Nassau community reps get update on state monitoring aimed at reducing air pollution

State officials gave a virtual update Thursday on the air quality of five Nassau communities, part of a yearlong initiative to identify and reduce pollutants in these high pollution areas. 

The Department of Environmental Conservation gave some second-quarter preliminary findings on air pollution in portions of Hempstead, New Cassel and Uniondale. Since September of 2022, sensors monitored air quality in those communities, as well as in areas of Westbury and Roosevelt.

The virtual meeting included a handful of DEC personnel, community advocates and local officials.

“This study will help identify the sources that are contributing to the high air pollution burden in communities like Hempstead, and will provide the data that the state needs to be able to target our emission reduction strategies,” said Adriana Espinoza, DEC’s deputy commissioner for equity and justice.

Researchers noted initially high methane concentrations in Roosevelt and seven other areas within the Nassau communities monitored, according to preliminary findings. Researchers believe that the high levels of the odorless and colorless greenhouse gas likely comes from a natural gas leak. However, over the course of the air monitoring, the levels have since dropped off.

Some maps of early findings show high concentrations of pollutant PM 2.5 in areas such as parts of Old Country Road in Westbury and Southern State Parkway in Roosevelt.

PM 2.5 can come from sources such as vehicle exhausts and the burning of fuels such as heating oil, according to the state Department of Health. It can be a health concern, worsening asthma and causing sneezing and other conditions in the short-term. 

The air quality study is part of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Passed in 2019, the law seeks to prioritize disadvantaged communities in several ways including reductions in air pollution and climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions, state officials say.

Officials came up with a disadvantaged community identifier using 45 indicators such as race and environmental burden to identify roughly 1,700 census tracts across the state and ultimately the portions of the five Nassau communities being monitored for air pollution in the study. 

This air quality study is looking at 10 areas in the state with a high pollution burden, state officials say. Other places that will see the monitoring include portions of lower Westchester, the Bronx and Rochester in western New York. In total, an estimated 5 million residents live in the 10 areas, DEC officials say.

For the study, low-emissions vehicles equipped with sensors are driven on public roads in the study areas at least 20 times over a year, officials said. The effort aims to collect block-level air pollution data to identifying disproportionate air pollution burdens and find solutions, the DEC said.

Data collected will be used to make maps showing air pollution for every 100 meters across the selected communities, the DEC said. Once the study concludes, the findings will be available to the community.

Until then, Randi Walker, of the DEC, said in the meeting that they hope that communities will view the preliminary maps and give them suggestions on factors contributing to the air pollution.

“We're hoping the community also comes up with their own hypotheses, takes a look at the data to see if it bears out and comes up with their emission reduction strategies,” Walker said.

She added: “We'll get together and work on this as a collective effort.”

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Education: Howard University 

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.

Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation;  New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting;  Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.