Eight meetings, including one for the Capital Region, will be held by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to provide progress updates on the statewide Community Air Monitoring Initiative launched in 2022.

The monitoring is taking place in 10 disadvantaged communities that are home to an estimated five million New Yorkers. For the Capital Region, that includes parts of Albany, Rensselaer, Watervliet, and Cohoes.

The online meetings will provide information to help the DEC target strategies to reduce air pollution in these communities, including the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change, to help achieve the goals of the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

This next round of meetings will continue the DEC’s efforts to gather community input in targeting emission sources and future strategies to reduce air pollution.

The meeting for the Capital Region is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 6 p.m. The link to join the meeting is: https://meetny.webex.com/meetny/j.php?MTID=m2169cd3ac88f1ca183fc83cf7eae94b5.

The meeting number is 161 715 5348 and the meeting password is: CommunityAir4. To join by phone only, residents should call 518-549-0500.

At these meetings, DEC staff will provide an overview of the initiative and present a preliminary overview of the third quarter of local air monitoring results.

Information presented will include how and where the air monitoring is conducted and how DEC will compile and analyze the data to identify potential contributors of emissions for each pollutant being monitored.

Preliminary data collection is underway, and results will be provided once additional information is compiled, according to a release from the DEC.

Staff from DEC's Division of Air Resources and Office of Environmental Justice will be available to answer questions.

 For more information about the Community Air Monitoring Initiative, visit the DEC website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/125320.html.