Environmentalist group wants air quality monitoring across DFW

A North Texas environmental group wants to create a system that would let you check the air quality right down to the street level.

The group called Downwinders at Risk wants to install air quality monitoring equipment all throughout the DFW area. Dallas City Council could soon weigh whether to join in on the creation of that network.

There are air quality monitors currently, but the group says there's just a handful and says that just doesn't cut it.

The group wants to network and get cities and counties on board to make it accessible so you can pull up the conditions on your phone.

The nature is one of the highlights at Jabrille McDuffie's home in the historic Joppa neighborhood.

“I picked this community because of all the trees and the greenery,” she said.

The Trinity River cuts right along the neighborhood's eastern border. On the other edge is industry.

“Sometimes you can feel it,” McDuffie said. “You can smell the air.”

Air is something residents in the small community of around 500 have fought for before.

In March, many successfully argued against Dallas allowing more concrete plants nearby citing air quality concerns. That also drew more attention to what's in the air.

“In the midst of all that, we found out that the current air quality in our community is not good,” McDuffie said.

Evelyn Mayo is with Downwinders at Risk. The group will soon begin installing air monitors in the area.

“This isn't a novel idea,” she said. “It’s new to Texas and new to Dallas, but there's absolutely no reason in my mind why no one has done this before us.”

The air monitors were created by UT Dallas Professor David Lary. They will include larger hubs and other smaller units interconnected by Wi-Fi.

Dr. Tate Barrett is a science director with Downwinders at Risk.

“The air would enter through here, and there’s a laser here,” he explained. “And any time a particle crosses, it counts and sizes it.”

But what's most interesting about the plan is not that they are adding them in Joppa, but that they want to create a network of monitors across the metroplex, potentially even installing them on utility poles.

“The idea of the network is to provide multiple monitors, possibly hundreds across DFW that can give an accurate representation of what’s in the air at any given time and in any given place as well,” Barrett said.

The group has worked with the city of Dallas and is hoping council will soon consider being a partner in joining the network.

“If you need to take an alternate route, if you're going to be walking biking something like that, you're going to be knowing exactly what you're going to be exposing yourself to in essentially real time,” Barrett said.

The group says the network could have a lot of implications, including for urban planners, with schools tracking absences or hospitals tracking upticks in illness. They say the cost is relatively low and says there are funds already out there that could be used for it.

A city spokesperson says the Quality of Life Committee should discuss the issue at a meeting on August 27.