EPA Touts New Community Air Toxics Monitoring Program In Buffalo NY
Community activists have long demanded better air pollution monitoring in their neighborhoods, particularly in environmental justice communities where homes and schools are located very close to massive toxic polluters.
I have written numerous times to criticize DEP’s hazardous air pollution control program for failures to adequately monitor and regulate major toxic air pollution risks and impacts on nearby communities and hold polluters accountable.
So today, I was surprised to read a Biden EPA press release that basically admitted that EPA air pollution monitoring is not adequate.
But EPA seems completely out of touch with the fact that these flaws are national in scope and systemic in the EPA air pollution permitting program and can not be remedied by a one shot EPA local grant.
And EPA is clueless to the fact that the community air monitoring should be paid for by the polluters, not by taxpayers via EPA grants: (EPA press release)
EPA Highlights Air Pollution Monitoring Project in Buffalo, New York
NEW YORK (April 16, 2024) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia and Dr. Eun-Hye Enki Yoo, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo and Senior Pastor George F. Nicholas, Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church as well as other dignitaries gathered in Buffalo, NY to highlight a new collaborative project led by the University at Buffalo, SUNY. The university received almost $500,000 to deploy low-cost air pollution sensors at sampling sites in the residences of the underserved African American community in Buffalo. They will use this data to develop a community-specific air quality prediction model by integrating the new measurements with existing data. EPA specifically awarded funding, partly under Inflation Reduction Act, to increase monitoring in areas that are underserved to help them better understand what they are exposed to and to help them work with local and other officials to help address the sources of pollution.
“Knowledge is power and when people know more about what they are breathing, they can better participate in decisions that can address that pollution. This investment will provide the people of Buffalo with access to local air monitoring networks, which will raise community knowledge of air quality,” said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “The Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized direct community participation in information gathering to help reduce harmful air pollution.”
Yes, knowledge is power – but why isn’t EPA mandating this kind of monitoring in air pollution permits issued to major polluters and making them pay for it?