South Bronx study shows slight increase in air pollution post-congestion pricing

Spectrum News NY1

by Samantha Liebman

The Major Deegan Expressway, the Third Avenue Bridge and the RFK Bridge bring truck traffic — and the fumes from those trucks — into the South Bronx, and residents told NY1 they are sick and tired of it.

Community advocates and a Ph.D. student from Columbia University said data from air quality monitoring shows those fumes are even worse since congestion pricing started. Out of 19 monitoring sites in the area, 12 saw increases in particulate matter, according to South Bronx Unite.

A study showed it rose, on average, by 0.22 micrograms per cubic foot. Alexander De Jesus, who led the study, said they accounted for weather, hourly and seasonal changes in air conditions and traffic patterns.

“While 0.22 may sound small, this is a significant figure,” said de Jesus. “This community in particular, Mott Haven and Port Morris, has had the highest emergency department visit rate for childhood asthma; adult asthma for the last 10 years plus.”

The MTA’s environmental assessment predicted a slight increase in traffic and agreed to mitigation measures. They include $70 million for renovating parks and green space, installing roadside vegetation, placing air filters in schools, replacing the refrigeration units at Hunts Point Market with cleaner ones and building an asthma center.

But the community said it doesn’t address the causes of the high levels of pollution that already existed.

“They went on with their project, saying that increase is manageable if we mitigate it,” said Mychael Johnson, of South Bronx Unite. “We don’t feel it’s mitigatable when our children are going to hospitals today because they’re sick. People are dying in our community because they can’t breathe.”