North New Castle News

WASHINGTON - On June 20, Reps. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, and Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), with Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), reintroduced the bicameral Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act, legislation that would authorize $55 million over five years for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update and expand its tools and technologies for monitoring air quality, while ensuring that these tools are integrated with environmental justice mapping and screening to better measure and manage unhealthy levels of air pollution across the United States, particularly in frontline and fenceline environmental justice communities where Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-income residents are disproportionately likely to be harmed.

The Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act was championed by the late Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia. Blunt Rochester and McClellan reintroduced the legislation to honor McEachin’s decades-long fight for environmental justice.

“Air pollution is a matter of public health and environmental justice,” Congresswoman Blunt Rochester (D-Del.). “That’s why I’m so proud to lead the reintroduction of the bicameral Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act – legislation that was championed by the late Rep. Donald McEachin of Virginia – to strengthen the EPA’s ability to continue the fight against toxic air pollution impacting communities across the country, especially our environmental justice and frontline communities, helping make our communities healthier, safer, and stronger.”

“Every American deserves the right to breathe clean air, yet far too many live in areas with dangerously high levels of air pollution,” said Congresswoman McClellan (D-Va.). “As we continue efforts to advance environmental justice and protect public health, we must invest the necessary resources to empower our federal agencies to monitor local air quality accurately and effectively. I am proud to build on Donald McEachin’s legacy and co-lead the Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act with Congresswoman Blunt Rochester to take another important step in our fight for clean air for every American.”

“No one should have to breathe unhealthy, toxic pollution in their neighborhood,” said Senator Markey (D-Mass.). “We can’t manage what we don’t measure, which is why Congress must take steps to improve our air quality monitoring so that we can improve public health in the communities that have suffered most from environmental injustice. The Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act will give the EPA the resources they need to fight toxic air pollution and keep communities healthy, no matter their ZIP code.”

“Accurately monitoring air quality is a key component in protecting communities from the health harms of air pollution, particularly those that have long borne the worst burden of unhealthy air. Technology is ever-evolving and understanding how to better integrate new and hyperlocal methods of monitoring into better informing the public is an innovative way to protect health from air pollution. In addition to funding for regulatory monitors and bold action from EPA on cleaning up sources of pollution, this legislation will help us ensure clean air for all,” said American Lung Association President & CEO, Harold Wimmer.

“Everyone has the right to clean air, but far too many people live in communities overburdened with air pollution,” said Sarah Vogel, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at Environmental Defense Fund. “With the Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act, Senator Markey, Representative Blunt Rochester, and the bill’s cosponsors recognize the need for better data on local sources of air pollution and health outcomes and the ability to integrate this data into decision-making. This bill will provide needed tools to better understand air pollution and protect health.”

“The efforts outlined in this bill would help optimize resource use by providing the means, materials and motivation to characterize community scale air quality. The required assessment of current capabilities, and the opportunities to integrate emerging technologies of low-cost sensors and recently deployed satellites, will empower communities to identify air quality concerns and facilitate more effective air quality management to benefit the health of our citizens and the environment,” said John Graham, Senior Scientist, Clean Air Task Force.

“Everyone deserves to breathe clean air, and having good data from high-quality air monitors is an important first step towards improving the health and safety of the communities where families live, work, and play. We thank Representative Blunt Rochester and Senator Markey for introducing the Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act, and for his steadfast commitment to clean air and public health,” said Melody Reis, Senior Legislative and Regulatory Policy Manager, Moms Clean Air Force.

 

In the United States, nearly 36% of people live in places with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. Current air quality monitoring methods fail to capture block-by-block differences, hiding pollution burdens that accumulate in environmental justice communities, including communities of color, which are 50 percent more likely to be affected by poor air quality. Next-generation air quality monitoring technologies have found that air pollution can be up to eight times worse on one end of a city block than another. Dirty air can harm health, leading to more frequent asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, premature births, and even early death.

Specifically, the Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act would:

• Annually update and expand its online air quality toolbox with best-available monitor technologies, methods, and associated uses of data;
• Connect the toolbox with environmental justice mapping and screening tools;
• Establish a working group consisting of representatives from EPA regional offices, air agencies, environmental justice networks, data science, and public health science to develop templates for integrated monitoring systems; and
• Direct the EPA and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct an inventory of the locations and operation statuses of air monitors, existing data infrastructure, high priority areas for monitoring deployment in environmental justice communities, and workforce needs to improve air quality management across scales.

Cosponsors in the House include Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.). Cosponsors in the Senate include Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

The Technology Assessment for Air Quality Management Act is endorsed by the Environmental Defense Fund, American Lung Association, Clean Air Task Force, Moms Clean Air Force, and Dr. Sacoby Wilson (Director of the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health).

A one-pager on the bill can be found here.

Full text of the bill can be found here.

Original source can be found here