sometimes necessary to use even finer data – as small as a city block— to capture the full magnitude of inequity across neighborhoods.  

This research adds further evidence to support what environmental justice advocates have long been telling policymakers: in order to identify the people and communities most exposed to harmful pollution, we need data and analysis at the scale of individual neighborhoods.  

Data can direct funding to communities with the greatest need 

Air pollution can vary across communities–even from block to block–and more data is needed to understand where air pollution comes from, who it’s impacting and who’s responsible for it. This is critical to reduce disparities in pollution exposures throughout the U.S. 

EPA’s recent announcement of $53m in new funding for community-level air quality monitoring is a powerful step in support of the Justice40 Initiative, a federal commitment calling for our nation’s most overburdened communities to be prioritized for investment and reductions in pollution. Continued advancements in hyperlocal monitoring and analytical methods will help accurately identify those places, track progress and hold our institutions accountable for eliminating inequities in exposure to health-harming pollution. 

Also posted in Environmental Justice, Health, Homepage, Monitoring, Public Health/Environmental Official, Science / Comments are closed

Historic investments in air quality monitoring can give communities a voice in clean air solutions

By Aileen Nowlan / Published: September 8, 2022

The United Nations General Assembly recently declared that access to clean air and a healthy environment is a universal human right, but far too many people live in communities overburdened by pollution. Together, new legislation and a historic investment in clean air present a tremendous opportunity to reduce pollution and improve public health in the U.S. And for the first time, communities have an opportunity to direct their tax dollars to local projects that can improve air quality. 

We have hotspots when it comes to air quality – and they matter  

Air pollution can vary across communities–even from block to block–and additional monitoring can shine a light on pollution hotspots. More data is needed to understand where air pollution comes from, who it’s impacting and who’s responsible for it.  

Exposure to air pollution is not equally experienced, and the health harms fall most heavily on Black and Latino communities. The discriminatory practice of redlining, for example, played a role in determining land use throughout cities. Neighborhoods falsely labeled “definitely declining” or “hazardous” in the 1930s then experienced decades of depressed property values, which allowed polluters to move in.  

Air pollution exposure leads to negative health impacts at every stage of life. New satellite analysis shows places where monitoring isn’t reflecting health burdens, and more data is urgently needed to better understand who is being impacted by air pollution.  

New legislation and investments in air quality 

The newly passed Inflation Reduction Act includes some powerful provisions that could deliver cleaner air to communities, as well as strengthen the impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  

The Inflation Reduction Act includes an historic $296m investment in air monitoring including: 

  • $117.5m: grants for monitoring focused on community air toxics from industrial facilities beside fenceline communities
  • $50m: funds to expand multipollutant regulatory monitoring 
  • $3m: grants focused on air quality sensors in low-income and disadvantaged communities
  • $25m: flexible Clean Air Act grants
  • $50m: air pollution monitoring in schools
  • $18m: U.S. Environemental Protection Agency enforcement to crack down on polluters
  • $32.5m: Council on Environmental Quality data collection 

But that’s not all. For the first time, the federal government is welcoming air insights to influence how additional billions in funds are awarded. 

  • $6b in new funding where air monitoring is an eligible activity to ensure funds are prioritized to disadvantaged communities ($3b for Environmental Justice Block Grants and $3b for Neighborhood access and equity grants) 
  • $5.8b for advanced industrials, prioritized in a way that welcomes air and health insights: “projects which would provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people within the area in which the eligible facility is located” 
  • $15b for greenhouse gas reductions, where disadvantaged communities are to be prioritized, creating an opportunity to include health and equity impacts in the forthcoming prioritization
  • $5b for climate pollution reduction grants, where disadvantaged communities are to be prioritized, creating an opportunity to include health and equity impacts in the forthcoming prioritization 
  • $1.15b in additional funding for non-attainment areas ($400m for clean heavy-duty vehicles and $750m for ports) 

There were also three bills recently introduced that, if passed, would support communities and EPA to better understand the air we breathe: 

  • The “Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act,” introduced by Senator Markey and Representative McEachin, would require EPA to better enable the development and understanding of air pollution, health and equity insights at the community level.  
  • The “Environmental Justice Air Quality Monitoring Act of 2021,” introduced by Senator Markey and Representative Castor, would direct $100m a year to hyperlocal air quality monitoring. It would enable monitoring of criteria air pollutants, hazardous air pollutants and greenhouses gases at a neighborhood scale in order to identify persistent elevated levels of air pollutants in environmental justice communities.
  • The “Public Health Air Quality Act of 2022,” reintroduced by Representative Blunt Rochester and Senator Duckworth, would strengthen air quality monitoring in communities near industrial sources of pollution, require a rapid expansion of the NAAQS or national ambient air monitoring network and deploy at least 1,000 new air quality sensors in communities. 

