EPA Grants Funding to Support Air Quality Monitoring Projects to Reduce Community Air Pollution
Late last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its selection of 132 air monitoring projects to receive a combined $53.4 million in grant funding to address health outcome disparities from air pollution. Enabled by the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, the funding is intended to support more robust air quality monitoring and community-government air quality monitoring partnerships with an emphasis on historically marginalized and underinvested communities.
Air pollution poses a dangerous threat to human health, exacerbating a broad range of issues including respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Pollution levels, types, and effects vary across regions and neighborhoods, disproportionately affecting already underserved communities. Actions to alleviate air pollution’s disproportionate health burden align with the goals of environmental justice, which aims to provide everyone the same degree of access to federal agency actions surrounding environmental laws and protection from environmental and health hazards.
At QuantAQ, we believe that environmental justice for air quality begins with a better understanding of what’s in the air that people are breathing. We are proud to be the vendor of choice for many of the grant awardees and are excited to help them improve the air quality monitoring capacity in their communities over the next few years. The awarded funds will enable the building of accurate and reliable air quality monitoring sensor networks, data from which will help determine what’s causing air pollution, so our partners can apply these insights to improve public health.
“These grants represent one of, if not the largest, investments in community-scale air quality monitoring in United States history,” says QuantAQ CEO David Hagan. We’re incredibly excited to be awarded the opportunity to support communities’ air quality monitoring needs.”
We’re thrilled that federal support is expanding to advance equal environmental protections —and that we can collaborate with our dedicated partners for improved community health. Read about their award-winning projects below - the following is a living list that will be updated as more projects come online throughout the second half of 2023.
Partner Projects
Last Updated: July 26th, 2023
State of Alaska
The State of Alaska will expand and maintain its low-cost air sensor network for Alaskan communities statewide. The expansion of the air sensor network will provide baseline air quality data for areas not covered by the State's regulatory monitoring network and will provide outreach, education, and assistance to the communities with sensors.
City of Madison, Wisconsin
The City of Madison chose to partner with QuantAQ for its new city-wide network of air quality sensors. Focusing on particulate matter, the project will provide accurate, real-time, neighborhood-specific information to citizens and community leaders working to address the causes and health consequences of air pollution.