Current Monitoring

In the US, there are a variety of established air monitoring systems whose data is publicly available online. This data is collected by local government agencies and provides information about pollutants like ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and more. Oftentimes, the data is represented geospatially with maps that allow users to find locations of interest. Some websites display data from specific monitors while others show pollutant levels on the city- or town-scale. For instance, the following websites offer insights into air quality in the US:

• EPA's Interactive Map of Air Quality Monitors
• AirNow

Current Policy

Perhaps the most prominent piece of legislation regarding air quality is the Clean Air Act. Established in 1970, this law created air pollution standards and regulations in an attempt to improve the worsening issue of air quality. In particular, through the Clean Air Act, the EPA was required to establish national ambient air quality standards for six criteria pollutants:

• Particulate Matter
• Ozone
• Sulfur Dioxide
• Nitrogen Dioxide
• Carbon Monoxide
• Lead

With these common pollutants identified and standards established regarding the levels of these pollutants, under the CAA states must adopt and enforce plans to meet these standards.

Need for Monitoring

While the air quality monitoring data that is available can be informative, oftentimes this data doesn’t provide the detailed information that individuals need regarding specific locations or pollutants. Indeed, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a study that identified a need for more information regarding local-scale, real-time air quality. In particular, the GAO noted that more data was needed to understand health risks in potential hotspots and concentration of pollutants near industrial facilities. They also described the current methods used by the EPA to collect air quality information as outdated. Currently, air quality monitoring systems are often managed by the EPA and state and local agencies. The aspects that are in need of improvement include monitoring methods, usage of low-cost sensors, and managing data. However, funding for state and local air quality management grants has decreased recently, making it difficult for improvements to be made. Accordingly, the GAO made two recommendations for the EPA. The first of these recommendations is that the EPA should create an asset management framework for the national ambient air quality monitoring system so that it might be more standardized and sustainable. The second is that the EPA should establish a modernization plan that factors in the needs of managers, researchers, and the public.

In addition to the recommendations given by the GOA, there exists a need for communities to take the lead on setting up air monitoring systems. In doing so, they can dictate where data is collected and what pollutants are monitored. As a result, these communities will have control over their air quality data and have the power to use that data in the best interest of the community members. This is especially important for low-income, underserved communities who are more vulnerable to air pollution and where industrial land-use is prominent.

The goal of this guide is to encourage communities to take control of local air monitoring and provide a starting point for identifying the specific monitoring needs of these communities.

This summer, I worked at 2B Technologies, a company based in Boulder, Colorado that develops atmospheric measurement units. In addition to creating air monitoring technology, 2B Tech has an outreach program where they help communitites set up monitoring stations using their sensors. Through working with this company, I was able to see how powerful these sensors were and understand the importance of establishing air monitoring in communities.

Negative Health Impacts

Air pollution causes millions of deaths per year with that number only increasing. This is due to the fact that air pollutants can cause various diseases and illnesses. For instance, poor air quality has been associated with various respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and more. Furthermore, poor air quality increases the likelihood of death from COVID-19. In addition to respiratory disease, air pollution is linked to cancer. Specifically, Leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma can result from exposure to benzene and lung cancer is related to the US’s reliance on coal for energy generation. There is also evidence to support the association between breast cancer and air pollution. Risk for cardiovascular disease can also increase due to air pollution like particulate matter and traffic-related air pollution.

In addition to increasing risk of various diseases, air pollution disproportionately affects certain populations. Children who are exposed to air pollution can suffer from asthma and lung-related illnesses in general. Other pollutants can affect the development of a child's brain which may lead to cognitive and behavioral problems, ADHD, slower processing speed, and other neurobehavioral issues. Older adults have a greater chance of developing neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementias when exposed to certain pollutants. The negative health effects of air pollution to vulnerable populations and humans in general calls for better air monitoring in an attempt to improve air quality.

Sustainable Development Goals

Step 1: Identifying Needs/Goals

Questions to Ask

In order to figure out how to set up monitoring in a specific community, it is important to keep ask oneself the following questions:

• What do I want to know about the air around me?
• What locations am I concerned about?
• What pollutants am I concerned about?
• Are there any negative health effects that I am noticing?
• Are there any obvious sources of pollution in my community?