Community-centered solutions 

There are billions of dollars available, and it’s critical that state and local leaders design good projects that provide communities with data to better understand what’s in their air and advocate for a healthier environment. Solutions to environmental problems must center the communities that are most gravely damaged by pollution. That means a multi-stakeholder, solutions-oriented public engagement process. 

This unprecedented investment in clean air can give communities a voice in their own local air quality solutions. 

Also posted in Community Organizer, Concerned Citizen, Environmental Justice, Government Official/Policymaker, Health, Homepage, Monitoring, Science / Comments are closed

Meet Jim Morris, Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief, Public Health Watch

By lambrogi / Published: July 8, 2022

Jim Morris is the Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Public Health Watch, a nonpartisan investigative news site focused on the prevention of illness, injury and premature death. Public Health Watch’s coverage of health inequities, environmental injustice and the impact of pollution on communities includes this in-depth look at toxic air pollution in Harris County, Texas. 

How did you first get interested in public health?

I got into journalism in 1978, and I became interested in the petrochemical industry while working in Galveston, Texas, near the chemical plants and refineries along the Houston Ship Channel. I spent nine years as an investigative projects reporter with the Houston Chronicle in the 1990s, and that’s where I really decided that this should be the focus of my career: toxic exposures in the workplace and communities. 

I felt like most journalists weren’t paying attention to these issues. When something blew up, of course, that was front-page news. But the rest of the time, workers were dying of cancer, community members were dying prematurely, kids had asthma, and nobody was paying attention. People would say, “That’s just the way it is.” I never thought that should be the way it is. Laws are supposed to protect workers and the public.

You launched Public Health Watch last summer, and your series on air pollution in Texas, and specifically this feature on the fight to hold polluters accountable in Harris County, tells a powerful story about the people exposed to the health harms of air pollution. What are you hoping to accomplish with this site?

There are other nonprofit news outlets that are great at what they do, but we want to go much deeper. We’re not going to run away from a 10,000-word story if we think that’s what it takes to get someone engaged in a topic. Especially for something like air pollution–we’re in a good position to connect the dots and go deeper. 

In the Harris County piece, we connected voter suppression with pollution control, when most wouldn’t necessarily make that connection. The ability to choose your local elected officials really can have an impact on things like environmental enforcement. It’s a cliché, but it’s about trying to go much deeper than the usual “this happened yesterday.”

We’re going to stay focused on this topic of Texas air pollution at least for the rest of this year. We have four to six substantial investigative pieces in the works. This doesn’t include shorter, newsier pieces.  

What role can investigative journalism play in bringing about change for communities most impacted by air pollution?

Well, with this story, we don’t know yet. But just looking at social media–the story was being shared and liked by people we had never heard of before. People from all over the world. It was pretty remarkable and indicated to us that we had struck a nerve or done something beyond the ordinary. And a Texas state representative from Houston said she was “deeply disturbed” by our findings and would propose legislation next year to crack down on polluters.

We’re not expecting miracles here. Rarely do you see immediate impact; I’ve done projects where I’ve found out years later that something I wrote led to a policy change. The more of these stories we do, however, the greater the chances of impact.

What gives you hope?

People like [Harris County Attorney] Christian Menefee and [Harris County Judge] Lina Hidalgo–young elected officials of color who genuinely care about the people in fenceline communities. They’re doing what they can to crack down on chronic air pollution. Those two are genuinely inspiring. If you get enough people like them holding local and, ultimately, state office, that’s when you’ll see real change.

Also posted in Environmental Justice, Health, Houston, Partners, Science / Comments are closed

Stronger national fine particle air pollution standards will provide significant health benefits and reduce disparities

By Ananya Roy / Published: June 22, 2022

This blog is co-authored by Taylor Bacon, Analyst, US Clean Air and Climate; Maria Harris, Senior Scientist; and Mindi DePaola, Program Manager, Office of the Chief Scientist.

