One hundred young people will be the driving force behind a “first-of-its-kind” air pollution study in Cincinnati due to a $75,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Groundwork Ohio River Valley plans to deploy 10 sensor stations as well as dozens of smaller portable sensors to get an unprecedented view of air quality in the areas of Lower Price Hill and South Fairmount.
Right now, air quality is monitored by just a few static stations around Cincinnati as well as spot checks by the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency.
Tanner Yess is the co-executive director of the non-profit. He said the grant will get 100 youth trained in how these processes work, and the data from the sensors will be publicly available in real-time.
Yess said a third of the grant will go straight towards paying the youth and a handful of community members.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is partnering on the project to further its research into the health effects of air pollution.
EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe visited the Oyler Community Learning Center to announce the grant Tuesday.
She said disadvantaged neighborhoods, usually populated with Black and LatinX residents, have been on “the frontlines of pollution for generations.”
McCabe applauded the community-driven project and said it is need in the fight for environmental justice and equity.
“We’re going to create some community scientists right here,” she said.
Yess said Lower Price Hill, the home to Oyler, has some of the lowest tree canopy and highest energy costs in the city. He said the pilot project and Groundwork’s partnership with the school will help make the neighborhood a model for sustainability.
He said we need to provide generational solutions to generational problems.
Mayor Aftab Pureval said climate change is affecting us all, down to how many potholes are on the streets. He said this project will “inspire and train a new generation of leaders and stewards.”
Mohagany Wooten is a junior at Oyler. She’s already been working on the project. She said she was shocked to learn Lower Price Hill was so impacted by air pollution but added that her education about the issue also taught her how much worse it used to be.
The scale of the project would not have been possible 10 years ago, Yess said, but the technology is now cheaper and widely available. Wireless internet connectivity also simplifies the process of connecting a network of sensors.
Yess said some of the sensors are small enough to be worn. Youth will be assigned walking routes to get even more data and the sensor can be worn to get data on indoor air quality as well.
When the air quality in Winton Terrace was concerning residents in 2018, they relied on the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency to do additional testing. Residents complained of periodic, strong odors. Others said their children were diagnosed with asthma after moving there, and refused to let them play outside. A project like this could have provided insight into what was happening. The air quality agency did not find anything out of the ordinary for an urban area.
Groundwork Ohio River Valley received the environmental justice grant as part of the Biden Administration’s Justice40 initiative. The goal is for President Biden to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to disadvantaged communities.
The White House says these communities have been historically marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.
The data gathered in this study can be combined with city and federal data to better inform legislation. Health data, demographic data and temperature data can all be combined to paint a full picture over four seasons with this one-year study, McCabe said. She explained that this sort of data integration is crucial to understanding the pollution problem.
“And we’re going to teach these kids how to do it,” she said.
Read More:EPA grant will help employ 100 youth for air pollution study
2022-03-29 21:39:56