Important Considerations

Common goals:

• Get a general sense of the air quality around me
• This consists of identifying pollutants that may be at levels that are of concern.
• Identify hotspots
• Hotspots are areas that are particularly potent with pollutants. Identifying these areas is important in order to reduce the potential negative effects it may have for the people living there or closeby.
• Establish a baseline
• Sometimes it can be useful to establish a baseline measurement for different pollutants in order to see how measurements differ in the future when a change occurs. For example, if a new industrial facility or roadway is built, you can take measurements again and compare them to the baseline.

Places that may be of interest:

• Schools
• Children, a particularly vulnerable population, spend a large amount of their time here. This means they could be exposed to harmful pollutants for long periods of time.
• Air monitoring at schools can also be an educational opportunity for students by teaching them about monitoring and data collection while raising awareness about sustainability and environmental issues
• Hospitals
• Air pollution levels can also be above safe levels around hospitals which house patients whose conditions may worsen due to pollutants (ie. COVID-19).
• Fenceline Monitoring
• Fenceline monitoring is monitoring that occurs on the borders of industrial facilities. Due to a lack of enforcement and unreliable reporting of emissions from these facilities, fenceline monitoring can be useful to hold industry accountable for the pollution they cause in nearby communities. This can be especially important in low-income, underserved communities where industrial land-use is high.

Step 2: Determining the Type of Monitoring to Set Up

Step 3: Finding Resources and Equipment

How much does it cost?

The cost of a single sensor can range from $100-$2500 depending on what it can measure and how accurate it is. Depending on the size and goals of the project, the total cost can range quite a bit from $10,000 to over $100,000. Fortunately there are resources available for communities that are seeking funding for a project like this.

Grants

The EPA has an Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities grant. The agency has a total estimated funding of $20,000,000 available for communities that seek to monitor their own air quality. With this funding, they plan to award 20-30 “Small Grants” ranging from $25,000-$100,000 and 30-40 “Large Grants” ranging from $100,000-$500,000. For more information visit: EPA Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities Grant

In addition, many states have their own community air monitoring grants, so it may be worth checking out your local government website.

Technical Details

The EPA has a detailed guide describing the technical details of setting up monitoring including information about the various low-cost sensors available and their capabilities. Air Sensor Guidebook

In addition, the EPA has an air sensor loan program available for certain regions. This allows communities to try different sensors and get an idea of their capabilites as well as collect preliminary data. This information can be used by communities to figure out what sensors they might need for their project long-term. Air Sensor Loan Programs

Step 4: Collecting Data

Once a plan is created and resources/equipment has been gathered, it's time to set up the monitoring stations and start collecting data. Community participation in the data collection process is essential. There are a number of ways to get community members involved with different levels of participation required. For instance:

• Offer input about specific locations to monitor
• Host stationary monitors
• Use handheld sensors to help with mobile monitoring
• Write grant proposals
• Use any specialized skills they may have like data analysis, database management, web development, management, etc

Case Studies

This guide was developed by looking at case studies of community-led air monitoring. Two specific examples include:

Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Project

• Project with Imperial County, California Environmental Tracking Program, Comite Civico del Valle, University of Washington, and NIEHS.
• Focused on PM10 due to a lack of monitors and high rates of asthma.
• This project was fueled by community involvement with community member responsibilities ranging from hosting monitors and collecting data to making project decisions and maintaining the reporting website. The group created a participation structure detailing different levels of involvement.
• A total of 40 monitors were set up. The first 20 were put in locations that were recommended by community members. The final 20 were put in locations of interest as determined by the initial data collected from the first 20 monitors.
• The group created a website (ivanair.org) that displays the data making it accessible to community members.
• Using a combination of low-cost optical particle counters, small environmental sensors, wireless networking, robust enclosures, and an internet database, the community set up these monitoring stations. The data quality was evaluated by comparing these low cost sensors to government monitors.
• The project ultimately increased community engagement on an important issue and created a public and accessible monitoring network. This can be used by community members to better understand air pollution and by the government to evaluate air quality.

