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Kingston Air Quality Initiative at Bard College Reports After Five Years of Monitoring

The Center for the Environment Sciences and Humanities at Bard College (CESH) is pleased to announce the findings of the Kingston Air Quality Initiative (KAQI) after five consecutive years of research and data collection.

KAQI began in January 2020 as a partnership between Bard’s Community Sciences Lab and the City of Kingston Conservation Advisory Council’s Air Quality Subcommittee. Since then, Kingston residents and Bard College students, staff, and faculty have facilitated both indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring projects throughout the Hudson Valley. The first air quality study of its kind in Kingston, KAQI’s monitoring efforts focus on a regional assessment of air pollution as measured from the rooftop of the Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center on Broadway in Kingston.

“As a compact urban city, with a large percentage of our community living in either disadvantaged communities designated areas and/or potential environmental justice areas, we are acutely aware of the localized impacts of air pollution on our community members and quality of life,”said Julie L. Noble, sustainability coordinator for the city of Kingston. “The partnership we have had with Bard has been tremendously positive for us, providing sound, local data that we have been able to share, in real time, with our residents, to help them stay safe, plan accordingly, and make better choices for their own health and for the health of our environment.”

This is the first year that Hudson Valley Air Quality Coalition (HVAQ) has joined in producing the report, marking the first ever “Kingston Community Air Quality Report,” which is based on data produced through the Hudson Valley Community Air Network (HVCAN), a regional, community-powered outdoor air monitoring project. The newly released Community Air Quality Report for Kingston will be used as a model for other municipal areas where HVCAN has sensors. These annual air quality reports are intended to emulate the Drinking Water Quality reports that are issued by municipalities every year.

“Kingston residents should feel proud that we are one of the rare US communities that produces an annual report on the air we breathe! The information it contains may be new to many people, such as the outsized effect woodburning has on our air quality, our health and the climate,” says Lorraine Farina, long-time community scientist and HVAQ Coordinator. “This report, along with the extraordinary partnership between HVAQ and the Bard Community Sciences Lab and the new JustAir alert system will help us make well-informed decisions that are within our local control to preserve and improve our air quality.”

Additionally, Bard’s Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities, through the Community Sciences Lab, is excited to announce that the success of KAQI has led to an expansion of air quality initiatives in the Hudson Valley, including the recent launch of a new online tool that allows people in the Hudson Valley community to have better access to information about their air. CESH has partnered with JustAir, an environmental justice tech start-up, to create the Hudson Valley Community Air Network x JustAir platform that gives direct access to real-time, validated air quality data in an accessible format. Air quality monitoring is critical to people’s knowledge of what they are breathing, and the more hyperlocal data, the better. Both street level data and regional data are essential for a complete picture of air quality.

“The Just Air app is an exciting next step in our collaborative efforts to protect air quality, residents' health, and the health of our environment,” said Farina. “During these times of increased wildfire activity, knowledge is increasing that fine particulate matter, from wildfires and from local wood burning, are major challenges to these goals. This app will make it more apparent and easier for people to  keep track of their air quality and to recognize we have control of local contributions to poor air quality.”

KAQI’s main monitoring efforts focus on a regional assessment of air pollution from fine particulate matter (PM2.5), made up of microscopic particles from burnt fuel that are released into the air from oil burners, gas burners, automobiles, cooking, grilling, and both indoor and outdoor wood burning. PM2.5 particles are so tiny, they stay suspended in the air for long periods of time, allowing them to travel long distances before depositing. When these particles are inhaled, they can enter the bloodstream through the lungs, creating or worsening health issues. There is no safe level of exposure. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that “small particulate pollution has health impacts even at very low concentrations – indeed no threshold has been identified below which no damage to health is observed.”

Residential wood burning is the largest source of PM 2.5 in Ulster County. It is responsible for more than half of emissions from all sources combined (including all types of vehicle emissions and all types of fuel source emissions). Burning wood is more polluting than burning oil, gas, or coal.

After five years of comprehensive monitoring in Kingston, we continue to uncover valuable insights into our air quality and its connection to our daily activities and decisions as citizens. Kingston air quality in 2024 slightly improved from 2023 (based on PM 2.5 concentrations). This was likely due to a decrease in ground-level Canadian wildfire smoke, although we detected increased wood smoke pollution during several Ulster County wildfires in November 2024. 

