Until now, there was only one sensor collecting data on air quality in McLean County. A new initiative looks to gain a clearer picture of places identified as environmental justice areas, a term for disinvested neighborhoods or communities who are at higher risk for cardiopulmonary disease due to poor air quality.
The Bloomington-Normal Community Air Research and Education project, or BN-CARE, is a multi-agency initiative led by Ecology Action Center which aims to collect better, more targeted data about air quality in three locations for three years. One sensor is in Normal’s Fairview Park; the other two are placed in West Bloomington on Washington and Market streets.
“Clean air and clear water are a God-given right,” said Kevin Jackson, a deacon at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, which owns the lot on Market Street where one sensor is installed.
“There’s a lot of people with compromised respiratory systems,” Jackson said. “And a lot of them are within this very community. So, we feel that this was a good starting spot.”
Jackson is also involved with Bloomington-Normal NAACP, another partner in BN-CARE. Additional advisors, partners and collaborators include a wide range of agencies including Illinois State University, McLean County Health Department and Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District.
Community members can immediately access air quality levels at each location in real time at bncare.org. The website includes a signup link to receive text alerts when air quality is poor. Monitors measure particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds. Additional portable air quality monitors can be used for training and educational purposes with community members and students.
Partners and area politicians gathered for a launch ceremony Wednesday. In her remarks, NAACP President Linda Foster noted that Bloomington-Normal is ahead of the curve by identifying public health-oriented solutions before it's too late.
“We’re able to do better things, greater things,” she said, “that we won’t hopefully find ourselves in situations like some of these other communities. History says that we’re supposed to have problems.”
Air pollution is linked to 100,000 pre-mature deaths in the United States annually. And the risk of chronic disease due to air quality is much higher among communities of color.
Scholars link this phenomenon to redlining and segregation during the post-World War II housing boom. Hazel Johnson was a pioneering voice of the environmental justice movement following her husband's death. She noticed high rates of cancer and respiratory disease among family members and neighbors living in the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on Chicago's far South Side.
The complex was nicknamed the "toxic donut" due to a high proportion of landfills and hazardous waste produced by nearby factories. Today, 97% percent of Altgeld Gardens' residents are Black. More than 60% live in poverty.
Johnson's advocacy led to an executive order signed by President Bill Clinton compelling the federal environmental protection agency to include environmental justice as part of their work. BN-CARE is funded by a grant from the USEPA by an initiative of the American Rescue Plan.
While BN-CARE is more preventative in nature than other communities, Bloomington-Normal is not immune to the impacts of pollution. Ecology Action Center Executive Director Michael Brown said they've been monitoring air quality with available data for 10-15 years with the county’s single sensor.
“Even that tells us that we occasionally have high levels of ground-level ozone,” Brown said.
Brown said ozone standards have been tightened in the last 15 years. EAC’s data also helped narrow down the three environmental justice zones with new sensors. Without action, he said, there's a likelihood that areas of Bloomington-Normal could soon be out of compliance.
“…Which brings not only public health impacts, but significant financial impacts and economic impacts,” Brown said. “It can slow economic growth.”
Brown emphasized that BN-CARE is not aimed at slowing industrial growth at manufacturers such as Cargill or Rivian, both of which signed on as project partners.
“They already know what they’re doing and whether or not they’re within limits,” Brown said. “It’s not that we’re trying to catch them in some sort of violation. Rather, it is part of the question and it’s part of the answer.”
While BN CARE and its source funding are focused on data collection, Brown said Ecology Action Center already has thought ahead toward solutions. One of the best ways to improve air quality and lower surface temperature is to plant trees.
“Tree Corps is about that,” Brown said. “It’s about improving air quality, especially in urban areas and environmental justice areas. It’s about carbon sequestration in a cost-effective manner. It’s about improving critical habitat for native species and native pollinators that we’re losing.”
Air quality is similarly just the tip of the iceberg for Jackson and Mt. Pisgah Church. Jackson also wants to participate in clean water initiatives, seeing the church's role as being educators — messengers, so to speak.
“As we educate, we hope to elevate the mindset so others can jump on board and be a part of what we’re doing,” he said.
