By Morgan King, WV CAG Climate and Energy Program Manager
A new bill threatens to silence citizen science. SB 575 would limit community air monitoring by invalidating data collected by local air sensors and threaten our democracy through legislative overreach. Most problematically, the bill prevents the judiciary from deciding whether or not data is valid, thus violating the expertise and powers of the judicial branch of government.Â
Community air monitoring plays a crucial role in engaging citizens and supplementing data gathered by government agencies including, the EPA and the DEP. Our grassroots approach to monitoring air quality empowers citizens with free-to-them sensors to measure particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their air. Our project uses PurpleAir monitors that share AQI data on a real-time map and sends text alerts when local AQI levels are unsafe.Â
This map and the data we gather are also used to fill in gaps in the DEP’s and EPA’s monitoring network, as evidenced by the use of PurpleAir data in EPA maps and tools, and was recently apparent during the wildfire season of 2023.Â
Now, industry lobbyists want to suppress progress on this community science project. The government should not waste resources on policing community monitoring programs that provide peace of mind to local citizens and a vetted supplement to the EPA’s data.
Protect citizens, air monitoring. Reject SB 575.
I am a retired PhD chemist, who has lived in Vienna 30 years and worked 30 years in the chemical industry. There are multiple super fund sites in the area.. In Charleston chemicals spilled into the river. Dupont had a C-8 lawsuit. There was the Ames fire and law suits in Parkersburg. Citizens air monitoring is one means of obtaining data about future events.
Not allowing EPA to use citizens data is like telling a farmer that his count of chickens in his henhouse cannot be used as evidence of chicken theft. Breaking the thermometer does not prevent the occurrence of a fever. This bill is putting corporate profits over citizens health and safety
I strongly support community air monitoring. We have the right to know the quality of our air. It is nonsensical that the WV legislature would want to keep information from the public that might protect the public from being harmed by poisons in our air. Do they not care about our lives and the lives of our children? It is a fact that people get cancer and lung disease from polluted air. It appears the WV legislature is wanting to hide this critical information from the citizens of this state.