Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the House Energy & Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee, and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), chair and co-founder of the U.S. Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, led a coalition of 58 of their House and Senate colleagues in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do everything it can to ensure that air-monitoring networks and air monitors that are critical to informing public health protections remain in operation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Members’ bicameral letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler comes amid reports that some air monitors have been shut off in EPA’s Region 5, which is headquartered in Illinois, at the same time as evidence suggests that high levels of air pollution are significantly exacerbating certain pre-existing conditions that could result in COVID-19 complications, and that long-term exposure to air pollution is a large contributing factor to an increase in fatalities.

“This pandemic is shining a light on the disproportionate and cumulative impacts pollution has on low income and communities of color, who are experiencing staggering rates of mortality from COVID-19 and often lack access to healthcare,” the members wrote in today’s letter. “Due to these concerns, it is critical that the EPA do everything it can to ensure that all air-monitoring networks and air monitors are operating. Data generated from these monitors is critical to informing public health protections in general and especially during a global health pandemic.”

Full text of the letter is included below and can be found here.

May 20, 2020

The Honorable Andrew Wheeler

Administrator 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest

Washington, D.C.  20004

Dear Administrator Wheeler:

We are writing to request specific information on how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is collecting air pollution data during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like our constituents and families across the country, we are deeply concerned over growing evidence that high levels of air pollution are significantly exacerbating certain pre-existing conditions that result in COVID-19 complications, and that long-term exposure to air pollution is a large contributing factor to an increase in fatalities. Furthermore, this pandemic is shining a light on the disproportionate and cumulative impacts pollution has on low income and communities of color, who are experiencing staggering rates of mortality from COVID-19 and often lack access to healthcare.

Due to these concerns, it is critical that the EPA do everything it can to ensure that all air-monitoring networks and air monitors are operating. Data generated from these monitors is critical to informing public health protections in general and especially during a global health pandemic.

In order to understand how EPA is guaranteeing the public has the information they need to understand what public health risks they face, we request information from EPA regarding:

1. Whether any air monitors operated or overseen by EPA or used for determining NAAQS or other Clean Air Act compliance are currently shut off, broken, in need of maintenance, inoperable, or otherwise not making air monitoring results available. This includes any air toxics monitors, or any ambient air quality monitors used for NAAQS compliance. If any such air monitors are shut off, broken, in need of maintenance, inoperable, or if monitoring results for any such monitors are not otherwise available, please provide timetables and EPA’s plans for restoring them. 

2.              Whether any air toxics monitors or ambient air quality monitors used for NAAQS compliance were offline or shut down for any period of time since January 31, 2020, the day the Secretary of Health and Human Services declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. If they were shut down, please detail the specific dates these monitors were not operated and whether they are now operational.

3.              Whether EPA has plans this calendar year (2020) to increase the number of ambient or fenceline air toxics monitors or ambient air quality monitors used for NAAQS compliance and where these monitors will be located.

4.              Whether EPA has plans this calendar year (2020) to implement fenceline monitoring near any sources of ethylene oxide, and if so where.

5.              What actions, if any, EPA plans to take to protect communities where an air monitor shows unhealthy air during the pandemic.

EPA’s job is to protect the air we breathe, and that job could not be more important than during a global health pandemic. As a result, we are requesting data showing that the agency is taking the necessary steps to combat both air pollution and its impacts on human health.

Please provide answers to these questions and records responsive to this request by May 29, 2020. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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