A new EDF report finds that strengthening federal protections for fine particle air pollution (PM2.5) to 8 µg/m3 will have large health benefits and reduce air pollution-related health disparities in Black, Hispanic and low-income communities across the United States. That’s because these communities bear the brunt of harm from the nation’s most pervasive and deadly air pollutant.

The report comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under President Biden, is reviewing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particle pollution (PM2.5). The agency is expected to propose a new standard this summer.

Wide disparities in exposure and health effects of air pollution

The analysis by Industrial Economics, Inc. finds that in 2015, PM2.5 resulted in 120,000 premature deaths and 75,000 respiratory emergency room visits. Children and older adults are particularly vulnerable.

Disparities in exposure and resulting health outcomes were substantial across the U.S.:

  • Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans had greater likelihood (84%, 58%, and 113% higher, respectively) than others of living in neighborhoods where air pollution levels were above 10 µg/m3. 
  • Black Americans over age 65 were three times more likely to die from exposure to particulate matter than others.
  • People of color were six times more likely to visit the emergency room for air pollution-triggered childhood asthma than white people.

For decades, communities of color and low wealth have been targeted for environmental hazards that others did not want: power plants, landfills, shipping ports, freeways and factories. The resulting inequities in pollution exposure are further aggravated by longstanding discriminatory disinvestment, poor housing, limited health care, educational and economic opportunities perpetuating health disparities, intergenerational poverty and higher vulnerability to health impacts of air pollution.

The report shines a light on what communities exposed to particle pollution everyday already know: they’re surrounded by pollution sources that are harming their health and shortening lives. 

EPA can set protective standards which will provide health benefits and reduce disparities

In 2020, the Trump administration retained the existing standard for PM2.5 of 12 µg/m3, ignoring a large and growing body of scientific evidence indicating that this standard was not adequate to protect public health. Environmental and health groups petitioned EPA to reconsider this decision, and in the fall of 2021, EPA launched a review of the PM2.5 standards. As part of this review, EPA took stock of the new science since the last review and considered the policy implications of this new research. In their policy assessment, EPA found strong evidence that the current annual standard of 12 µg/m3 does not adequately protect human health and considered alternate standards between 8 and 11 ug/m3. The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), a panel of independent scientists convened to advise EPA, recommended a range of 8-10 µg/m3 for the annual standard.

EDF’s report builds on EPA’s analysis of racial and ethnic disparities in pollution exposure and health impacts under the current and alternative standards, and it supplements EPA’s policy assessment by addressing some of the suggestions made by CASAC for future reviews, including greater attention to risk disparities, expanding the geographic scope of the analysis and considering current PM2.5 levels in estimating the benefit of alternative standards.

The report supports both EPA’s and CASAC’s conclusions that the current standard is not adequate to protect health and finds significantly larger benefits of an 8 μg/m3 annual standard over 10 μg/m3. 

  • Nationally, a standard of 8 µg/m3 would have 3.5 times greater health benefits than a standard of 10 µg/m3 (16,000 premature deaths and 10,000 respiratory emergency room visits avoided at 8 µg/m3 vs. 4,600 premature deaths and 3,000 respiratory emergency room visits avoided at 10 µg/m3).
  • A standard of 8 µg/m3 would go further to reduce inequities in the health burden of air pollution than a standard of 10 µg/m3, particularly between Black and white populations. People experiencing poverty would see 30% higher benefits in terms of reduced mortality compared to higher income communities.

As seen in the figure above, even with strengthened standards, substantial disparities in the health impact of particulate pollution would persist. It is essential that EPA also takes complementary actions that directly tackle environmental injustice.

Fine scale data offers insights on disparities

In their policy analysis of alternative standards, EPA utilized regulatory monitor data and modeling at a scale of 12 km2 to determine exposures to air pollution and benefits of alternate standards in 47 major metropolitan areas. However, outside of cities, there are few regulatory monitors and limited modeling to provide air quality information.

To better understand current PM2.5 exposures and potential health benefits of a stronger pollution limit for every community, we utilized fine scale satellite, land use and emissions-based data that offer a clearer picture of air pollution. We found significant health impacts of PM2.5 not reflected in EPA’s analysis of 47 metro areas: PM2.5 causes an additional 83,000 premature deaths and 49,000 emergency room visits for respiratory diseases. Black people and people experiencing poverty bear a higher burden of air pollution health impacts with similar disparities in both urban and rural areas.

