MassDEP Investing in Air Quality Sensors in Environmental Justice Communities

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BOSTON — To celebrate Earth Week, the Healey-Driscoll Administration will dedicate $775,000 to install new air quality sensors across the state and put advanced monitoring technology into environmental justice communities to track local air quality and protect public health. 
 
The funding was announced by Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Commissioner Bonnie Heiple during a tour of a MassDEP air monitoring station in Kenmore Square in Boston – one of 24 air monitoring stations currently located across the state.? 
 
"The Healey-Driscoll Administration is committed to addressing toxic air emissions impacting residents across Massachusetts – especially environmental justice communities that have historically carried this burden of our industrial legacy," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. "We look forward to working with communities like Boston, environmental justice advocates, and residents to collect data and develop measurable progress to ensure all families are breathing clean, healthy air."? 
 
MassDEP's air monitoring stations test for pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Those data are posted in near real-time on the MassAir Online portal. MassDEP also provides air quality forecasts for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) year-round and for ozone during the summer ozone season.?  
 
Two programs funded by this $775,000 investment will support air sensors to expand on the information provided by the air monitoring stations. 
 
First, the Particulate Matter Air Sensor Grant Program provides "PurpleAir" air sensors at no cost to community-based and non-profit organizations, tribal communities, and municipalities. These softball-sized sensors monitor air quality by measuring fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The data from the sensors is displayed in real time on the PurpleAir website, as well as on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Fire and Smoke Map.?Sensor recipients can use that information to work with MassDEP, residents, and community groups to assess local air quality and identify areas with higher pollution levels where mitigation efforts can be directed to protect public health.?This round of investment will deploy 202 sensors across the state, supplementing the 248 sensors distributed in 2021.  
 
Second, the Multi-Pollutant Sensor Pilot program will allow MassDEP to initially partner with two or three communities to deploy advanced air monitoring technology – black carbon and multi-pollutant air sensors – in or near environmental justice populations on a pilot basis. Forty black carbon sensors will characterize diesel emissions in areas that experience high levels of truck traffic. Fifty multi-pollutant air sensors will measure fine particulates (PM2.5), carbon monoxide, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide.?The resulting data will expand awareness of local air quality conditions and inform strategies to reduce exposure to pollutants, as well as inform future placement of the sensors. 

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Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A reasonable expectation by the people of a community is that their Select Board rises above personal preference and represents the collective interests of the community. On Tuesday night [Nov. 12], what occurred is reason for concern that might not be true in Dalton.

This all began when a Select Board member submitted his resignation effective Oct. 1 to the Town Clerk. Wishing to fill the vacated Select Board seat, in good faith I followed the state law, prepared a petition, and collected the required 200-plus signatures of which the Town Clerk certified 223. The Town Manager, who already had a copy of the Select Board member's resignation, was notified of the certified petitions the following day. All required steps had been completed.

Or had they? At the Oct. 9 Select Board meeting when Board members discussed the submitted petition, there was no mention about how they were informed of the petition or that they had not seen the resignation letter. Then a month later at the Nov. 12 Select Board meeting we learn that providing the resignation letter and certified petitions to the Town Manager was insufficient. However, by informing the Town Manager back in October the Select Board had been informed. Thus, the contentions raised at the Nov. 12 meeting by John Boyle seem like a thinly veiled attempt to delay a decision until the end of January deadline to have a special election has passed.

If this is happening with the Special Election, can we realistically hope that the present Board will listen to the call by residents to halt the rapid increases in spending and our taxes that have been occurring the last few years and pass a level-funded budget for next year, or to not harness the taxpayers in town with the majority of the cost for a new police station? I am sure these issues are of concern to many in town. However, to make a change many people need to speak up.

Please reach out to a Select Board member and let them know you are concerned and want the Special Election issue addressed and finalized at their Nov. 25 meeting.

Robert E.W. Collins
Dalton, Mass.

 

 

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