US air-monitoring network has shrunk by half over two decades, investigation finds

The network of monitors that tracks air pollution across the United States has shrunk by nearly half over the past two decades, according to an investigation by the nonprofit newsroom Floodlight, even as pollution sources like wildfire smoke and data centers multiply.

Federal funding for air monitoring has fallen more than 35% in inflation-adjusted terms over 20 years, and nearly 60% of U.S. counties now have no public air monitor at all. In Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio and West Virginia, the investigation found that 71 of the 100 largest industrial polluters examined are not monitored for their primary toxic emission. The monitoring network for vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen, has shrunk by more than half since 2004.

"It's showing its age. And it's getting smaller over time," said Chet Wayland, a former director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Assessment Division. Chemical industry trade groups in several states have backed legislation restricting the use of community-collected air-monitoring data in regulatory enforcement, arguing the data isn't reliable, even as they've opposed efforts to set stricter data standards. "When we take away the ability for those folks to have a reasonably priced monitor, we've just taken any tool they had right out of their hands," said Miranda Leppla, an environmental attorney.

Some states have moved the other way: California has budgeted .4 billion since 2017 for community air-protection programs. Marylee Orr, executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said the cuts have left residents fewer ways to hold polluters accountable. "It's like having your legs knocked out from under you," she said.

Based on reporting by Ames Alexander and Brad Racino for Floodlight, via Grist. Read the original: https://grist.org/accountability/americas-air-monitors-are-disappearing-so-is-your-power-to-expose-polluters/