The Fairmount Greenway

• Collaboration between the communities of Dorchester and Harvard Chan-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health
• Prompted by the need to reduce the prevalence of asthma and obesity.
• Fairmount Corridor has 93,000 low-income residents and 20% of families live below the poverty line.
• The greenway is a 9-mile path/greenspace between Readville and Newmarket/South Bay.
• The goal was to measure air quality on the greenway as participants biked along the path. This data would then be compared to the main thoroughfare to show the benefits of biking along the greenway.
• The project required the participants of community members to collect data. Citizens had frequent meetings and were trained appropriately which allowed for an increase in public health literacy.
• In their initial experiment, they found the concentration of PM 2.5 to be less along the greenway than the main thoroughfare. In addition, noise pollution was less along the greenway.
• The community plans to repeat the experiment multiple times during different traffic levels, share the data with the community and government agencies, and use the data to acquire environmental justice grants and further expand the greenway.

Data Storage

The main priority for communities when storing the air quality data should be to make it publicly available and easily accessible. This may come in the form of a website that shows the data. Some specific visualization methods can be used to make interpreting the data easier, such as graphs of the data over time or creating a map showing where monitors are located.

Since handling large amounts of data can get complicated, this part of the process presents a great opportunity to involve community members. Specifically, if any community members have experience working with databases or building websites, those skills can be utilized to create a simple yet informative data storage solution.

Identifying Sources of Pollution

Although air monitoring stations are often set up with a specific source in mind, it is still important to understand the different potential sources of air pollution. The source of pollution will depend heavily on the type of pollutant detected. That being said, there are common sources of pollution to watch out for when monitoring.

Holding Industry Accountable

As established by the Clean Air Act, industrial facilities must keep their pollution within certain levels. However, due to issues with enforcement, these guidelines may not be followed. Therefore, community air monitoring can be used to hold industrial facilities accountable for their pollution through fenceline monitoring and general ambient air quality monitoring. At the moment, using the data in a legal setting can be difficult due to the fact that exposure to these pollutants is not enough to prove that these facilities are causing harm; there needs to be medical or toxicological proof of harm to individuals. Suing under the nuisance law or filing lawsuits claiming deceptive marketing are alternate routes that are currently being explored. That being said, it is important for communities to continue pushing the current boundaries of the legal landscape so that it may become more defined and so that industry can be held accountable for the pollution and harm that they cause to local communities.

Recent Rulings on the CAA

In late June of 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA is not able to put a state-level cap on carbon emissions as was introduced in the Clean Air Act. In addition to limiting the EPA’s power to mitigate climate change, this means that a key contributor to poor air quality will be harder to manage and restrict. Instead, the power was given to Congress to decide how the act can be enforced. Both climate change and poor air quality disproportionately affect vulnerable communities like those that are low-income, marginalized, and underserved. This presents all the more reason that communities must take power into their own hands by monitoring pollution like carbon emissions so that they might be able to advocate for themselves. In addition, this ruling calls for Congress to pass legislation that gives the EPA more authority to enforce emission restrictions.

The Inflation Reduction Act

Despite the setbacks of the recent supreme court ruling, there is a cause for hope in recent policy. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act is a bill that takes major action on climate issues. One of the main components of this bill is a large investment into clean energy technologies. This will help the US transition away from fossil fuels thereby reducing the air pollution that they cause. In addition to this, this bill proposes major investments into communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color who are disproportionately affected by climate change and air pollution. $3 billion will be used to fund community-led projects in areas that face climate change and pollution the most. This gives vulnerable communities control over their own health and their environment instead of it being decided for them. While this will be a huge step forward for communities in itself, an additional $315.5 million will be given to communities specifically for air monitoring projects. This will allow them to set up these monitoring stations so that they know what is in the air that they are breathing. There are even specific funds for schools and communities near polluting industries. With these advances being made in policy, it is even more essential that communities have a starting point to understand air pollution and how to set up monitoring.

While this bill offers much hope for the future, there is still concern regarding environmental justice. Specifically, in order for this bill to pass, there had to be compromises made for the fossil fuel industry. This means that the low-income, marginalized communities where the fossil fuel industry resides will take the brunt of those compromises. As a result, it is important that the government continues working on providing resources for these communities so that they are not the ones continuing to feel the disproportionate effects of climate change and pollution.

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