Environmental Justice And Air Pollution:
Are We Monitoring The Right Pollutants?
Case Study In Phoenix, AZ
Author(s)
S. Babu
Abstract
Past environmental justice (EJ) research concludes that exposure to
environmental hazards is greater in minority communities than in majority
communities. Most EJ studies that suggest disproportionate environmental
hazards exposure in predominantly minority communities are based upon United
States Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (USEPA
TRI) data, which does not take into account multitudes of Small Quantity
Generators (SQGs) whose combined capacity for emissions is more than what a
TRI facility emits. Furthermore TRI facility emissions are contained and
constrained by emission capture devices such as after burners, bag house filters,
etc and permit conditions while Small Quantity Generators (SQGs) have no such
legal requirements. This study looks into the air contaminants that are being
monitored as a part of the regulatory requirement to what is actually being
emitted. In the Maricopa County Monitoring District, the air contaminants
monitored are typically the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) -
criteria pollutants; however what is being emitted by the different entities are a
lot more than just the NAAQS criteria pollutants. At the present time what is
being monitored is inadequate and incomplete, moreover the myriad of
chemicals emitted unfettered has individual and synergistic community-wide
health effects that is currently un-monitored and unknown. This research paper is
important in two fundamental ways, one, it places emphasis on the problem of
environmental justice in the context of society of today. Second, it explores the
possibility of setting standards in such a way that an individual community can
decide how much contaminant emissions (air) they are willing to accept in terms
of chemicals and quantities.
Keywords: air pollution, pollution monitoring, air contaminants.
Keywords
air pollution, pollution monitoring, air contaminants.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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