Letter to Michael Regan, EPA Administrator - Reverse Course and Reopen Adirondack & North Country Air Quality Monitoring Stations

Letter

Dear Administrator Regan:

I write to urge the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse course and reopen the three air quality monitoring stations recently closed in New York State. We need more air quality monitoring, not less, and I am committed to fighting for additional funding in Fiscal Year 2023 to keep these, and all of New York's air quality monitoring stations up and running. EPA must reverse course and continue keeping a watchful eye on our air.

I was recently informed that EPA had closed down three key air quality monitoring sites in New York State -- Huntington, Akwesasne-Mohawk, and Bennett Bridge. These sites are a part of key air quality monitoring networks that maintain a watchful eye on important pollutants. These networks are: CASTNet, the Clean Air Status and Trends Network, which measures ambient air quality for key pollutants listed in the Clean Air Act; NTN, the National Trends Network, which monitors nitrogen and tracks ozone, smog, and excess nutrient loading, and; AMON, the Ambient Ammonia Monitoring Network which tests for ammonia in ambient air. According to research conducted by New York State under the auspices of the Adirondack Lakes Research Corp and others, by the 1980s, roughly 25% of the Adirondack Park's 2,800 larger lakes and ponds (10 acres or more) were rendered lifeless by air pollution that poisoned the soil and spread mercury pollution into fish and wildlife. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 brought the first federal acid rain control program, and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule made additional progress. Those pollution control measures were created because New York and other Northeast states had evidence to show regulators -- first, evidence that cuts were needed; then, evidence that the cuts were working. There are currently some signs of recovery from acid rain beginning to emerge in the Adirondacks, where the worst damage in the nation has been documented. Some fish species are more plentiful, and some species are no longer toxic due to humans due to mercury contamination. But progress varies from lake to lake. So we can see that these controls are working, and it is the air quality monitoring networks that let us know that is the case. Most importantly, losing these stations would close the EPA's eyes and ears to violations of federal law.

Furthermore, the GAO warned Congress in December of 2019 that the nation's air quality monitoring network was becoming antiquated and needed an influx of capital for modern equipment. That modernization has not begun, and EPA's recent decision to close more monitoring stations is exactly the opposite of what GAO says we need. This modernization would allow this network to monitor PM 2.5, black carbon, PFAS in rainfall, and greenhouse gases. The data behind this modernized monitoring network is exactly what Congress and regulators need to build more effective environmental laws and regulations.

Therefore, I urge the EPA to reverse course and reopen these monitoring sites, while working with me to provide the funding we need to rebuild and modernize our air quality monitoring network.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Please do not hesitate to reach out to my staff with any questions you may have

Sincerely,

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