Community Air Monitoring in Disadvantaged Communities in Hillsborough County

Community Air Monitoring in Disadvantaged Communities Near Interstates in Hillsborough County

APA Florida Planning Conference: Roots to Rivers

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Panelists

Jason Waters, PE – Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County,Air Monitoring Section Manager

Naya Young, MA – Executive Director, Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association

Lizzie Ehrreich, MA - Planner II, Hillsborough Transportation Planning Organization

Yonghong Luo, MS - PhD Candidate, USF College of Public Health, Dr. Stuart Research Group

Community capacity around air pollution

What are we working towards?

Characterize local air quality near interstates

Inform future planning and decision-making

Equitably improve air quality

Compliment regulatory air monitoring with lowcost air sensors

Project Overview & Origins

Low-Cost Air Monitoring Pilot Study

Establish community pilot sites

Test monitors and analyze data

Engage community in air monitoring and share data

Develop methods to establish a community monitoring network

Project Overview & Origins

Community Air Monitor Network

Establish community air monitoring network

Characterize pollutant concentrations and analyze data over time

Build

capacity around air pollution and the built environment

Next phase: community-sustained air monitoring network and implement recommendations based on findings

Jason Waters, P.E.

Air Monitoring Section Manager

Environmental Protection Commission

Chapter 67-1504, Laws of Florida

The Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (EPC) was created in 1967 by a special act of the Florida Legislature to control and regulate activities which are or may reasonably be expected to cause pollution or contamination of air, water, soil and property, or cause excessive and unnecessary noise.

Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County

Air Division

 Ambient Air Monitoring for Health Based Standards

 Industrial Air Pollution Sources (Permitting & Compliance)

 Asbestos Removal

 Noise Program

 Office of Sustainability

 Open Burn Permitting

 Full Delegation of State Programs

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

 Part of federal Clean Air Act since 1970.

 EPA has set limits, known as the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect people (primary) and the environment (secondary) from for six criteria pollutants

 These NAAQS are reviewed periodically to determine if the level set is still protecting people and the environment.

EPA’sCriteriaPollutants

OZONE (O3)

Is a pollutant at ground level

PARTICULATE MATTER (PM)

Very fine dust

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

Formed from inefficient combustion

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)

Causes adverse respiratory effects

LEAD (Pb)

Nervous system toxicant

SulfurDioxide (SO2)

Lung irritant

Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County

EPC’s regulatory monitoring programis the largest local network in the State 11 stations and 35 monitors

The air monitors determine compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect the health of the community and the environment

Additionally monitoring data is used for:

• Air Quality Index (AQI)

• Study trends in ambient air quality

• Develop plans for areas not meeting air quality standards

EPC’s Role:

• Provide air monitoring expertise and guidance

• Assist with site selection and logistics

• Enable access to regulatory air monitoring stations

• Provide regulatory monitoring data for analysis and comparison

• Assist with project promotion through outreach

Goals:

• Allow for more comprehensive community data collection

• Evaluate equity in Hillsborough County air quality

• Determine local-scale neighborhood exposure levels

Project Partnership with USF, TPO and EPC

EPA’s Criteria Air Pollutants Attainment Status

Stuart Research Group

Motivation for Involvement

• > 10 years of our research indicates traffic pollution disproportionately affects Black and low-income neighborhoods near high-volume roadways.

• Emerging small-footprint lower-cost monitoring technologies provide an opportunity to characterize neighborhood air quality.

• Community-engaged monitoring may help empower marginalized neighborhoods, build trust, and improve equity.

• Technologies are new; their quality and reliability remains uncertain.

• Initial discussions and presentations with EPC staff brought concepts to the TPO TAC

Science Gaps and Questions

• Design gap

• Methods are needed that integrate low-cost monitors and citizen science in sustainable community-based distributed TRAP monitoring networks that support equitable urban planning and air quality management decisions.

• Appropriate monitor networking, data calibration and quality as surance, and community-involved network management design approaches are particularly needed.

• Science questions

• What types of urban decision-making can a network of distributed low-cost TRAP monitors sustainably support, based on the quality of data and reliability?

• How does community-based distributed TRAP monitoring affect emp owerment of residents of marginalized communities in urban decisions relate d to TRAP exposure and health impacts?

Monitor Selection and Testing

Problem

• Many air pollutant monitors and sensors are available, but appropriateness for community use is not well characterized

Objectives

• Establish factors important to the suitability of monitors for collaborative community-based TRAP monitoring

• Select monitors appropriate for community use

Approach

• Review and tabulate existing literature on monitors that measure TRAP pollutants

• Field test candidate monitors for useability (6 tested)

• Evaluate performance (precision, accuracy, reliability) via monitor collocation against reference data

Results

• Important factors

• pollutant measured (PM2.5, NO2, TRAP toxics); good data quality, low price; small size; easy to install, power, and maintain; facilitated d ata collection, transfer and public sharing website

• Selected monitors

• Two monitors selected currently for installations and long-term evaluation

• Additional monitors identified for potential future study

PurpleAirII Clarity Node-S

Evaluation and Improvement of Data Quality

Problem

• Need to characterize, assure consistency of, and communicate quality/uncertainty

Objectives

• Characterize performance and variations with time and conditions

• Establish methods to improve, assure, and communicate quality appropriately for decision making of different types

Methods

• Evaluate performance over time

• Develop quality assurance protocols (QAPP in development)

• Evaluate individual monitor calibration algorithms (ongoing)

• Design and evaluate a network calibration approach (planned)

Results

Comparative trends over time against reference data

Performance statistics for PM2.5 and NO2 from the novel monitors

• 24-hr PM2.5: Both monitors met performance targets except for linearity overall, but some months did not

• NO2: accuracy is a concern; better performance for 24-hr levels than 1-hr levels

Community Air Quality

Questions

• What levels of TRAP affect marginalized communities?

