Group: ‘Gaps’ in air tests for I-45 project
Air Alliance Houston’s analysis of air quality testing and plans for downtown portions of the planned Interstate 45 rebuild has been critical of highway officials for inadequate reports on how exactly the project and construction will create more pollution.
“The current data is insufficient for informed decisionmaking,” said Dr. Inyang Uwak, Research and Policy Director at Air Alliance Houston, in a statement announcing the analysis.
The assessment is based on air monitoring along the route, specifically around the downtown area. As part of an agreement to restart construction on the $9.7 billion-plus plan, the Texas Department of Transportation agreed to install air monitoring stations. Stations were installed in August, but data was only delivered for the month of December thus far, Air Alliance officials said.
“Without more comprehensive and timely data, along with modeling of construction-related air pollution and increased car volume, accurately predicting the project’s impact on air quality is impossible,” Uwak said. “This raises concerns about potential health risks and continued noncompliance with air quality standards.”
TxDOT officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The assessment drew concern from local officials, who have said they plan to watch closely TxDOT’s efforts to address neighborhood worries.
“For years, the community has sounded the alarm about the negative impact of the I-45 expansion on our health and safety,” Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said. “TxDOT’s troubling lack of transparency continues to leave us in the dark about the extent of those impacts.”
Ellis encouraged TxDOT to provide more information, while Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia pointed to the commitment TxDOT made for better transparency.
“TxDOT must live up to the promises they’ve made to get this project moving forward again,” Garcia said. “In Texas, our word is our bond, and I expect all parties to honor the commitments they’ve made.”
Work on the first of what could be more than two dozen projects related to the rebuild is scheduled to start later this year, with drainage improvements through EaDo along Interstate 69 and St. Emmanuel to Buffalo Bayou.
Over what could be 20 years of construction, TxDOT plans to add two managed lanes in each direction north of Interstate 10 along I-45.
The work would also reconstruct I-45 to follow I-10 and I-69 along the north and east sides of the central business district, leading to a near-total rebuild of the downtown freeway system.
As construction has neared, despite two decades of work by TxDOT, the project has faced intense scrutiny and opposition – as many suburban commuters eagerly await the work.
To overcome many of those concerns, TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration agreed to a series of commitments, prompted by Air Alliance and other groups, as well as Harris County officials and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents much of the area affected by the project.
That agreement included additional public meetings to inform neighborhoods, which began in December, and current air monitoring, under debate now based on the Air Alliance assessment.
Analysts said there is too little data on small particulates, commonly called PM 2.5, in part because so far only one month of testing has been made public.
“The closest regulatory air monitors are too far from the project site to provide additional local insights and do not measure all pollutants of concern,” Air Alliance analysts said in their assessment.
Further, by not testing for larger particulates, called PM 10 matter, any monitoring leaves gaps in the overall air quality testing, potentially skewing the real level of pollution in the neighborhoods. Analysts also said spikes in nitrous oxide emissions “suggest there are additional pollution sources in the segment beyond routine emissions.”
The air quality questions are among many TxDOT has fielded from critics as it continues what has been a historic level of public involvement. Stop TxDOT I-45, the group formed to oppose the project as designed, released its own appraisal of the December public meetings on Thursday, calling the meetings “insufficient” and limited in terms of the specifics officials could provide.
Stop TxDOT member Alexandra Smither said the group will pass its concerns to federal highway officials.
TxDOT, meanwhile, has defended the December meetings as a first step, noting it wanted to host meetings in 2023 but expects many more refinements of the project to come this year.