Detailed Emissions in Virginia (DEVA)

Detailed Emissions Virginia

Air pollution’s impact on public health has been a regulatory concern in the US since the 1950s, when the first Clean Air Act was passed. Attempts to regulate and reduce emissions have been undertaken at state and federal levels since then, and the question of whether these laws consider the equity of pollution exposure is increasingly relevant as scientists have documented continuing Environmental Justice issues. This paper, part of the Detailed Emissions in Virginia (DEVA): Identifying air pollution sources for environmental justice project, performs an in-depth analysis of environmental policy passed in the state of Virginia and by the Environmental Protection Agency between 2011-2020 to explore the extent environmental justice is being discussed, monitored, or enforced. The findings of the paper suggest that within this timeframe, dialogue around environmental justice began to increase, leading to the creation of Virginia’s own Office of Environmental Justice in October 2020. Although this state office has not yet released publicly available information as to its own equity measures and criteria, there are promising signs from federal leadership through President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 for integrating environmental justice in “all of government,” that can help Virginia’s OEJ shape its equity approach. This policy analysis supports ongoing quantitative research on linking state and local policies with their impacts on emission proximity disparities in Virginia. The quantitative analysis of the DEVA project includes characterizing inequities in proximity to air pollution emissions sources throughout counties in Virginia using data from the EPA National Emissions Inventory and the MOVES mobile source emissions model. Our team is using multiple metrics such as the Atkinson Index to quantify inequities and determine how these have changed over time.

Take a deep breath. Every breath of air we take contains oxygen, but also a plethora of other chemicals, such as Nitrogen gas, Sulfur Dioxide, Particulate Matter, and Volatile Organic Compounds. Inhaling these chemicals can lead to a multitude of health problems later on if concentrations are too high. However, these concentrations are not always distributed equally or equitably. This is where the role of environmental justice comes in, to ensure that communities of lower income or minority races are not disproportionately impacted. Air pollution’s impact on public health has been a regulatory concern in the US since the 1950s, when the first Clean Air Act was passed. Attempts to regulate and reduce emissions have been undertaken at state and federal levels since then, and the question of whether these laws consider the equity of pollution exposure is increasingly relevant as scientists have documented continuing Environmental Justice issues.

The Detailed Emissions in Virginia project, also known as the DEVA project, aims at Identifying air pollution sources and performs an in-depth analysis of environmental policy passed in the state of Virginia and by the Environmental Protection Agency between 2011 to 2020 to explore the extent environmental justice is being discussed, monitored, or enforced. This was done through both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Computational modeling of air pollutant emissions trends was done using data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory for the years 2011, 2014, and 2017. It also includes characterizing inequities in proximity to air pollution emissions sources throughout counties in Virginia using data from the EPA National Emissions Inventory and the MOVES mobile source emissions model. Our team is using multiple metrics such as the Atkinson Index to quantify inequities and determine how these have changed over time. The discovered trends were then compared with environmental policies from a state and federal level to determine if these regulations had an impact on overall emissions, and whether these policies discussed environmental justice or equity.

For example, the maps on the right-hand side of the poster are for total sulfur dioxide emissions for the years 2011, 2014, and 2017 based on the available National Emissions Inventory data. The counties in green indicate lower emissions while the areas in red have the highest emissions. Overall, there seems to be an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions, and more so in some counties than others. Sulfur dioxide is an especially interesting chemical to study as its interaction with other chemicals in the air can lead to more dangerous chemicals, such as particulate matter, which can pose dangerous health risks to humans and the environment later on should these emissions increase.

Given that 3 federal level and 4 state level environmental policies were passed between 2015 and 2021, this finding suggests that within this timeframe, dialogue around environmental justice began to increase, leading to the creation of Virginia’s own Office of Environmental Justice in October 2020. Although this state office has not yet released publicly available information as to its own equity measures and criteria, there are promising signs from federal leadership through President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 for integrating environmental justice in “all of government,” that can help Virginia’s OEJ shape its equity approach. This policy analysis supports ongoing quantitative research on linking state and local policies with their impacts on emission proximity disparities in Virginia.

Future goals of the DEVA project include analysis of similar maps developed for Particular Matter 2.5, Nitrogen dioxide, and volatile organic compounds to understand environmental policies along with expanded access to data on pollution emissions and environmental equity through creation of a Shiny App. Thank you for the opportunity to present the DEVA project.