Latest news with #LouisvilleMetroAirPollutionControlDistrict
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Louisville air pollution regulator to contest grant termination for air toxics study
A logo on the side of an electric car for the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer) Louisville's air pollution regulator will dispute the Trump administration's termination of a grant that funded an air toxics monitoring study in West Louisville, a larger community effort to study air pollution health impacts in neighborhoods near the Rubbertown industrial complex. The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District (APCD) received a memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency March 31 stating a $1 million grant from the Environmental Justice Government-to-Government Program would be terminated because, in part, it was 'inconsistent with, and no longer effectuates, agency priorities.' An EPA official in a court filing wrote recently that the agency was canceling hundreds of EPA grants, most of them involving environmental justice programs. Matt Mudd, a spokesperson with APCD, told the Lantern Wednesday the regulator planned to dispute the grant termination with the EPA through an internal process. Rachael Hamilton, the executive director of APCD, in an April 16 board meeting described the option to dispute the grant termination as an 'administrative remedy' that would be sent to a regional EPA administrator. Hamilton said in the meeting last month there had been a 'fair amount' of litigation from other grantees that have had grants terminated. The funding, announced in 2023 during the Biden administration, was set to support the placement of canisters measuring volatile organic compounds and two other monitors measuring airborne metals. Some of the monitors were to be placed downwind of Rubbertown, a cluster of chemical plants near West Louisville that have long been the subject of complaints from the adjacent neighborhoods and beyond. The monitors were to be a part of a one-year study to compare the amount of air pollution and health impacts to a previous study done in the early 2000s that found levels of a number of cancer-causing pollutants to be unacceptable high. Mudd said the study's start date was 'imminent' before the grant was terminated. Terry Johnson, a spokesperson for the EPA regional office that covers Kentucky, in a statement said the EPA was reviewing all awarded grants 'to ensure each is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with administration priorities.' 'Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment,' Johnson said in his statement. Johnson did not answer emailed follow-up questions from the Lantern asking what specific issues the agency had with the grant. Rep. Joshua Watkins, D-Louisville, who represents parts of West Louisville neighborhoods in the state legislature, said he hoped the city would exhaust all resources 'to ensure that their mission isn't hindered by any changes — this sort of whiplash of changes — that we see coming from the federal government.' 'Environmental justice is a freedom issue, and if you don't have a high quality of air, you aren't free to breathe and live a quality of life,' Watkins told the Lantern. 'Clean air is nonpartisan. You need it if you're Republican, you need it if you're a Democrat.' Watkins, who noted city residents in predominantly Black neighborhoods in West Louisville have significantly lower life expectancies compared to the east half of the city, questioned why the air toxics monitoring study wouldn't align with the EPA's mission of protecting human health and the environment. 'What neighborhoods align, I guess, with the EPA mission?' he said. 'If not for the residents of West Louisville who have documented evidence of significantly worse health outcomes, why would we not focus on those citizens?' The air monitoring study was a piece of a larger project addressing the health impacts of air pollution, involving other community partners including the University of Louisville's Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, the West Jefferson County Community Task Force, Park DuValle Community Health Centers and Louisville's public health and wellness department. UofL researchers planned to conduct a wastewater sampling study alongside the air toxics monitoring study and collect data from both to determine 'community health risks'; Park DuValle Community Health Centers would use the health impact findings from the project to train health professionals on how to treat exposure to air pollution; and the West Jefferson Community Task Force would hold community meetings to provide feedback on the project's findings and policy recommendations. Arnita Gadson, the executive director of the West Jefferson County Community Task Force, told the Lantern she was especially interested in how the 'much needed' project planned to help inform community health workers and doctors on how to treat the impacts of exposure to air pollution. She said the health impacts of air pollution can also extend beyond West Louisville, given that residents impacted by pollution can move elsewhere and bring their health issues with them. 'This grant was to help everybody,' Gadson said. 'I think we were on the precipice of actually establishing a platform that meant that doctors really could start using some of this.' Attempts on Wednesday to reach the CEO of Park DuValle Community Health Centers and a key UofL researcher involved with the project were not successful. Eboni Cochran, the co-director of the grassroots organization Rubbertown Emergency ACTion that seeks to push back against pollution from industries in Rubbertown, told the Lantern while the termination of the grant was sad, APCD could do more to address immediate air pollution impacts. Cochran pointed to ongoing complaints of dust and fires at an industrial plant in the Parkland neighborhood of Louisville. 'An important part of what they were doing was to engage medical professionals, right? I think that is vital to the work of environmental justice,' Cochran said. 'However, you can even prevent or reduce people's likelihood of them even having to get to the medical professional if you listened to the people who live near these industries.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Citizens could still gather evidence of air pollution. But it might not matter anymore in Kentucky.
