Initial data from a first-of-its-kind air quality study in New York points to vehicle emissions as a major source of pollution in Rochester and a handful of other cities across the state.
The study also identified other key sources that locally included scrap metal processors, junkyards, railroad corridors and railyards.
“We're going to use this data and work moving forward to advance and really underpin our efforts to electrify our transportation networks across the state,” said Sean Mahar, the state’s interim commissioner for environmental conservation.
Rochester is one of 10 communities being studied as part of the state's Community Air Monitoring Initiative. Others include Buffalo, the Capital Region, Syracuse and Manhattan. Data was collected using sensors mounted to low-emission vehicles, tracking greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide, methane, and ethane as well as other pollutants nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particulate matter and black carbon.
The study is a key piece of New York’s emission reduction efforts. Those efforts have come through investment and regulation. Mahar points specifically to a push with other states to build the market for electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including school buses.
Release of the initial findings comes as the state launches an anti-idling enforcement blitz aimed at heavy-duty trucks. Officials will present the study results locally at a public meeting set for 5 p.m. Sept. 12 at the downtown Bausch & Lomb public library building.
While overall air quality is better today than in years past, “historic inequities continue to create challenges that directly affect the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged community residents statewide,” Mahar said.
Sources often are adjacent to schools, childcare centers, health care facilities and nursing homes, officials said.
In Rochester, the data show elevated pollution levels in the northeast part of the city, particularly near the river south of Route 104, and dispersed along local roads in Maplewood, Marketview Heights and Beechwood neighborhoods and adjacent to the rail corridor and a junkyard near Freddie Thomas Middle School. On the west side of the city, there are elevated along the Mt. Read corridor and the interstates 490-390 interchange.
“One of the difficult parts of this analysis is sometimes there are multiple sources,” said Margaret LaFarr, assistant director of the DEC air resources division.
In sharing the data with the public, officials also hope residents can help identify sources.
