By Marley Manjarrez

On a cloudy October evening, a friend and I arrive at a park in Richmond’s Woodland Heights neighborhood. Upon arrival, Devin Jefferson, the Science Museum of Virginia’s Community Science Catalyst hands us each a mobile air quality monitor. We then stroll through winding streets talking about community projects and how the city has changed over the years. We met that evening as part of the Science Museum’s RVAir Initiative.^[1] Participants wear mobile air quality monitors while walking through city parks and streets.^[2] They learn about the local air quality and how it can differ neighborhood by neighborhood or even block by block. Community science projects like these serve many purposes. In addition to providing a new way to engage your community, documenting air quality variances by neighborhood fills gaps left open by our current regulatory system.

In a 2018 article, UCLA Law’s Ann Carlson labeled these gaps the “Blind Spots” of the Clean Air Act (CAA).^[3] Under the current cooperative federalism structure of the CAA, the EPA identifies which air pollutants need to be monitored and the acceptable levels for each pollutant in our air.^[4] States then create implementation plans to meet or maintain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.^[5] Both the federal and state governments monitor whether the plans are meeting their goals through the same mechanism: air quality monitors placed miles apart.^[6] The monitors take averages of large geographic areas and this information becomes the basis for future permitting and policy decisions.^[7] What these monitors do not capture are the hyper-local variances in air quality.^[8] In missing that data they make disparate exposure to air pollution invisible.

There are many sources of air pollution. Sources include traffic, industrial factories, agriculture, and construction.^[9] The proximity to these sources of air pollution is not equally shared by all communities. Primarily non-white communities are more likely to be located near pollution sources and therefore exposed to more pollutants on a daily basis.^[10] 2021 data demonstrates that primarily white communities experience lower-than-average exposure to pollutants and primarily non-white communities experience higher-than-average exposure levels.^[11] Additionally, non-white communities are more likely to live near major highways.^[12]

In Richmond, the Jackson Ward neighborhood, a historically Black community, was intentionally bisected by politicians in the 1920s as a destabilizing effort.^[13] The impact is still felt.^[14] There are not only social consequences from the highway construction but also increased exposure to air pollution. However, neighborhood-level quantitative air quality data is not possible in our current regulatory model.

Community Science programs like RVAir can begin to fill the “blind spots” left by the CAA that hide hyperlocal differences. However, the legal usability of community data hinges on whether or not the communities have documented, verifiable, and widely accepted quality assurance plans.^[15]  Without a Quality Assurance Project Plan data collected over years and with great care is unusable both in court to hold polluters accountable and in regulatory decision-making.^[16] A QAPP requires a high degree of commitment and knowledge early in a community science planning process.^[17] A plan is needed before one even purchases an air quality monitor. This requirement can present a challenge to community-led groups. However, many regulatory agencies, including EPA, provide guides, videos, and templates to assist the QAPP process.^[18]

The full potential of what change is possible through community-collected and quality-assured data is eagerly waiting to be explored. While the CAA creates many blindspots for obtaining needed data it also creates openings. No specific provisions prohibit the use of reliable data based on the collection source. Additionally, the current rhetoric at EPA suggests new prioritization information from community-led research.^[19] Now more than ever, initiatives like RVAir have funding opportunities and regulatory recognition, assuming the first step a community takes is to create a QAPP.^[20]

With the help of low-cost tools such as air quality monitors, community members can take an active role in charting and combatting the disproportionate distribution of air pollutants hidden by our current regulatory scheme. However, without adequate quality assurance protections, data is not usable for policy creation. Within our existing legal framework, quality assurance is an essential component of effective environmental democratization, especially when challenging the distributive injustice of air pollution.

 

^[1] RVAir, Science Museum of Virginia, https://smv.org/learn/rvair/ (last visited Nov. 13, 2022).

^[2] Id.

^[3] Ann E. Carlson, The Clean Air Act’s Blind Spot: Microclimates and Hotspot Pollution, 65 UCLA L. Rev. 1036 (2018).

^[4] Summary of the Clean Air Act, EPA, https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act (last visited Oct. 10 2022).

^[5] Id.

^[6] See Carlson, supra note 3, at 1046.

^[7] See id. at 1067-68.

^[8] Id. at 1036.

^[9] Christopher W. Tessum et al., Pm2.5 Polluters Disproportionately And Systemically Affect People Of Color In The United States, Science Advances 1 (2021).

^[10] Id.

^[11]Id.

^[12]  Carlson, supra note 3, at 1058.

^[13] Samantha Willis, The “Gibraltar of Jackson Ward”, VPM News ( Mar. 31 2022) https://vpm.org/news/articles/30933/the-gibraltar-of-jackson-ward.

^[14] Id.

^[15] Lisa Song & Lylla Younes, Air Monitors Alone Won’t Save Communities From Toxic Industrial Air Pollution, ProPublica (May 18, 2022, 5:00 AM), https://www.propublica.org/article/air-monitors-alone-wont-save-communities-from-toxic-industrial-air-pollution.

^[16] Id.

^[17] See e.g. Quality Assurance Handbook and Toolkit for Participatory Science Projects, EPA, https://www.epa.gov/participatory-science/quality-assurance-handbook-and-toolkit-participatory-science-projects#video (last visited Nov. 14, 2022).

^[18] Id.

^[19] See EPA, Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of Regulatory Actions (2015).

^[20] See e.g. Fact Sheet: Inflation Reduction Act Advances Environmental Justice, The White House (Aug. 17, 2022), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/17/fact-sheet-inflation-reduction-act-advances-environmental-justice/.