Rep. Joshua Watkins, a Democrat representing West Louisville, voted against House Bill 137 in committee. Opponents say the measure would tie the hands of citizens and government officials in policing air pollution. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer) FRANKFORT — Kentucky lawmakers are advancing an industry-backed bill that could exclude evidence gathered by citizens and community groups from being considered in proceedings to enforce air pollution rules. Supporters tout it as a way to make sure only 'legitimate' data is used before penalizing industry. But environmental advocates fear the legislation would undercut community air monitoring efforts in Kentucky and officially discount complaints from the public. House Bill 137, primarily sponsored by Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, is set to be voted on by the GOP-controlled Kentucky House of Representatives after clearing a committee last week. The bill would apply to the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, which regulates air pollution in Jefferson County, and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, which regulates air pollution in the rest of the state. It would put new limits on what they could consider in enforcement proceedings against alleged violations brought by an agency or citizen. The bill says only information gathered through methods approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or methods that produce 'scientifically defensible and quality assured data' accepted by the EPA would be admissible in an enforcement proceeding. Gooch told his fellow committee members last week that outside groups 'have an agenda' and that their air monitoring 'may try to reflect whatever that agenda may or may not be.' The bill passed the House Natural Resources and Energy committee with the support of all present Republicans and two Democrats, Rep. Erika Hancock of Frankfort and Rep. Adam Moore of Lexington. Two Democrats who represent West Louisville, Rep. Beverley Chester-Burton and Rep. Joshua Watkins, voted against the bill. West Louisville is next to Rubbertown, the location of chemical plants that have long been the subject of complaints from the adjacent neighborhoods and beyond. Lloyd 'Rusty' Cress, a lobbyist representing the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers (KAM) that's backing the bill, told the Lantern it's similar to legislation that became law in Louisiana last year that put limits on the use of community air monitoring data by regulators. But unlike the Louisiana law, Cress said HB 137 bill doesn't 'specifically call out community monitoring.' Another bill that moved through the West Virginia legislature but ultimately didn't become law also put limits on the use of community air monitoring data by regulators. 'The community has the right to monitor all they want,' Cress said. 'We just want to make sure that they are utilizing appropriate equipment and getting trustworthy data. They don't have to be scientists, but we do hope that they would use data that's quality assured.' Cress, who serves as executive director of the Kentucky Chemical Council housed within KAM, said regulators should be using 'legitimate data' for enforcement proceedings given the 'significance of the penalties associated with alleged violations' and that the bill wouldn't prevent Kentuckians from making complaints of odors, emissions and other air pollution to regulators. Environmental advocates, however, are concerned the legislation is written so broadly that it could still undermine grassroots efforts to monitor air pollution and limit evidence that could be presented in enforcement proceedings. Byron Gary, an attorney with the environmental legal group Kentucky Resources Council that opposes the current version of HB 137, worked at the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District from 2014 until 2023, coordinating enforcement actions, updating the district's regulations and ensuring it was complying with the Clean Air Act. Gary told the Lantern he thinks the bill could end the ability of environmental protection officials to use complaints submitted by community members in enforcement actions 'whether it's verified by other sources or not.' It could also tie the hands of inspectors in some cases, he said. Louisville's air pollution regulator verifies 'nuisance complaints' by sending out a district officer to smell the odor or see the alleged emissions — something that is not considered a 'reference method,' or a formal means of sampling air pollution, by the EPA, but is now grounds for the district to cite a violation. 'It's simply common sense. You smell an offensive odor or you see dust coming across a line, and that is a violation. That's not an EPA reference method,' Gary said. But that would change if the bill becomes law, he said, as agencies could then be barred from citing a violation under those circumstances. Industries are responsible for monitoring their own emissions, Gary said. The EPA previously noted in revisions to the Clean Air Act in the 1990s that those company-controlled tests were infrequent and 'inadequate to ensure that sources continuously stay within their emission limits.' The rise of community groups using affordable air monitors such as PurpleAir is revealing gaps in the network of air monitoring and where potential violations might be, Gary said. Attorneys with the Kentucky Resources Council also are concerned the legislation could conflict with a provision in the Clean Air Act that allows for 'credible evidence,' even if it's not from a formal data collection method, to be used in enforcement actions — something that Cress, the lobbyist for manufacturers, disputes. 'I don't know what could be more credible than data that is scientifically defensible and quality assured,' Cress said. The leader of a grassroots organization in Louisville pushing back against air pollution from chemical plants in Rubbertown sees HB 317 as detrimental to her community. Eboni Cochran, co-director of Rubbertown Emergency ACTion, told the Lantern she believed the bill would significantly limit the ability to use low-cost tools community members have to enforce air pollution regulations, such as taking photos and videos of air pollution violations and using PurpleAir monitors. 'It's important for us to have varying tools, in addition to our lived experience, so that our arguments can be seen as legitimate and can be verified,' Cochran said. 'They're trying to remove those tools that we use to verify that we are being harmed.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
