On the ground in Williamsburg
Air quality study in North Brooklyn unearths pollution hotspots
BY ROSE ADAMS
A coalition of community
groups conducted a two-year
air quality study in Williamsburg
that found levels of pollution
higher than the state’s
monitors, said to the environmentalists
behind the effort.
“With the state monitors,
the fi rst issue is that there are
not enough … It’s not nearly
enough to capture what’s actually
going on,” said Jalisa
Gilmore with the New York
City Environmental Justice
Alliance, which spearheaded
the study. “We were actually at
the ground level.”
The Environmental Justice
Alliance, which consists
of 11 grassroots organizations
from low-income neighborhoods,
chose to measure the
air quality in the southern half
of Williamsburg and the south
Bronx because of the locations’
historically underserved communities
and traffi c density.
“These are members who
have long-standing air quality
concerns,” said Gilmore about
the choice to study the two locations.
COURIER L 6 IFE, MARCH 12-18, 2021
“This project was just
our members’ response to concerns
about air quality in their
neighborhoods.”
Beginning two years ago,
several member organizations
of the Alliance helped
train paid volunteers to walk
through the neighborhood with
low-cost, portable air monitors
in order to capture air quality
measurements around the Williamsburg
Bridge, the Brooklyn
Queens Expressway, and
some of the neighborhood’s
main avenues.
The volunteers measured
the concentrations of PM2.5
— a very fi ne particle that can
lodge itself deep into the lungs
— in walks around neighborhood
at different times of day,
and ultimately compiled the
fi ndings into a map that the
showed Williamsburg’s pollution
hotspots.
The areas with the highest
concentration of PM2.5,
which comes from combustions
of oil diesel fuel, or wood,
are Bedford Avenue, Union Avenue,
and the underpass of the
Brooklyn-Queens Expressway,
according to the map of the
study’s fi ndings.
In those areas, the levels of
PM2.5 can reach from around
10 to 42 micrograms per cubic
meter during rush hour between
7 and 8 am, and 3 and 4
pm, according to the fi ndings.
The pollutant levels rise again
during the nighttime traffi c
rush at around 8 and 9 pm.
Experts claim that PM2.5
is potentially harmful to sensitive
groups when at levels between
12 and 35 micrograms
per cubic meter, and increasingly
dangerous above that.
But according to the executive
director of HabitatMap and
the co-author of NYC-EJA’s air
quality report, exposure to the
particle is dangerous at every
level.
“There’s no safe level of
exposure to PM2.5,” said Michael
Heimbinder. “Every microgram
that can be reduced
in terms of exposure will improve
health outcomes.”
High exposure to the pollutant
can lead to health problems,
like respiratory irritation and
heart disease. The particle
causes 2,000 premature deaths
and 6,500 emergency department
visits annually throughout
the city, with high poverty
neighborhoods experiencing
a 28 percent higher mortality
level than low poverty ones, according
to two 2020 studies.
Heimbinder and Gilmore
said that the Alliance’s daily
fi ndings were often higher
than the closest state monitor
reports because of their ability
to track PM2.5 at the hyperlocal
level. The state’s Department
of Environmental
Conservation operates 13 monitors
across the fi ve boroughs
that track the air quality on
an hourly basis, meaning the
readings are less detailed.
“Those sites are not designed
to measure personal
exposures,” said Heimbinder,
who explained that the state
monitors serve to track the
region’s air quality at a larger
scale. “The monitors by the
state are great for determining
compliance with the Clean Air
Act.”
To imrpvoe air quality, the
advocates pushed for a green
redesign of Continental Army
Plaza by Roebling Street and
the Williamsburg Bridge that
would add environmentallyfriendly
infrastructure and
natural surfaces to temperatures
and mitigate fl ooding.
Heimbinder said that in addition
to bringing about policy
change, he hopes the study
can inspire other community
groups to conduct their own
surveys of their neighborhoods’
air quality.
“For me the thing that’s
most important about the report
is that it shows a community
could undertake this
work and do really great research,”
he said. “And it’s really
important if we’re going
to make big decisions that
we base them on solid information.”
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