Nearly 40 percent of the lives saved from a stronger standard of 8µg/m3 are outside of the areas evaluated by EPA. Critically, our report finds that communities outside of EPA’s analysis would see limited annual benefits of an alternative standard of 10 µg/m3–420 lives saved–but significant benefits of a standard of 8µg/m3–5,800 lives saved.

The pollution data forming the basis of this analysis have been evaluated using monitoring data, and thus in areas where there is limited monitoring there is lower certainty in the levels estimated (like large areas outside of those evaluated by the EPA). This makes clear the implications of blind spots in air pollution monitoring. Our report indicates a substantial health burden of air pollution in these areas and large benefits from a strong standard of 8µg/m3. This can, however, only be validated and enforced by expansion of regulatory monitoring in these areas.

We have an opportunity to act now

EPA is expected to propose a new standard this summer and will take comments from the public at that time. It is imperative that the proposed standard reflects both EPA’s and the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice in that it adequately protects the people at greatest risk. This report shows that strengthening the National Annual Ambient Air Quality Standard for PM2.5 from 12µg/m3 to 8µg/m3 would go the furthest towards reducing this disproportionate burden of air pollution and is a critical immediate step. 

Editor’s note: This blog was updated on March 23, 2023 to reflect findings from an updated version of the original analysis.

Also posted in Academic, Environmental Justice, Government Official/Policymaker, Health, Public Health/Environmental Official / Comments are closed

Meet Jennifer Hadayia, Executive Director, Air Alliance Houston

By lambrogi / Published: May 25, 2022

Jennifer Hadayia is the Executive Director of Air Alliance Houston, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to reduce the public health impacts from air pollution and advance environmental justice. With nearly 25 years of public health experience, Jennifer leads AAH’s mission and strategies, which include equity-centered research, community-based education and collaborative advocacy.  

 

How did you first get interested in the public health impacts of air pollution?  

I have worked in public health for close to 25 years, and most of that time has been at state and local health departments where I oversaw prevention-focused programs on infectious diseases, chronic disease, and even maternal and child health. I spent a lot of time reading and researching and trying to understand how to help people prevent poor health outcomes.  

Even 25 years later, I still remember the day when my eyes were first opened. I was reading a report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which explained that the number of heart attacks in a community could be predicted by the level of PM2.5 in the air. The impact of air quality on public health was mind-blowing! After years of trying to change individual behavior, it was clear that improving environmental conditions could have a far greater impact on people’s health at a population level.  

Tell us about Air Alliance Houston’s work. 

Air Alliance Houston was formed in the late 1980s as a merger between two groups of residents and parents concerned about smog. We’ve undergone some key evolutions and expansions in the last 30 years to embrace a population health perspective and a focus on environmental justice. Today our mission is to reduce the public health impact of air pollution through research, education, and advocacy.  

We run several campaigns on specific air pollution issues and solutions such as problematic air permits, transportation planning that de-prioritizes Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOVs), connecting air pollution to climate action and community-level air monitoring. But it’s our approach to the work that I think makes us unique: 

  • We inform the narrative about public health and air pollution through an environmental justice lens by uplifting community voices and experiences through participatory research and planning.  
  • We work to build community knowledge and power through the diffusion of accurate information about air pollution, its sources, and how environmental decisions are made in Texas. 
  • We create pathways for impacted and overburdened residents to engage in environmental decision-making and become advocates for their health. 

Is there an upcoming project or initiative that Air Alliance Houston is working on that you’re especially excited about? 

Yes! We’re planning to unveil two new initiatives this year that build on our past advocacy successes, so we can scale our impact even further.  

The first is called AirMail, which is an enterprise mapping system that scrubs air permit applications to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for “bad actors” in Houston’s environmental justice neighborhoods. It then maps the facilities to a public web-based platform and notifies impacted residents via postcard. The map and the postcards explain the air quality impact of the permit (for example, a refinery expansion or a new residential concrete batch plant) and provide actions that residents can take, including connecting to our second new initiative, the Environmental Justice Leadership Lab (EJLL).  

The EJLL is a consolidation of the various training and technical assistance options we provide to community members, so they have the tools and knowledge that they need to speak out against a problematic permit or engage in other environmental decision-making.  

