EPA to monitor toxic air pollution at 62 schools in 22 states
US EPA selected Paulsboro High School for monitoring potential impacts of toxic air pollutants.I targeted this school in a January 8, 2008 NJ Voices post
On March 31, 2009 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that they will monitor air quality outside (but curiously, not inside where kids are exposed) two NJ schools. The monitoring is part of a new national effort.
The new EPA initiative was prompted by media expose and local activists, not government regulators, who shamefully were asleep at the switch.
Realization of the EPA program resulted from the leadership of California Senator Barbara Boxer, who, as Chair of the Senate Environment Committee, secured a commitment from Lisa Jackson during Jackson’s confirmation hearings for EPA Administrator (we wrote about that and reiterated the Paulsboro HS case in a January 25, 2009: Politics versus science
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2009/01/politics_versus_science.html
Last year, on January 8, 2008, I wrote this piece, which focused on pollution risks to kids at Paulsboro High School (and featured the above picture):
In Harm’s way
Posted by Bill Wolfe January 18, 2008 11:17PM
Would you send your child to this school?
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/01/what_they_dont_want_you_to_see.html
In light of the new EPA program, the core of that post bears repeating now:
“The NJ DEP does not require chemical plants that emit tons of cancer causing hazardous air pollutants to monitor actual ambient concentrations at the fence line of the plant. This data is required to understand the health impacts of those emissions on surrounding homes, schools and people. DEP does not require health risk assessment before granting air pollution permits that allow industries to release these toxic chemicals to our air. Current DEP air permit rules make risk assessment and air modeling voluntary – of course no chemical company has volunteered to study the health impacts of its pollution on the surrounding neighborhood kids. Impacted communities are kept in the dark and DEP is flying blind – no data, no health effects monitoring, and no science.”.
“THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS– …. NJ is the most densely populated place on earth where schools and residential neighborhoods are virtually right on top of chemical plants and refineries.”
This episode proves the wisdom of environmental writer and activist Edward Abbey, who said:
“sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul”
All too often, the sentiment of environmental advocates is not matched by action.
In this case, for taking the above picture of Paulsboro High School in the shadow of the Valero refinery, I was brought to the local jail, illegally searched, detained, and questioned by police. After being cleared by local police, days later I was harassed at my home by three federal, state and county Homeland Security investigators. In my own investigation of the local police and Homeland Security investigators, I discovered that an FBI Report was filed on this episode.
I was highly critical of Lisa Jackson on this and many other issues – and for that, I was attacked by media and certain friends of Lisa Jackson in the NJ environmental community.
Sentiment with action can bite you in the as.. .
But I guess I’m vindicated now by EPA’s announcement, which said:
“As part of a new air toxics monitoring initiative, EPA, state and local air pollution control agencies will monitor the outdoor air around schools for pollutants known as toxic air pollutants, or air toxics. The Clean Air Act includes a list of 187 of these pollutants. Air toxics are of potential concern because exposure to high levels of these pollutants over many decades could result in long-term health effects.
EPA selected schools after evaluating a number of factors including results from an EPA computer modeling analysis, the mix of pollution sources near the schools, results from an analysis conducted for a recent newspaper series on air toxics at schools, and information from state and local air pollution agencies.
Link to full EPA fact sheet, program description, and the list of schools targeted, see:
http://www.epa.gov/schoolair/