When you drive, bike, walk,or boat in Kenmore by the lake, north side, the natural beauty can cause envy of those that live in our city. However as much as we love to live here, we know our health, air, waterways, and land need to be tested and clean...↓
We have stationary cement and asphalt plant, as well as the 522 highway, that was put within feet (close proximity). We know that contamination and emissions varies with terrain, winds, weather conversion zones, due to which neighborhood residents are more impacted by illness.We know the "Emissions are not just Steam".
Many neighborhoods, in the emissions path have neighbors with cancer, our health impact map rates confirm this, Kenmore at a 9 of 10. Our area asthma rate is over 61%. Doctors from Harbor View, nurses from WA University wrote emails sounding alarms as early as 2016.
We see the dark opacity, we smell the stench of the sulfur dioxide, and our residents are affected by the high air pollution, as is our trees, waterways, salmon, soils, and wildlife, yet our resident concerns have been overlooked.
Annually, when the wildfires cause unhealthy air quality, via the air quality maps, I alert neighbors to close the windows as many have suffered many illnesses, and are in the emission path as well as within 1/8 mile of the highway. Soon the response was that, we're already awaken, coughing and smelling the odor, followed by a video, the sky thick with wildfire smoke with dark grey emissions bellowing from the asphalt plant stack in heavy production. Industry, our biggest polluter, should observe burn bans not make air quality worse.
Our County list our community as 66% cost burdened, and mostly seniors, veterans, and disabled with many low income families. Most can not afford air purifiers. Many struggle to buy prescriptions which include inhalers. Some, even using air purifiers, still report grit and ash on their window sills or bedding, as well as in their mouth.
We desperately need support and funding for best science manual testing and possible identifying if calibration to PSCAA N.O.C., and stationary plant best practice changes, will improve protecting the residents in our community and the air we breathe.
This plant somehow, was approved and has been operating grandfathered, just prior to adoption of 1973 standards for clean air. We requested that, the EPA 2020 request of manual testing, rather than use of AP42 calculations, due to material and equipment variables, they confirmed findings of unhealthy air contamination in asphalt emissions p, be adopted by PSCAA, and all asphalt plants.
We would greatly appreciate your assistance and request that DOE consider complete outsourced testing to compile scientific data, and continually periodically test, for levels of pm2.5, chemicals dioxides, VOC, PAH, in our city of, Kenmore by the Lake, as well as others surrounding cities, like Redmond, that have stationary asphalt plants, cement plants, with highways.
We hope to be included in this project, and would appreciate consideration of our city of Kenmore, as we need improvement in our ambient air quality, that will also improve our health, waterways, etc, in our overburdened community.
We can "Be the Change"
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