Something’s in the air. This initiative aims to find answers

CLEANAIRE NC

Daisha Wall, community science manager at CleanAIRE NC, installs air monitors in Durham earlier this year. The Charlotte-based environmental advocacy group is installing monitors in four mostly-Black communities north Mecklenburg County as part of a federal grant program.

A Charlotte-based environmental advocacy group is monitoring air quality in four mostly Black neighborhoods in north Mecklenburg County.

CleanAIRE NC recently installed sensors to collect data as part of an initiative targeting health and environmental injustices linked to air pollution. The neighborhoods – Huntington Green and Pottstown in Huntersville, Smithville (Cornelius); and West Davidson – are lower-income communities that have higher pollution exposure than more affluent neighborhoods nearby. As a result, the more underserved communities are exposed to more health outcome inequities.  

“My community sits in front of a commercial dumping site where up to 150 diesel trucks travel daily, polluting our air,” said Rachel Zwipf, vice chair of the Pottstown Heritage Group. “As a mother with an asthmatic son, I am highly concerned about air quality. Monitoring air not only helps safeguard our health and well-being — it also plays a crucial role in advocating for more equitable policies.”

A grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency covers the project, which is part of the $128 million EPA’s Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving initiative. The federal program funds development of capacity-building resources communities can use to limit pollution exposure, show inequities caused by pollutants and advocate for policy change.  

The grant enables CleanAIRE NC to adopt new technology and expand the criteria of air pollutants they measure. Residents will use the sensors to collect, analyze, and publicly report data on pollutants that can drive higher mortality rates. They will also participate in CleanAIRE NC’s AirKeeper Academy, an education and advocacy initiative that empowers communities to protect themselves from air pollution, build lobbying skills, and discover mapping tools.  

In addition to the four Mecklenburg communities, the grant program will support 186 environmental justice projects nationwide.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with environmentally impacted communities on such important work, and being entrusted by the EPA to lead this work is extremely rewarding,” CleanAIRE NC Executive Director Jeffrey Robbins said in a statement. “This work will bolster community-led efforts to reign in air pollution and improve public health in one of North Carolina’s largest counties.”

CleanAIRE NC is also developing a dashboard that integrates data collected in the neighborhoods with geographic data that details proximity to pollution sources or schools located near air sensors. The goal is to give communities a tool to understand and communicate real-world environmental reality.

In addition, the initiative will connect communities with local health workers and encourage the Mecklenburg County Health Department to include environmental justice parameters in its 2027 Community Health Assessment.

“This project will improve Latino and historically Black communities’ understanding of their exposure to poor air quality and heat, said Steve Justus, a healthcare advocate for the North Mecklenburg Economic Mobility Coalition. “With clusters of air monitors in our neighborhoods, we’ll be prepared with real-time data to adapt to these challenges and push for changes to clean up the air we breathe.”

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