We also found that air quality measured from a rooftop is helpful as a regional air quality indicator, but that street-level air quality often has worse air quality, since PM 2.5 and other air pollutants can settle and move more slowly amongst city buildings. This phenomenon has confirmed our need for more street-level sensors in all Kingston area neighborhoods to be able to help our community make informed decisions when it comes to air quality. Having this public information would allow us to protect ourselves and our families when air quality worsens, and also allow us to make informed decisions about helping to improve air quality during those times.

One consistent observation over the past five years is the seasonal trend of higher PM 2.5 concentrations in the winter and summer months, likely attributable to wood and fuel used for heating and recreation. Another critical factor and ongoing research subject is atmospheric inversions and their implications for ground-level air pollution in Kingston. These events occur when the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude and surface level air parcels are unable to rise up, trapping air pollution at ground level. Given Kingston's location in the Hudson Valley, where air circulation is restricted, awareness of these events is crucial for informed decision-making to mitigate air pollution.

As we continue to research the complexities of air quality management, it's essential for Kingston residents to stay informed and engaged. By adopting sustainable practices, supporting clean energy initiatives, and advocating for policies that prioritize air quality, we can work together to create a healthier environment for all. More details about KAQI’s findings can be found at the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities website: https://cesh.bard.edu/kingston-air-quality-initiative-kaqi/

“This unprecedented partnership with the city of Kingston is a model for Hudson Valley cities building resiliency in the face of climate change,” said Eli Dueker, associate professor of environmental studies and biology, and director of the Bard Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities. “By monitoring our own air quality, we, as a community, can together make decisions about the air we breathe. As last year’s Canadian wildfire smoke, and Ulster County wildfires reminded us, we cannot take clean air for granted. The air we breathe relates directly to our health, and it is important that we as a community ensure that everyone has access to clean, healthy air. Each of us can contribute to this effort, by making decisions about what we contribute to the air, including respecting city laws related to outdoor woodburning in city limits, decreasing indoor woodburning (particularly during inversion events), biking and walking more, and participating in city-led efforts to move to sustainable (and less polluting) energy sources as we further climate-proof our city.”

​​“At the Community Sciences Lab, democratizing access to local, real-time and historical environmental data is what we do, said Desirée Lyle, Community Sciences Lab Manager at Bard College. “And working to make that data digestible and actionable is a critical step toward environmental justice and empowering communities to protect their health, improve and extend their quality of life, and advocate for a safer, more resilient Hudson Valley.”

The Center for the Environment Sciences and Humanities at Bard College, through the Community Sciences Lab, has been working on a handful of air quality related projects centralized around community needs and concerns. These include:

• Neighborhood-level air quality monitoring, through the fast-developing Hudson Valley Library Air Quality Network. Using outdoor real-time air quality monitoring devices stationed at public libraries, air quality data is free and accessible online. If any libraries are interested in joining, please reach out to [email protected].
• In partnership with SUNY-Albany and the EPA, conducting indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring in homes with woodsmoke, mold and structurally-related air quality challenges.
• In partnership with SUNY-Albany, tracking air pollutants such as Ozone, Black and Brown Carbon, and VOC’s from HVCAN’s four Hudson Valley regional air quality stations.

For more information or ways to get involved, please visit https://cesh.bard.edu/kingston-air-quality-initiative-kaqi/

Further coverage:
Bard College expands Hudson Valley air monitoring initiative, details findings in Kingston (WAMC)
How's the Air? How's the Water?? (Radio Kingston)
Bard College measures air quality in four areas of region (Mid Hudson News)
 

Post Date: 06-26-2025

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Bard College Launches New Online Platform in Partnership with JustAir to Give Public Access to Real-Time Hudson Valley Air Quality Information

The Center for the Environmental Sciences and Humanities at Bard College (CESH) is thrilled to announce the launch of a new online tool that allows people in the Hudson Valley community to have better access to information about their air. CESH has partnered with JustAir, an environmental justice tech start-up, to create a platform that gives direct access to real-time, validated air quality data in an accessible format.

Joining the platform offers Hudson Valley residents the option to subscribe to “favorite” monitors based on locale. Subscribing enables users to receive updates on their phones when air quality reaches unhealthy pollution levels so people can take precautions and protect their and their family’s health. This feature will also include guidance on ways people can help to reduce local air pollution levels during that time. For example, community members can know when to avoid wood burning or to limit car and other exhaust.

Large swaths of the United States, especially in rural regions like the Hudson Valley, have been identified as air quality monitoring deserts, relying on remote data from monitoring sites, which may be located far from the actual locations where people are living. This can result in misleading data that can be harmful to public health. People make day-to-day decisions that impact their health, like whether to exercise or wear a mask outdoors, based on inaccurate air quality readings.

