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NYC’s Air Still Dirty

The City’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released “The New York City Community Air Study” yesterday (link to full PDF here) and the results indicate that we still have a ways to go to eliminate the problem of air pollution. Measuring 5 different pollutants at 150 locations around the city and using density and traffic data to interpolate results, the report shows that air quality continues to be problematic in many areas of the city, especially in Manhattan, areas of the Bronx and other high-traffic areas.

NYC_PM_Map

Beyond traffic, another major cause identified is fuel combustion for space and water heating. This is because “New York City is unique in the large amount of #4 and #6 heavy or ‘residual’ oil used for heating. Burning residual oil for heating generates more PM2.5 and SO2 per unit of heat than burning regular #2 home heating oil. Natural gas emits even less PM2.5 per unit of heat produced.”

The report looked only at conditions during winter, and so misses out on some summer-specific causes like increased use of dirtier power plants to meet peak demand. It also doesn’t get into issues like indoor air quality (which can be much worse, especially in buildings with old equipment) and the increased amount of time people spend outside during the warmer months. Nor does it include data for the airports, which seem like they would be candidates for high pollution totals with all that jet fuel being burned.

That said, the solutions in the report are good to see, if somewhat obvious: a transition to cleaner fuels, increased efficiency, expanded mass transit and a shift to cleaner vehicles. To that we might add: promotion of renewable energy solutions like PV for electricity, solar thermal for water heating and geothermal for heating and cooling. More trees and planted areas like community gardens and green roofs could also be helpful.

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New York City is unique in the large amount of #4 and #6 heavy or

‘residual’ oil used for heating. Burning residual oil for heating generates more PM2.5 and

SO2 per unit of heat than burning regular #2 home heating oil. Natural gas emits even

less PM2.5 per unit of heat produced.

Posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 12:18 pm | Tagged in Energy, Energy Efficiency, New York City, Pollution | posted by Jamie