Officials wouldn’t make sure Kansas City, Kansas’ air was safe to breathe. So we did
Most of us in the Kansas City metropolitan area benefit in one way or another from living in one of the nation’s most important rail hubs to move goods around the country. However, not enough of us are aware of a serious public health hazard that goes with it.
It turns out that we’re all exposed to a form of toxic air pollution — fine particulate matter — that causes lung cancer, asthma, heart disease and other serious illnesses. The air we breathe contains three times more of this pollution than the World Health Organization says is acceptable. Fortunately, it is a problem with a solution if the appropriate, affordable and long-overdue steps are taken.
This summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began moving in the right direction. On July 7, it added $50 million to a plan to improve air pollution monitoring in low-income communities of color all over the country. Activists and residents of areas adjacent to the nation’s inland hubs and seaports welcomed this news because we continue to suffer from deadly diesel fumes and other contaminants from the freight sector.
These pollution monitors could mean resources to set new guidelines that would improve air quality. In order to make the data they collect effective, the residents of the areas affected — in Kansas City and elsewhere — need to play a central role in determining what pollutants to measure, where to place the sensors and how to analyze the data they collect. Up to now, our communities have paid a heavy price for having been left out of this all-important decision-making.
Overburdened areas identified by the EPA as Environmental Justice communities often do not have air monitors to alert them to dangerous air pollution. Where they do, the instruments are hopelessly outdated. They cannot detect many of the major contaminants to which residents are exposed daily. Even where capable monitors are available, state regulators often prioritize their placement to serve the needs of industry over local public health concerns.
For these reasons, community organizations such as CleanAirNow, where I am executive director, began deploying their own air monitors to track pollution and advocate for much needed reductions from these harmful pollutants. CleanAirNow’s primary scope covers the U.S. Census’ Kansas City-Overland Park-Kansas City, MO-KS Combined Statistical Area and the Topeka Metropolitan Areas, as well as Kansas’ Brown County, which includes the Sac and Fox and Kickapoo reservations.
In Kansas City, Kansas’ Argentine, Armourdale and Turner neighborhoods lies one of the nation’s largest freight rail hubs and inland ports in the Midwest. They’re all in Wyandotte County, which has consistently ranked near the bottom of Kansas’ 105 counties for health measures such as life expectancy.
The residents of communities such as Argentine, where windows were covered daily with black soot, took it upon themselves to monitor the daily pollution, while officials refused to see the necessity. The results found high levels of fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, and black carbon — which are known causes of respiratory illnesses — among other contaminants. The project found that diesel exhaust air pollution levels were high enough to send people to the hospital and cause premature deaths according to our consulting scientist, Mark Chernaik.
Responding to community pressure based on our air monitoring and data collection, in 2017 the EPA launched its own KC-TRAQS, the Kansas City Transportation and Local-Scale Air Quality Study. However, the agency placed its monitors without guidance from the very people who initially collected the data. Partnered with the monitoring company Aeroqual, CleanAirNow now has a network of more than 10 air sensors in Kansas City that measure PM 2.5 and provide real-time air quality information. The EPA signed a cooperative agreement to use our to inform its studies.
When officials wouldn’t take action to make sure our air is breathable, we equipped ourselves with the knowledge and technical capacity to do it effectively on our own. While we continue to press for a central role in measuring air quality, we know that more is needed. Leadership from the community and organizations such as CleanAirNow is critical to the success and effectiveness of these programs to keep everyone safe.
Beto Lugo-Martinez is a Kansas City resident and the executive director of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit CleanAirNow.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Officials wouldn’t make sure Kansas City, Kansas’ air was safe to breathe. So we did."