Both of these initiatives have been in the “proof-of-concept” phase, requiring extensive manual time and effort. With the automation of AirMail and the consolidation of our training and technical assistance resources under the EJLL-branded umbrella, we will be able to oppose even more polluters and to empower even more residents.  

Why is clean air important to you personally? 

I was born and raised in Houston. My father and grandfather were dock workers at the Port of Houston, surrounded every day by oil refineries, chemical facilities, tankers and trucks. Growing up, I remember that my father never left the house for work without two things: his cowboy boots and his asthma inhaler. He had debilitating asthma his entire life, and he died young, as did my grandfather, after many years of cancer and heart failure. I don’t think either of them or our family ever made the connection between where they worked and were exposed to poor air quality every day and their poor health and early death.  

Knowing what I do now about air quality and health, I have little doubt there was a connection. I’m deeply proud that I now have the opportunity to work to improve health conditions for Ship Channel families like my own, and to do so with the talented and dedicated staff of clean air advocates at AAH.  

Also posted in Environmental Justice, Health, Homepage, Houston, Monitoring, Partners / Comments are closed

Houston may exceed national standards for harmful fine particulate matter, new monitoring shows

By Fern Uennatornwaranggoon / Published: May 4, 2022

Big Gaps in Air Monitoring 

Air quality in the U.S. has improved tremendously over the last 50 years thanks to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, but not all neighborhoods have benefited from these improvements. The law mandated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and to determine which areas of the country meet the standards and which do not, setting the foundation for air quality management in the U.S. 

Air quality management agencies and EPA rely on data from regulatory monitoring networks that exist across the country. However, these monitoring networks are designed to give region-wide pollution averages, and monitors are often sparsely located. For the 25 largest U.S. urban areas with continuous regulatory monitoring, there are an average of only 2 to 5 monitors per million people. Some of these monitors are intentionally sited away from emissions sources to capture background pollution levels; the trade-off is that they can miss critical pollution hotspots, especially near major sources of pollution. 

This is exactly what happens in Houston, TX. High levels of harmful particulate matter (PM2.5) have for far too long gone undetected. One such area is the Settegast neighborhood, northeast of downtown Houston, where community members have long voiced concern about air pollution from a nearby railyard, concrete batch plants and metal recyclers. Finally, in 2019, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recommended adding a PM2.5 continuous monitor to the Settegast neighborhood at a site on North Wayside Drive to “improve population exposure coverage,” which EPA approved in the same year. At last, the monitor was deployed in May 2021.

Risk of Nonattainment in Houston

Since the deployment, the new monitor has consistently shown some of the highest PM2.5 levels in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) region. The average PM2.5 concentration over the past 11 months exceeds the current annual NAAQS threshold of 12µg/m3, threatening to push the region into nonattainment status for this pollutant. (Table below shows mean concentration = 12.3µg/m3 from May 3, 2021 to March 10, 2022) 

Annual Average PM2.5 Concentrations at Wayside, as of March 20, 2022. Source: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/24hr_annual.pl

The review process currently underway at EPA to reexamine the NAAQS for particulate matter is expected to result in stronger, more health-protective thresholds. It is expected that EPA will make the final ruling on PM NAAQS in Spring 2023, which will trigger a designation process for many areas of the country. A more health-protective standard will make it more difficult for the HGB region to remain in attainment unless actions are taken now to reduce emissions.

A nonattainment designation is costly for a region, both in terms of direct costs of pollution controls and the potential larger economic losses from lower business activities and lost investment opportunities. One analysis estimates that exposure to particle pollution in the nine-county metropolitan Houston area contributed to more than 5,000 premature deaths in 2015 and nearly $50 billion in economic damages.

In addition to the annual trend, the Wayside monitor also shows high short-term spikes in PM2.5 concentrations. So far in 2022, the four peak days of PM2.5 concentrations at this monitor are some of the highest in the HGB region, with peak 24-hour concentrations ranging from 22 to 27µg/m3. (See diagram below. Wayside measurements are shown in yellow dots.)

Four Highest 24-Hour PM2.5 Concentrations in 2022 as of March 20, 2022. Source: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/pm25_24hr_4highest.pl

Where Is Pollution Coming From?

