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Volunteer and state experts report air-quality gains and expanded community monitoring in Cheverly
Summary
A volunteer former state air director told the council a multi‑partner effort has reduced fine‑particle pollution in monitored neighborhoods while MDE and EPA activity — including a potential EPA enforcement action — remains under review.
Patty, a volunteer who said she spent decades as an air director with the Maryland Department of the Environment, briefed the Cheverly mayor and council on a multi‑partner community air program that pairs low‑cost monitors with state oversight and targeted inspections. “You can see lower levels of air pollution. That's what that's why I do what I do,” Patty said, highlighting community monitors and a reported roughly “20–25 percent reduction” in a key fine‑particle metric from 2018 to 2024 in monitored locations.
She described five core initiatives: targeted inspections of businesses (asphalt plants, batch plants and recyclers), enforcement and compliance advisories, diesel‑truck emissions work, community reporting and a community monitoring network that now includes black carbon and VOC monitors in addition to fine‑particle sensors. Patty said the monitoring network — built with university partners and initial town and county funding — lets staff map hotspots and do culpability analysis tying elevated readings to likely source areas.
Patty also told the council that a separate EPA office has issued a potential enforcement action against a major local emitter related to volatile organic compound reporting; she said MDE is investigating and has offered the community a briefing once details are clearer. In response to council questions about VOCs and ozone, Patty explained the chemistry linking VOCs and nitrogen oxides to ground‑level ozone and offered historical context on Maryland’s ozone control efforts.
Councilors thanked her for the presentation and asked about whether the EPA action would disrupt a cooperative relationship with the company under local engagement; Patty said the company seemed to treat the EPA action as separate and that joint meetings with senior company leadership were planned.
Next steps: staff and the partnership offered to provide the council with recurring recaps and a briefing on the EPA matter once more information is available; no policy action was taken at the meeting.
