[ad_1]
EAST HARTFORD — The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on Monday unveiled a new air quality monitoring vehicle that will focus on hyper-local testing for pollutants, particularly in communities with high minority populations that have been most affected by toxic air.
The 2019 Ford Explorer hybrid is a $300,000 platform with equipment that measures toxic vapors, particulate matter and greenhouse gases, DEEP officials said at a news conference at a stationary air monitoring site across from Anna Norris Elementary School.
DEEP’s 14 stationary air testing sites are spread throughout the state. The vehicle, two-thirds of which was paid for through a federal grant, is meant to fill in the gaps. It can be parked, for instance, outside a manufacturing business to check compliance with state and federal emissions standards, DEEP officials said.
The vehicle will allow DEEP to identify new or previously unknown sources of air pollution and to prioritize inspections of air pollution sources based on environmental risk, an agency news release said. Mobile testing will focus first on Hartford and East Hartford, officials said.
Communities of color host more power plants and businesses that emit pollutants, and more Black and Brown people live near highways and other heavily traveled corridors with high vehicle emissions. DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said the agency is committed to innovations such as the air quality vehicle to decrease illness and high healthcare costs borne especially by residents of Hartford, New Haven and other urban centers.
Dr. Mark Mitchell, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia and co-chairperson of the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Council, said he and other environmental health advocates have been waiting for a mobile testing platform to help ensure emissions compliance in places that bear the highest burden of bad air.
“As an African American environmental health physician in Hartford, I see the effects of this disproportionate exposure to pollution and air toxins on a daily basis,” Mitchell, the city’s former health director, said.
David Cash, regional administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said Black children suffer twice as much as white kids from asthma, and 73% of fossil fuel power plants are located in communities of color. Cash said Connecticut has been on the cutting edge of investments for a cleaner environment.
The custom-built Ford, called a Geospatial Measurement of Air Pollution (GMAP) vehicle, is equipped with air pollution analyzers and instruments that can detect and record concentrations of 16 different air pollutants.The data is to be plotted over satellite imagery to chart pollutant levels in different areas.
DEEP staff will talk to community groups to better understand residents’ air quality concerns, and when enough data is gathered for a given area, air quality experts will share results with residents, officials said.
[ad_2]
Source link