The new Hudson Valley Community Air Network x JustAir platform provides far more accurate readings using validated, real-time data from Bard College Community Sciences Lab’s four Regional Air Quality Stations located at the Stevenson Library on Bard campus in Red Hook, Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center in Kingston, Adriance Library in Poughkeepsie, and Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh. These stations are equipped with sensors from PurpleAir and QuantAQ which measure particulate matter concentrations in the air. The weather stations also collect weather data on rainfall, barometric pressure, temperature, wind direction, wind speed, and solar radiation.

Each regional air quality station will host a launch event where local community members can join and learn more about the impacts of air pollution on their lives. Event dates and details are listed below.

Since 2020, Bard College Community Sciences Lab has worked to establish Bard’s Hudson Valley Community Air Network (HVCAN), an outdoor air quality monitoring network of 45 street-level sensors spanning from Albany to Newburgh that capture data on a hyperlocal neighborhood level. Through the support of municipal, private, and community sponsors, Bard plans to implement the next phase of the JustAir platform resulting in the complete onboarding of HVCAN’s hyperlocal sensors, which will serve as a model for air quality monitoring that is functional for community needs and free from national-level tampering. The City of Kingston and Ulster County have already committed to sponsoring several street-level sensors, and more municipal involvement across the Hudson Valley is anticipated. The localized data provided through this app will be the first ground truthing—assessing the accuracy of remote sensing data—of air quality in the Hudson Valley.

“Knowledge is power, and access to real-time air quality data gives people the tools they need to protect their health and the health of their families,” said Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger. “This new platform empowers Hudson Valley residents to make informed decisions about their daily activities, whether it’s choosing when to exercise outdoors or taking precautions on high-pollution days. Ulster County is proud to be a partner in this initiative and we look forward to bringing our street-level sensors online so residents can access even more local data. Expanding air quality monitoring across the region is a crucial step toward ensuring cleaner air and a healthier future for all.”

“The City of Kingston has been proud to partner with the Bard College Community Sciences Lab and to host air quality monitors on one of our most prominent buildings in Kingston,” said Julie Noble, Project Manager and Sustainability Coordinator of the City of Kingston. “The new JustAir platform is going to be so valuable to our residents and continues to help us advance our sustainability as well as health and wellness goals for the City.”

“Introducing this seamless public access to real-time outdoor air quality comes after years of unique collaborations between Bard College and Hudson Valley leaders. Although we often don’t think about it, clean air is a precious resource that needs to be protected in the same way we protect our beautiful waterways,” stated Eli Dueker, Associate Professor of Bard Environmental Studies and Director of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities. “Bard students and faculty are thrilled to participate in ongoing community work to equitably address both indoor and outdoor air quality in our region – forming the Hudson Valley Community Air Network is a big step in this process.”

“In Newburgh, we face serious environmental challenges and often lack the information needed to protect our health. This platform changes that. It gives our community real-time air quality data so families can make informed decisions. At Outdoor Promise, we believe knowledge leads to action, and this partnership with Bard and JustAir puts that power in the hands of the people,” said Ronald Zorilla, cofounder and CEO of Outdoor Promise in Newburgh.

“The Poughkeepsie Public Library District is thrilled to be part of this important quality-of-life program offered through a collaboration with Bard College. Public libraries play a critical role in providing information, and this is another innovative way in which we can bring the information to our residents,” said Tom Lawrence, director of  the Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie.

“The Just Air app is an exciting next step in our collaborative efforts to protect air quality, residents' health, and the health of our environment,” said Lorraine Farina, coordinator of HVAQ.  “During these times of increased wildfire activity, knowledge is increasing that fine particulate matter, from wildfires and from local wood burning, are major challenges to these goals. This app will make it more apparent and easier for people to  keep track of their air quality and to recognize we have control of local contributions to poor air quality.”

“We at JustAir are proud to be partnering with Bard College's Community Sciences Lab to publicly launch the Hudson Valley Community Air Network,” said Darren Riley, cofounder and CEO of Just Air. “In this project, our platform will support the work that residents and researchers with the Hudson Valley Air Quality Coalition have been doing in their communities for years. We expect this data will further encourage community science and provide a basis for actions to improve residents’ health. We look forward to where this partnership will lead.”

