Queens Among Worst In Nation For Diesel Pollution

The high levels of diesel engine fumes from trucks on Queens’ busy highway systems helps rank the borough among America’s 12 most air-polluted counties, it was reported by the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) last week.
The Boston-based environmental watchdog also warned that the cancer risk from excessive diesel soot is more dangerous than any other toxic fumes tracked by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Currently, the cancer risk for a Queens resident is one in 1,039, while the EPA’s acceptable cancer level is one in a million.
A concerned Borough President Helen Marshall, who has battled for more vigorous pollution emission controls, has already called for the installation of additional air monitoring equipment in heavily-congested Long Island City and the borough’s two airports. The money would come from a $950,000 “Article 10” appropriation, generated by the expansion of Keyspan’s power plant in LIC.
Diesel fumes are directly responsible for asthma attacks, respiratory disease, heart attacks, chronic bronchitis and premature deaths of Queens residents. During the average year, the fumes also cause hundreds of thousands of restricted activity days.
Queens contains New York City’s largest roadway system, which allows it to easily accommodate well over 1.5 million vehicles per day – thousands of them diesel-powered trucks.
Further complicating this problem is that many diesel-powered fleets are city-owned or leased and difficult to replace. Currently, the Sanitation, Transportation, Police and Fire departments, the city EPA, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Department of Education (DOE) combine to operate thousands of diesel vehicles. These include MTA buses and DOE school buses.
To meet this rising problem, the Federal EPA has issued new regulations requiring a dramatic reduction in emissions from new trucks starting in 2007. Since the life span of many diesel engines is 30 years or more, and with a mileage range of one million miles, the CATF predicts that “we will be left with the legacy of pollution from dirty diesel vehicles for decades to come.”
Victor Ross is a freelance writer.