CHARLOTTE, N. C. – The impact of poor air quality on people's lungs often is felt long before it is seen, but a program by Clean Air Carolina is providing the tools to educators and community members to help them see the invisible.

The AirKeepers Citizen Science program provides materials and low-cost sensors that people can use to monitor air quality right where they live.

Susan Harden, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, offers the education to her freshman classes.

"Because of their Citizen Science technology that's very accessible and inexpensive, our students were able to use air-quality monitors," Harden explained. "So, they had the equipment that gave them immediate feedback about their research questions."

Clean Air Carolina has collected more than 10,000 hours of data with its monitors that measure particulate matter, a contributor to the depletion of air quality. The data is uploaded to an online site and is available to scientists and the public to monitor the air.

In recent years, state lawmakers have ordered the shutdown of many air-quality units across the state. Clean Air Carolina hopes the data collected by citizens will help supplement the information.

Kate Ortiz is in Harden's UNC class this semester, and says she was surprised how much particulate matter she found in a school parking lot full of idling cars waiting to pick up students.

"I just learned a lot of new information about air quality that I hadn't had before, so it was an interesting class," Ortiz said. "It definitely influenced my knowledge about how I will be partaking, and contributing my own air pollution."

Harden says the hands-on nature of the program makes a lasting impression on her students.

"They're learning how to be advocates at really, the earliest stages of their college careers," she said. "And so those two things – learning how to do science and learning how to be advocates for the environment – are just two wonderful aspects of the program."

Clean Air Carolina is working with agencies that protect the environment to test the effectiveness of monitors and programs such as this one.


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Midnight Meadows in northern New Mexico's Carson National Forest is one of 22 sites identified as "wetland jewels," and volunteers will continue their work to keep it that way starting Friday.

Restoration has been underway since 2016 to install erosion and restoration structures including Zuni bowls, one-rock dams and rock rundowns. The project, organized by the Albuquerque Wildlife Federation and the environmental group Amigos Bravos, follows the principles of "induced meandering" to hold more water on the landscape.

Shannon Romeling, projects and foundation coordinator for the group Amigos Bravos, said restoration also includes fence construction to reduce possible damage from snowmobiles.

"These wetlands contribute vital function to the ecosystem, including soil health, ecosystem diversity," Romeling explained. "Having things like trout and different sensitive species in them and one of the largest things that they provide is water storage."

The annual three-day event starts Friday and wraps up Sunday with overnight accommodations for those who stay the weekend. It's also possible to volunteer for activities on Saturday only.

Romeling pointed out a unique undertaking this year will be the creation and installation of log swales.

"These are features made from natural materials that will help to decrease damage from recreation and cattle in a sensitive fen area of the wetland," Romeling noted.

In addition to smaller hand-built structures, volunteers have helped install and repair riparian protection along Bitter Creek and adjacent wetlands.

Thousands of former mines, brownfield sites, and orphaned oil and gas wells are scattered across West Virginia, and a new report from the National Wildlife Federation highlights how cleaning up the land could help fight climate change.

Reforesting just 25% of abandoned mine lands could potentially trap around 232 metric tons of carbon each year, according to the report.

Anger Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said in addition to curbing greenhouse gas emissions, it would help protect homes by reducing flood and landslide risks.

"The better we restore those lands, the better we're protecting our communities from those types of costs and disasters," Rosser contended.

Ongoing research pointed to the biomass and soil on reclaimed lands as a sink for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One West Virginia study found reclaimed mine soils captured 75% of carbon within the first decade of cleanup.

Rosser pointed out the unoccupied and once-hazardous land has the potential to help diversify local economies in the Mountain State after it is restored, through renewable energy development and outdoor recreation and tourism.

"What this comes down to is re-envisioning and transforming a community liability into a community asset," Rosser explained.

Jessica Arriens, program manager for climate energy policy at the National Wildlife Federation, predicted a surge of recent funding for cleaning up degraded lands will benefit both the health of communities and the climate.

"There's really historic investments coming to degraded lands reclamation," Arriens emphasized. "It's largely from the bipartisan infrastructure law that passed last year, that has something like $21 billion for abandoned mine lands, for orphan oil and gas wells, for Superfunds, and for brownfields."

The report calls on Congress to increase annual funding for nationwide Superfund site cleanup, emergency response and removal, and brownfield redevelopment.

The Inflation Reduction Act has made a historic investment of $370 billion dollars to fight climate change over the next decade.

Among its benefits, the act will provide tax credits for Rural Electric Cooperatives to move toward clean energy.

Brianna Knisley is Tennessee campaign manager for Appalachian Voices - a founding member of the Rural Power Coalition.

She said the act significantly changes the economic landscape for Tennessee public utilities or not-for-profit utilities, to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency.

"There are some new pots of funding for electric cooperatives to transition," said Knisley. "And then also, the direct pay tax credit for renewable energy has been extended to nonprofit entities, which means co-ops and municipal utilities can now access that tax credit."

Meanwhile, Knisley noted that access to tax credits may be limited because of barriers that the Tennessee Valley Authority has put in place.

TVA produces all electricity in the state.

She added that utilities that distribute power - which includes the electric co-ops - are in long-term or never-ending contracts with TVA and those contracts limit how much solar energy they can generate themselves.

Knigley noted that there are key provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that would benefit co-ops.

She said the provision of $9.7 billion of U.S. Department of Agriculture Assistance for Electric Cooperatives is going to co-ops that can achieve the greatest greenhouse-gas emission reductions.

She said a second provision will benefit co-ops in Tennessee.

"Now, the next item," said Knisley, "the $1 billion in additional funding to cover the cost of loans related to renewable energy, that program, I think, is one that co-ops and Tennessee could take advantage of and are hopefully going to be really interested in because up to 50% of the cost of those loans can be forgiven."

Meanwhile, she said the electric cooperatives have recently warned customers that they may receive higher energy bills soon.

She noted the higher prices are a result of a fuel cost adjustment from the TVA. The increase is primarily because of natural gas prices.