New Report Examines How Commerce City Community Tracks Industrial Air Pollution and Protects Residents

Today, the American Lung Association released a new report, “Something in the Air: How Communities Are Tracking the Air They Breathe.” The report examines how communities impacted by major sources of air pollution are using air quality monitors to reveal local-level pollution gaps, use data to inform and guide local decision-making, and strengthen cross-sector partnerships for cleaner air. It features an initiative to protect Commerce City residents living near the Suncor Energy oil refinery from the health impacts of hazardous air pollutants.

The Commerce City case study delves into the work of Cultivando AIRE. Between 2022 and 2023, the group deployed stationary and mobile monitors in fenceline communities, the residential neighborhoods adjacent to the Suncor refinery, to track more than 129 chemicals not captured by regulatory monitors. The resulting data, together with resident testimony describing health symptoms, provided critical evidence for advocacy and regulatory engagement. Today, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment operates a combined fenceline and community air-toxics monitoring program requiring certain industrial facilities to continuously measure pollutants at facility perimeters, while also conducting mobile and fixed-site monitoring within surrounding neighborhoods. Read the full case study here.

“Air pollution from refineries, power plants and other heavy industrial facilities poses a persistent threat to public health. Fenceline communities are exposed to concentrated mixtures of criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants that are strongly linked to respiratory disease, cardiovascular harm, cancer risk and other serious health outcomes,” said Will Barrett, assistant vice president, nationwide policy, clean air, for the Lung Association. “Fenceline exposure can be far more severe than what appears in official monitoring datasets, so it is critical to capture real conditions. This initiative in Commerce City is a powerful example of how community-led monitoring can complement regulatory systems, improve transparency, and strengthen accountability for facilities located near overburdened communities.”

The full report, “Something in the Air: How Communities Are Tracking the Air They Breathe,” examines how community air quality monitoring reveals pollution patterns that traditional networks are not designed to capture. While U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) monitoring network remains the foundation for meeting and enforcing air pollution standards, it does not capture pollution trends at the hyperlocal level, by neighborhood or by block. This is especially important for communities near busy highways and major industrial sites, and in wildfire-prone regions. As a result, many communities, like Commerce City, are strengthening their ability to measure and respond to air pollution through collaborative partnerships that integrate low-cost sensors, mobile monitoring and other research instruments that translate data into tangible protections. 

The report offers specific recommended actions for EPA; federal partners; state and local governments; research, academic and technical partners; and community groups and individuals to take to broaden the use of community air monitoring to improve public health. Learn more at Lung.org/something-in-the-air.

“Something in the Air: How Communities Are Tracking the Air They Breathe” is the third report in a series supplementing the Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report, which examines unhealthy levels of pollution in cities and counties across the country. The series aims to expand the role of emerging technologies in air quality monitoring and public health protection. Additional case studies in the report focus on pollution from heavy-duty traffic and wildfire smoke, as well as another case study on industrial air pollution in Louisville, Kentucky. The first report in the series, “Something in the Air: Bridging the Air Quality Data Gap with Satellite Technology,” was released in October 2024, and the second report, “Something in the Air: Nitrogen Dioxide and Community Health,” was released in March 2025.