Public Health Air Quality Act - Brief
What is the Public Health Air Quality Act?
The Public Health Air Quality Act includes expanding national air monitoring networks, maintaining emission standards, and strengthening public awareness in local communities affected by hazardous pollutants emitted from the targeted and monitored industrial sites.
This newly proposed federal legislation that aims to protect clean air and public health by expanding fenceline and ambient air monitoring and access to air quality information for communities that are affected by air pollution. It will require hazardous air pollutant monitoring at the fenceline of facilities whose emissions are linked to local health threats. It will ensure the Environmental Protection Agency will promulgate rules that require hazardous air pollutant data measurement and electronic submission at facilities and stacks of industrial source categories.
It will increase transparency in information about air quality for vulnerable, fenceline communities, additional air quality control mechanisms & networks implemented by the EPA, and create a nationalized monitoring network.
How would it affect the Inland Empire?
After the rapid warehouse expansion has hit the region in recent years, there hundreds of thousand of people in the region live near warehouses. Approximately 367,584 people live within .25 of a mile from a warehouse in the Inland Empire. Residents have increasinly complained about the air pollution and warehouses in the region. Ranging from the county’s main city- San Bernardino- stretching to areas like Apple Valley. The contents of bill S. 3529 aims to increase transparency relative to the air pollution present in communities- like the ones in the Inland Empire through further nationalizing monitoring fenceline of facilities that produce hazardous pollutants, expanding the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency, and therefore subsequently expanding and further integrating partnerships with Community-Based Organizations like The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice with the EPA & state leadership, to strengthen regulations on Amazon, BNSF Railway, etc; and, safety protections for persons affected by hazardous pollutants and emissions.
Why was it introduced?
Senator Rochester proposed this bill as interstate activities breed air pollution in the state of Delaware. Often the trickle down effects stem from other states that are the source of pollution. This policy addresses the impact of that interstate activity’s effects by improving a form of oversight across states in a nationalized model. This bill was introduced because communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by industrial and environmental pollutants. “For years, under-resourced communities have been forced to live near pollutants, exposing them to serious health risks. This bill represents an important step toward combating toxic air quality and improving the data and tools necessary to prevent more public harm.”
Who are the decision Makers?
The bill has been referred to the Environmental Protection Agency. After it is amended, it will be voted on by our U.S. House & Senate representatives. Fill out our form to give them your perspective on this bill!