The Wayside monitor sits ~700ft east of the Union Pacific railyard. Traditionally, railyards and the associated locomotives and drayage truck activity are a major source of particulate matter. Other emission sources adjacent to the site include a metal recycler, a concrete batch plant and several nearby truck yards. Flanked between the railyard and North Wayside Drive is a community that includes a large apartment village, a retirement home, a high school and churches. This railyard is also known to have used creosote to preserve wooden ties, which created an underground contaminated plume that has drifted beneath people’s homes.

EDF and partners are developing a tool that would allow us to investigate the sources of emissions that are measured by regulatory monitors like the one on North Wayside. Early data shows high pollution readings that can be traced to multiple industrial locations in that area. Data also shows that on three of the four highest readings in 2022, the source area is to the west of the monitor around the UP railyard. 

What Should We Do?

It behooves the region to come together now to address this issue before a nonattainment designation is made. EDF and others are reaching out to TCEQ, the Houston-Galveston Area Council, industry groups and community organizations to identify best-management practices that could be deployed to help reduce the elevated PM2.5 emissions.

At the request of EDF and community groups, TCEQ now plans to install a speciation monitor at Wayside to better evaluate the sources on an ongoing basis. While a more thorough analysis is needed to reach any conclusions about potential sources, there are near-term actions that can be taken to protect communities’ health and to prevent Houston from exceeding the NAAQS threshold. 

  • TCEQ should be requiring the railyard, local metal recycling and concrete plants to adopt best management practices. For instance, requiring anti-idling devices be installed on locomotives and upgrading to cleaner engines could significantly reduce emissions at the Union Pacific railyard.
  • Increasing anti-idling enforcement on main truck routes and around truck-attracting facilities can also lower truck emissions in the near-term.
  • TCEQ could also require industrial facilities such as metal recyclers to adopt best practices to minimize both primary and fugitive emissions, including adoption of abatement and control equipment.
  • There is a need and opportunity for broad adoption of zero-emission equipment which is readily available and affordable, as costs have come down significantly in the last few years.  

EDF will continue to facilitate discussions among stakeholders on this issue and support efforts to minimize pollution and help position Houston to meet the current–and future–national air standard to protect people’s health.

 

Also posted in Concerned Citizen, Health, Houston, Monitoring, Public Health/Environmental Official, Science, Texas / Comments are closed

Here’s how community groups can receive funding for air monitoring

By Aileen Nowlan / Published: January 14, 2022

Hyperlocal air monitoring is a powerful new tool for communities that want to take charge of their air and the health consequences of pollution. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made $20 million available for a new community air monitoring grant program, with no cost-sharing needed. EPA is encouraging community-based organizations to apply for the grants.

The impact of community-driven monitoring is impressive and growing. Interest in community monitoring is inspired, in part, by gaps in the current monitoring networks operated by federal and state governments:

  • Pollution can be as much as eight times higher at one end of the block than the other. This variation has major health impacts: Oakland neighborhoods with higher percentages of residents of color experienced double the rate of childhood asthma from traffic-related air pollution (nitrogen dioxide) compared with predominantly white neighborhoods.
  • Many of the monitors capture data only one out of every six days, and a recent study found that companies pollute more when the government isn’t watching.
  • Satellite data shows that millions of people may be breathing air that doesn’t meet the legal minimum standard in the blind spots around federal regulatory monitors.

Hyperlocal air quality monitors can demonstrate how air quality levels can vary block by block.

Communities are applying local data to a variety of exciting uses. They are securing new regulatory monitors, achieving funding for pollution reductions, reducing truck traffic into waste transfer stations, challenging permits for warehouses, demanding more transparency for truck-attracting facilities, inspiring student engagement, educating residents about health impacts of air quality, and much more.

The funding

The EPA funds are intended “to support community and local efforts to monitor their own air quality and to promote air quality monitoring partnerships between communities and tribal, state, and local governments.” Grant sizes range from $25,000 to $500,000. Eligible entities are states (including the District of Columbia); local governments; U.S. territories and possessions; Indian tribes; public and private hospitals and laboratories; and other public or private nonprofit organizations. $2 million is set aside for tribal governments, and $2 million is set aside for eligible community-based organizations. Projects must be completed within three years.

Further details can be found here. The application deadline is March 25, 2022.

If you believe more funding can help you strengthen hyperlocal monitoring in your community, below are some resources that might help. This is not an exhaustive discussion of application requirements. Applicants should review the information package.

A few resources:

Here are some tips for completing the grant application.

Also posted in Community Organizer, Environmental Justice, Monitoring / Comments are closed