Bard College Community Sciences Lab’s work is conducted with the idea that academic institutions can be powerful community partners in developing climate resilience locally. One focus of the lab is quantifying and tracking energy-related aerosols linked to activities such as commercial and residential heating, construction, and transportation at the local scale. Bard collaborates with communities by providing them the data they need in order to move forward on the development and implementation of unified community response to pollutants that may pose a public health concern. The JustAir Bard College Community Sciences Lab platform builds on prior projects including the Kingston Air Quality Initiative (KAQI), which released a four-year air quality study report with the city of Kingston last year.

Bard College is grateful to work in partnership and collaboration with Hudson Valley Air Quality Coalition, Outdoor Promise, City of Kingston, Poughkeepsie Adriance Memorial Library, Mount Saint Mary’s College, Ulster County, Kingston Air Quality Initiative, Town of Red Hook, and all of the libraries participating in the  Hudson Valley Library Air Quality Network.

JustAir Bard College Community Sciences Lab Launch Events

Poughkeepsie JustAir Launch Event
Tuesday, June 24
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Adriance Memorial Library
93 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

Newburgh JustAir Launch Event
Wednesday, June 25
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Desmond Center at Mount Saint Mary College
330 Powell Avenue, Newburgh, NY 12550

Kingston JustAir Launch Event
Thursday, June 26
5:30 to 7:30 pm
Andy Murphy Midtown Neighborhood Center
467 Broadway, Kingston, NY 12401

Further reading:
What’s the air quality in the Hudson Valley? There’s a tool for that. [originally published in Times Union]
How Clean is Our Air? in The Highland Currents

Post Date: 06-10-2025

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Bard College Hosts Symposium on PCB Contamination and “Bomb Trains” Threatening the Hudson/Mahicantuck River on April 11

Bard College will host “The Fate of the River,” a symposium centered on two major environmental threats facing the Hudson/Mahicantuck River. The symposium will take place on Friday, April 11 from 10 am to 4 pm in Olin Hall at Bard College. “The Fate of the River” will call attention to high levels of PCB contamination in the river and “bomb trains”—overloaded freight trains carrying Bakken shale oil and unidentified chemicals along the eroding west bank of the river. General Electric’s dumping of toxic material in the river over 30 years and its subsequent clean-up between 2009 and 2015 that did not meet agreed upon environmental benchmarks has resulted in the river’s high levels of PCB contamination. Continuing PCB contamination causes human health risks, ongoing extinction and disease to fish and wildlife, and damages river ecosystems, wetlands, ground water, and soil. The other symposium topic is the environmental threat of “Bomb Trains” carrying highly explosive fossil fuels, which if derailed, spell catastrophe in impacted communities.

The purpose of this symposium is to facilitate public discussion informed by science, environmental law, and best citizen advocacy practices and to explore how members of the community can effectively address and work together to curtail these threats. Morning presentations will be followed by an afternoon panel and public discussion. Members of the Hudson Valley community are welcome to attend for all or part of the symposium.

Key speakers include writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon Bowermaster; Associate Director of Government Affairs at Riverkeeper Jeremy Cherson MS ’15, who is working to advance Riverkeeper’s priorities in Albany and Washington; Senior Staff Attorney at Food & Water Watch and Bard faculty member Erin Doran; public health physician and Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at SUNY Albany David O. Carpenter; and lawyer Florence Murray, whose practice specializes in traumatic brain injuries and wrongful death actions, civil rights violations with severe injuries, trucking collisions, and railroad derailments—such as the one in East Palestine, Ohio.

“The Fate of the River” symposium is the first in a series of public discussions entitled Environmental Injustice Across the Americas that focuses on state-sanctioned pollution, the poisoning of water, destruction of the commons, and the fight for justice. “The Fate of the River” is cosponsored by Bard College’s Human Rights Program, Center for Civic Engagement, Center for Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, and the Office of Sustainability.

“The Fate of the River” Symposium Schedule
Friday, April 11, 2025
Olin Hall, Bard College

10:00–10:10 am Introduction to “The Fate of the River” symposium
10:10–10: 35 am Introduction and screening of Jon Bowermaster’s film A Toxic Legacy about General Electric’s contamination of the Hudson/Mahicantuck River
10:40–11:00 am Jeremy Cherson, Associate Director of Government Affairs, Riverkeeper
11:05–11:25 am Erin Doran, Faculty in Environmental Law, Bard Center for Environmental Policy, and Senior Staff Attorney, Food & Water Watch
11:35–11:55 am David Carpenter, Director of Institute for Health and the Environment, SUNY Albany
Noon–1:00 pm LUNCH BREAK
1:05–1:25 pm Eli Dueker, Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies, and Director of Bard Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities
1:25–1:40 pm Introduction to and screening of Jon Bowermaster’s film Bomb Trains
1:40–2:00 pm Jeremy Cherson, Associate Director of Government Affairs, Riverkeeper
2:00–2:20 pm Florence Murray, Partner of Murray & Murray Law Firm, represents stakeholders affected by the toxic aftermath of the 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio
2:20–2:40 pm COFFEE BREAK
2:40–4:00 pm Panel and Public Discussion: “Next Steps Toward a Healthier
River”

Refreshments graciously provided by Taste Budds and Yum Yum of Red Hook.