• Are EPC monitors representativeof neighborhood air quality?

• Which areas need attention in the regulatory monitoring system?

Methods

• Comparison of summary statistics, trends, cycles from community monitors and regulatory monitors (ongoing)

• Variations with season and meteorological parameters (planned)

Results

Descriptive statistics of 24-hr average PM2.5 concentrationsa (3/1/23 –4/30/23)

• 24-hr PM2.5 levels higher at nonpark sites than park sites

• Levels at EPC Munro site similar to those at non-park sites

• Highest typical hours were 4–11 am. Highest day was Wednesday.

Community Engagement and Empowerment

Problem/need

• Community involvement is needed to sustain the network.

• People from marginalized communities feel disempowered in policy decision-making that affects them.

Questions

• To what degree can the network be sustained through community involvement in monitor and data management activities?

• How does the community-based TRAP network impact empowerment, through changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of participants from both marginalized communities and government policy-making and management agencies?

Planned activities and methods

• Host training: monitor installation, maintenance

• Guidebook: above plus analysis and interpretation of data

• Community lesson plans: TRAP, health effects, planning, environmental justice

• Study empowerment impacts: focus group, surveys, interviews

Lizzie Ehrreich, MA

Planner II

Hillsborough Transportation Planning Organization

Community Collaboration & Site Selection

Site Selection Criteria

Community Selection Criteria

Focus Group

Approvals & Agreements

Field Visits & Installations

Community Pilot Sites and EPC Regulatory Sites

Community Air Monitoring Pilot Sites

1. New Mount Zion Missionary BaptistChurch (NMZ)

2. Tampa Heights Junior CivicAssociation (THJCA)

3. Seminole Elementary School (SES)

4. RobertJ Saunders WashingtonElementaryLibraryandB.T. School (Saunders)

5. Perry Harvey Park, City of Tampa

6. Robles Park, City of Tampa

7. Sulphur Springs Park, City of Tampa

EPC Regulatory (Reference) Sites

1. Munro Site

2. Sydney Site

Future Public Engagement

Develop community capacity for civic engagement and empowerment on issues of air pollution and the built environment

Establish Community Air Monitoring Sites

Data sharing via public websites and maps

Establish a Coalition for Community Air Monitoring

Community volunteers

Community education and training

Youth education and teacher participation

Annual summits Community Consultant

Naya Young, MA

Executive Director

Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association

Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association

Why is it important for THJCA to be a community monitoring site?

 One of the core values for THJCA is Courage. We tell our students that courage is to take on some of the hardest challenges to improve the lives of people in your community.Air quality, access to clean air, and sustainability are topics that we encourage our students to learn more about and to have a voice in the conversations relating to these matters.

 Civic Engagement,STEM, Leadership and Community Health

THJCA Summer Enrichment Program

 THJCASummerEnrichmentProgramincludes activities such as STEM, Character Development, Fitness & Nutrition, Literacy, Art, and Civic Engagement. Last summer, our students at Town and Country Elementary and Tampa Heights Community Center, conducted SWOT Analysis for their neighborhoods. Using the information they provided, we carefully curated our summer program curriculum to address the issues that the students identified.

 Some of the issues included climate change and sustainable transportation. Each site wentfor a short walk in their neighborhood to do an observational survey on what they witnessed.

 The students wrote what forms of transportation they saw, thepeople, and used their senses for further observation: What they smelled, heard, and felt.

 They wrote down how many cars, bikes, pedestrians, and buses they saw, how they heard and smelled the engines of the cars driving past, how hot certain areas were while walking, and the parks nearby.

Students in Action! FLiPJr.

The students were able to see the air quality around them in real time. They took a short walk from our community center to the Tampa Heights Community Garden. During and after the walk, students learned about:

 How quality of air is impacted due to interstates –students saw the numbers fluctuate in just a short walk

 The impact that air quality has on health

 Impacts environment and vegetation around you.

Town & Country Elementary

 Prioritized parks and recreational activities

 Included lots of trees, plants, and green spaces

 Focused on multiple forms of transportation including lots of cyclists, pedestrians

 This summer we also incorporatedboth English and Spanish for the summer program curriculum

Tampa Heights Community Center

 Noticed very few parks and greenspaces in the community besides the area next to their center

 Using the monitor thatwas placed at ourcenter, the students learned moreabout how the highway could impact their air quality and health.

 The students also watched videos about environmental justice and talked about differences they see in neighborhoods based on their income, race, culture, etc.

Major Takeaways

 Low-cost air monitors are an emerging technology

 What can we do with this data?

 Working with uncertainty

 Developing a model for longevity

 Community-oriented, sustainable, replicable, and scalable network model and process

Q&A

Jason Waters, PE –Environmental Protection Mission of Hillsborough County, Air Monitoring Section Manager

Naya Young, MA –Executive Director, Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association

Lizzie Ehrreich, MA -Planner II, Hillsborough

Transportation Planning Organization

Yonghong Luo, MS -PhD Candidate, USF College of Public Health, Dr. Stuart Research Group