52. CARE-4-AIR: Air Monitoring in the Southeast

Ann Rodgers is BREDL’s Grant Writer. In 2021 BREDL received a grant from the EPA, which Ann wrote to fund an air monitoring program, called CARE-4-Air, for our chapters who are experiencing air quality issues in their community.  I misspoke in my intro as there will be 10 air monitoring sites in TN,NC, SC, GA, and VA. These sites are all currently subject to significant sources of air pollution, including: coal-burning power generation, wood-burning biomass gasification, industrial landfill, biochar production, wood pellet manufacturing, railroad operation, biomass plant operation, coal ash deposition, natural gas compressor stations, prescribed forest burning, and asphalt plants. Many of the affected communities are experiencing documented health impacts associated with air pollution generated by these industrial operations. And then among the 10 sites at which monitoring will be conducted, 6 of them have documented health risks for African American communities.  BREDL staff and chapters are scheduled to start monitoring this spring to collect further data.