BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and community partners and stakeholders held a public meeting on the results of DEC's statewide community Air Monitoring Initiative.
"The goal of this project was specific to disadvantaged communities. The reason for that is people in disadvantaged communities, some of the criteria are the vulnerabilities. We want to make sure that we're protective of everyone in New York State, but especially of our most vulnerable population," DEC Division of Air Resources Assistant Director Margaret LaFarr said.
The initiative which was released in August, showed the first phase of the state's historic effort to monitor air quality in 10 disadvantaged communities using local data collected through mobile and stationary monitoring. Western New York was included in the list of 10 communities.
- Bronx
- Brooklyn
- Buffalo/Niagara Falls/Tonawanda
- Capital Region
- Hempstead/New Cassel/Roosevelt/Uniondale/Westbury
- Manhattan
- Mount Vernon/Yonkers/New Rochelle
- Queens
- Rochester
- Syracuse
The turnout at Tuesday's meeting was better than expected but left some residents with more questions than answers.
"We're hearing all about air quality but how are we putting information into the hands of residents?" UB Engineering Education Assistant Professor Dr. Monica Miles said. "I shouldn't have to have a PhD. I shouldn't have to be an environmental scientist to understand what is going on around me."
Dr. Miles said she liked the screening tool that focuses on disadvantaged communities.
"Where we have people of color and where we have poor people, we are more likely to see environmental injustices and I really like that the screening tool provides us the data to show and highlight what we know anecdotally is happening, we can say, no this is your data and we can pull it and advocate around the data," she added.
Matthew Austin with the East Side Parkways Coalition said he is interested in the state's Kensington Expressway Project.
"I think we should fill it in and restore the whole parkway and get rid of the highway because when you look at some of the health outcomes, whether it's all the levels of heart disease, cancer, asthma. It's just common sense and just decades of the residents breathing in particulate matter and other fumes affect people's health," Austin said.
Western New York Climate Council co-founder Valerie Juang said the organization is engaged in two lawsuits: one at the state level and federal level regarding the proposed Kensington project.
"I'm really here to learn more about what the state has to say and make comments with respect to their approach to air quality in Buffalo, and especially on the East Side where the proposed Kensington tunnel will be," she explained.
This was the final in-person meeting for the Air Monitoring Initiative.
There will be a virtual meeting on October 23 from 6-8 p.m. To register for the meeting, click here.
