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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Lessons from other cities on air quality response
0:13:43
ยท
99 sec
The testimony references experiences and lessons learned from other cities, particularly on the West Coast, regarding their approaches to air quality issues.
- Conversations with partners in LA, Seattle, and San Francisco about their air quality response models
- These cities generally work with nonprofit and community centers
- Funding for air quality responses often comes through grants and state boards
- West Coast cities have not seen high demand for clean air centers
- There are concerns about the growing unreliability of federal funding, including recent EPA budget cuts
- The testimony recommends against tying clean air centers to cooling centers based on these lessons and experiences
Christina Farrell
0:13:43
We have had conversations with our West Coast partners including LA, Seattle and San Francisco who have been candid about the different models they have tried to address their air quality issues.
0:13:56
They generally work with nonprofit and community centers and have received funding through grants and state boards yet have not seen high demand for these centers.
0:14:04
We will continue to speak with them and learn from their best practices.
0:14:08
However, as the council also knows, there is a growing and concerning unreliability of federal funding.
0:14:15
For example, recently the Federal Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to cut hundreds of grants of more than $1,700,000,000 We rely on the EPA for air quality monitoring and guidance and as a base level are now unsure about the future of air quality monitoring in general.
0:14:34
Requiring partner organizations to open for high air quality indices would entail significant changes to how the cooling center program currently operates as an effective and successful program to provide cool options to those vulnerable to heat emergencies, thereby diluting the effectiveness of our extreme heat messaging and potentially causing our critical partners to balk at continuing their partnership.
0:14:59
Add to that the fact that cooling centers open for a very real and scientifically backed health reason related to heat exposure, but there is no scientific backing that the same measures for air quality exposure further dilutes the effectiveness of our messaging.
0:15:15
We ask the council not to tie clean air centers to cooling centers as they do not provide relief from air quality changes.