Hyperlocal Air Quality Monitoring in North Charleston, Maryland

Directly adjacent to Charleston, the one of the South’s most visited tourist destinations, lies an often overlooked African American community struggling to breathe. Instead of drawing countless tourists every year, North Charleston, SC is a major waypoint for goods movement and commercial shipping. In 2021, Charleston, SC will open a new marine container terminal that will add 1.4 million more containers each year, nearly doubling the port’s volume, and likely increasing air pollutants in nearby communities already disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards and poor air quality, as shown by prior research. 

To measure ambient air quality in North Charleston, and as part of decade-long partnership known as the Charleston Area Pollution Prevention Partnership (CAPs), CEEJH has trained a cohort of members of the Low-County Alliance for Model Communities (LAMC) to deploy low-cost particulate matter sensors throughout North Charleston. These monitors aim to detect particle pollution from goods movement vehicles, such as ships, trucks and dock transports, and increased rail traffic.