Finding Air Pollution Sources in Your Neighborhood
The U.S. EPA has a wealth of general information on environmental quality at www.epa.gov/. From there, you can follow links to air information and "where you live" to find data about your local air quality, or you can go directly to www.epa.gov/air/data/index.html and click on the icon for reports and maps. You can either zoom in on your state and neighborhood by clicking on the interactive map, or you can get there a little faster by going to the geographic selection page and choosing your city in the MSA (metropolitan statistical area) list, or entering your zip code on the "list only" page and clicking go.
1. Within the emissions section, click on the facility/monitor locator map to find major sources of pollutants in your area. You can choose a specific pollutant, or, hold down the shift key to choose multiple pollutants. Select a year for your report, specify geographical features, and then click on generate map. What is the closest pollution source to your home? Were you aware of it before this exercise? If you can't recognize sources from locations on the map, you can click on view data at the bottom of the page to generate a list of pollution sources. What's the largest source of CO2 emissions in your neighborhood? Are you surprised to learn about it?
2. Go back to select geographic area and select your whole state, then choose Air Quality Index Summary under Air Monitoring. Choose a year and either county or MSA and generate a report of air quality levels. How many days in the year you selected had air quality unhealthy for sensitive people? What pollution type was highest in your area? What do you think might be done to improve air quality where you live?
