The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is launching a new project that will analyze the air in two Hampton Roads communities that have historically been impacted by coal dust.
"This project is the Tidewater Air Monitoring Evaluation Project (TAME)," said Grace Holmes, the Tidewater environmental justice coordinator for VDEQ. "It is an EPA grant-funded project that is looking at the air quality in historic Tidewater communities."
These communities include Lambert's Point in Norfolk and the Southeast community of Newport News.
"These communities have historic concerns about coal dust being in proximity to coal terminals that have been near these communities for over a century," explained Holmes.
"I can wash [my house] down and the dust is going to come right back," said Keith Moore, whose family has lived in Norfolk's Lambert's Point neighborhood for more than 70 years.
Keith believes the coal dust has been impacting people's health.
"It's going to kill you," he said. "It's a story to be told. Everyone out here that has died, has died from cancer."
To test the air, VDEQ is building shed-like terminals in both communities. There will be five in Newport News and four in Norfolk. This is how they will filter the air and collect data.
"The air comes in from the top, it's pulled down, analyzed, and then that comes into the transmitter [that's in] the shed," explained Holmes. "And then that transmits using Wifi back to our central office in Richmond."
Holmes says the community can also get involved in the project.
"The second part of our air quality monitoring is with Purple air sensors," she added.
The sensors are free to anyone living in Lambert's Point or Southeast Newport News. The sensors provide real-time data to community members that can also be seen by VDEQ.
The data collected from both the terminals and the sensors will then be sent to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).
"We wanted to have our health experts in the state be able to take the data that we're taking from the air quality and characterize that in terms of health outcomes for those communities," said Holmes. "They will receive the data as we receive it and they will produce health risk assessments for both communities."
A 2017 study conducted by VDH in Lambert's Point found that the coal dust originating from nearby railroads was not significant enough to impact people's health. But the study does note that coal dust impacts bodies differently depending on age, lifestyle, and health status.
News 3 reached out to Norfolk Southern, the company that operates the railways believed to be producing the coal dust. Norfolk Southern responded saying they support the additional data collection and are confident the findings will corroborate the 2017 study, adding that their own data shows the air quality surrounding their operations exceeds EPA standards.
Still, residents like Keith think more should be done.
"They need to make it more protective for the people that live here," he said. "Money is not that important."
