File #: Int 0678-2024    Version: * Name: Requiring the department of health and mental hygiene to measure pollutants near potential pollution hotspots in community air quality surveys.
Type: Introduction Status: Committee
Committee: Committee on Health
On agenda: 3/19/2024
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of health and mental hygiene to measure pollutants near potential pollution hotspots in community air quality surveys
Sponsors: James F. Gennaro, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Lincoln Restler
Council Member Sponsors: 3
Summary: This bill would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to include in its annual community air quality survey pollution measurements for at least 50 “potential pollution hotspots,” locations in close proximity to a source that is likely to significantly increase the concentrations of pollutants in its immediate vicinity.
Attachments: 1. Summary of Int. No. 678, 2. Int. No. 678, 3. March 19, 2024 - Stated Meeting Agenda, 4. Hearing Transcript - Stated Meeting 3-19-24, 5. Minutes of the Stated Meeting - March 19, 2024

Int. No. 678

 

By Council Members Gennaro, Gutiérrez and Restler

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring the department of health and mental hygiene to measure pollutants near potential pollution hotspots in community air quality surveys

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

Section 1. Subdivisions a and b of section 17-125 of the administrative code of the city New York, as added by local law number 103 for the year 2015, are amended to read as follows:

a. For [the] purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

Pollutants. The term "pollutants" means particulate matter that is less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide and ground-level ozone.

Potential pollution hotspot. The term “potential pollution hotspot” means a location in close proximity to a source that is likely to significantly increase the concentrations of pollutants in its immediate vicinity.

b. The department shall conduct a community air quality survey on an annual basis. Such survey shall:

1. Measure pollutants at street-level at monitoring sites across the city of New York over every season of the year, selected to ensure that the number of monitoring sites provides adequate information to assess the range of common emissions sources and neighborhood pollutant concentrations across the city, as determined by the department. At least 50 of such monitoring sites shall be located at potential pollution hotspots. At the discretion of the department, data on ozone may be measured in the summer months only and data on sulfur dioxide may be measured in the winter months only;

2. Determine whether and how concentrations of pollutants near monitor sites vary across the city and the relationship, if any, of such concentrations to local traffic, building emissions and other factors;

3. Identify the major local sources of pollutants that contribute to local variation in the concentrations thereof;

4. Identify patterns of pollutants by geographic area, by source, and by season or time of year;

5. Produce maps indicating the varying concentration levels of pollutants across neighborhoods, at potential pollution hotspots, and by pollutant;

6. Write an annual report summarizing the results of the activities described in paragraphs [one] 1 through [five] 5 of this subdivision;

7. Include in such report the findings of any completed or ongoing health surveillance or research studies using community air quality survey data to estimate population exposure to pollutants; and

8. Describe in the report the scientific methodology used to select monitor locations for measuring pollutants, including the scientific methodology used to select potential pollution hotspots, and the scientific methodology used for studying variations in pollutant concentrations.

§ 2. This local law takes effect 120 days after it becomes law.

 

 

 

 

 

EH

LS #13752

11/29/2023 2:48 PM