The Campaign for Better Health at Ezra Prentice

by Elizabeth DeSantis

From conducting health surveys to installing monitors counting trucks to tracking the air quality at the Ezra Prentice Homes, the journey toward relief is not quite over for the residents who live there. But certainly concerns surrounding the damage to the health of this community have grown more widespread in the last two years.

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is spending $500,000 over the next year to conduct an intensive study of air quality in the neighborhood, using new and sophisticated air monitoring equipment with two stationary sites and hand held monitors as well . 

This plan is a year-long study to look into the main contributing sources to air pollution in the South End, which the DEC will assess:

• How much particulate matter comes from motor vehicles versus Port activities?
• How far does particulate matter travel from the road into the neighborhood?
• How much benzene comes from sources in the Port versus vehicles on local roadways?
• What approaches can the DEC take to help the community understand air quality?

The study began only this fall, so the discoveries are not yet in-depth. However, Kyle Frazier, a representative for the DEC, stated,

“Instrumentation has been installed and is up and running.  The portable monitoring portion of the study has been underway for a few months.  To assist our data interpretation, the New York State Department of Transportation has agreed to install a traffic counter on South Pearl St.  DEC plans to compare the car and truck counts to our monitoring data.  We’ve also learned that we need to work better on translating technical information for the community”.

The goal of these air monitors overall is for the DEC to gain a greater understanding about the primary sources of some air pollutants, such as particulate matter and chemical gases that are emitted into the air from motor vehicles, road dust, and loading crude oil from one container to another. There is a monitor that remains constant outside of the Ezra Prentice Homes that tracks Benzene, the most common chemical gas that is created from gasoline fumes, asphalt, and moving crude oil.

A second, smaller monitor has been installed near the Creighton Storey Homes on Third Avenue, almost a mile away from the Port and much further up the hill so data between the two can be compared.

AVillage and the Ezra Prentice Tenants Association have hosted four DEC presentations on the air quality project in the past year to explain the air quality project. Another information session is being planned  for January.

In the meantime, a study conducted this summer by the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) designed to count the diesel trucks and track their origins and destinations is still not complete, but results are expected soon.

AVillage’s Resident Outreach Workers have facilitated health surveys at 107 households at Ezra Prentice This information is invaluable both to make the case that the air quality is affecting people’s health, and also in allowing us to work with CDPHP, the Albany County Health Department and other providers to make sure people get connected with good information about their health issues, and find appropriate services if needed. 

Working with Trinity Alliance and the Radix Center, we will be expanding our surveys and outreach to other parts of the South End starting in January. If you are interested in becoming a Resident Outreach Worker (ROW) to help conduct these surveys, contact Willie White at avillage5@aol.com.