Minneapolis will deploy air pollution monitors with grant from Biden administration

The Environmental Protection Agency will funnel more than $50 million into expanding air monitoring in communities struggling with pollution, including about $411,000 for Minneapolis.

The city will use the money to expand an existing air-monitoring program and focus on its green zones, where residents have faced the combination of environmental pollution and racial segregation.

In all, money will fund 132 projects proposed across the country, including 19 in states bordering the Mississippi River. Officials and advocates said building out community monitoring will help give residents a clearer picture of what’s in the air they breathe.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said this week that the move advances the Biden administration’s commitment to invest in areas that have suffered decades of environmental injustice.

Research has shown that low-income, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, including toxic air. Communities along the Mississippi River – from New Orleans to Memphis to Wood River, I.ll – host hotspots for pollution. Drawn to the availability of water and easy navigation, manufacturing plants dot areas along the length of the river’s banks.

“Empowering our communities to gather quality data about the air they breathe will help ensure dozens of overburdened communities have the tools they need to better understand the air-quality challenges in their neighborhoods, and will protect people from the dangers posed by air pollution,” Regan said.

In Minneapolis, the city is installing about 100 sensors to measure tiny lung-damaging particulate matter and toxic gases, said Jennifer Lansing, a senior environmental research analyst with the city’s Department of Health. The sensors have been placed in neighborhoods where residents showed concern about the air, and some of the results can be viewed in real time on the PurpleAir website.

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