Post Date: 03-31-2025

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New Research by Gidon Eshel Featured in the Washington Post

A new study led by Gidon Eshel, research professor of environmental and urban studies at Bard College, which found that grass-fed beef did not hold a carbon emissions benefit compared to grain-fed, was featured in the Washington Post. Some ranchers and conservationists have posited that grass-fed beef is better for the planet than grain-fed cows—which have been shown to produce lower methane emissions because they grow faster and are slaughtered younger—by arguing that grazing fields store carbon underground instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. However the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used newly available US data comparing pasture where cows were grazing to grass that had been left undisturbed and factored the carbon storage in the soil into the overall carbon footprint of grass-fed beef, and compared this to the emissions from grain-fed systems. It showed that the emissions per kilogram of protein of even the most efficient grass-fed beef operations were 10–25% higher than those of grain-fed beef. “Accounting for soil sequestration lowers the emissions, and makes grass-fed beef more similar to industrial beef, but it does not under any circumstances make this beef desirable in terms of carbon balance,” Eshel told the Post. “That argument does not hold.”

Post Date: 03-18-2025

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Brooke Jude Discusses Her Collaboration with Microbiologist Anne Madden to Save Amphibians

Associate Professor of Biology Brooke Jude spoke to The Scientist magazine about her collaboration with microbiologist Anne Madden, who is founder and chief scientific officer of The Microbe Institute. Their collaboration, Find Purple, Frog-Saving Microbes, is a participatory science (citizen science) and community bioart project to conserve amphibians. Their project focuses on finding and understanding the biogeography of naturally purple-pigmented bacteria that help amphibians fight off a pandemic caused by a deadly fungus that is decimating unique populations of frogs, toads, salamanders, axolotls, and newts. Jude explains how the two scientists began to work together on this project: “We started thinking that a lot of our work overlapped in interesting ways, that some of the things that [Anne] was doing in The Microbe Institute, in terms of communicating about these projects that the general public could truly understand and sink their teeth into and enjoy and be passionate about. How do you get that word out?” Part of their project involved citizen science, which encouraged science enthusiasts to sample local waterways, grow microbes, and upload data on whether they found purple-pigmented bacteria. They also received funding from National Geographic to develop educational materials about purple microbes for middle and high school students.

Post Date: 12-17-2024

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Peter L’Official’s Essay “Black Builders” Published in Places Journal

Peter L’Official, associate professor of literature and director of the American and Indigenous Studies Program, has published “Black Builders,” an article exploring the relationship between both writing and architecture, and race and design, for Places Journal. In examining the works of visionary Black architect and urban planner W. Joseph Black (1961–1977), who tragically died of cancer at age 43, novelist Colson Whitehead, and other scholars and writers, L’Official asks: “What do we learn about visions of cities when we consider writing and architecture as mutually defining?” L’Official delves deeply into Black’s archives and grapples with his brilliant unfinished masterpieces including the ambitious Harlem Music Center and Gateway to Harlem complex, as well as two comprehensive volumes Visions of Harlem, intended as an exhibition and catalogue, and Black Builders of America, a compendium focused on the many known and unknown Black builders dating back from 1619 to the contemporary. Inspired by the career and legacy of W. Joseph Black, L’Official proposes a notion: “writing about architecture is also a method of practicing architecture—that is, by thinking it.” In contemplating “how many works by Black architects, planners, builders, and other dreamers lie dormant, still, in archives, or tossed by the wayside in frustration, never to be lauded as great works of even speculative imagination?” L’Official asserts “We should also expand our notions of who and what Black builders and Black building can be—and, indeed, of what it means to ‘build’ in the first place.”

L’Official’s “Black Builders” is the first essay in An Unfinished Atlas, a series funded by the Mellon Foundation and published by Places Journal that brings together scholars, cultural critics, essayists, and novelists of color to enrich the cultural record of place-based narratives across what is now called North America.

Post Date: 11-05-2024