Federal funding is coming to the First State to support air quality initiatives.
A $358,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency is headed to the Community Housing and Empowerment Connections’ (CHEC) air monitoring network in New Castle County.
The American Lung Association rates New Castle County’s air quality the worst in the state - based on the number of high ozone days and amount of particle pollution in the air.
“The air quality network is designed and operated by residents who are disproportionately impacted by air pollution,” said CHEC Executive Director and Founder Penny Dryden. “I want to emphasize that: we own the project. And we get support by our friends and other diverse groups of stakeholders on multiple levels. Not only on the community level, or regional level, but on the national level.”
Sen. Tom Carper says federal funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act.
“You hear the words Inflation Reduction Act and you think ‘well, that legislation must be all about reducing inflation.’ And it is. But there’s also money in there for clean air, cleaning up our air and measuring pollution,” Carper explained.
One of the first stations will be in Claymont, a community that has been significantly affected by poor air quality.
State Representative Larry Lambert says over 306,000 cars pass through Claymont on the I-495 and I-95 daily. That traffic, along with distribution warehouses and soil aeration nearby, are some of the sources of air pollution.
“We need to make sure we have air quality monitors so people know what they’re breathing. Volatile organic compounds, PCVs, nitrogen oxide, fine particulate matter- all of these are concerns our communities have when it comes to air quality,” said Lambert.
The overarching goal of the air quality monitors is to help the community, community partners, and state agencies to make informed decisions on how to better protect the health of Delawareans.
The organization notes the aspect of community access to the data is particularly important to their cause, but being able to pinpoint the direct sources of air pollution will be helpful in developing solutions.
“The project uses low cost air sensors to measure particulate matter at 1.0, 2.5, and 10.0 at real time, continuously. The monitors are solar powered and use cloud data that is downloaded to a database. So they are resilient to climate change, and operate during extreme weather and power outages,” explained Dryden.
The group hopes to eventually expand into Kent and Sussex Counties if more funding becomes available.
