The Department of Environmental Quality has agreed to pay for a $1 million effort to track air pollution and screen children for respiratory illnesses in south Phoenix, following an outcry over a plan to instead use a polluter's fine to fight global warming.
The program was unveiled on the heels of a protest over the agency's decision to spend $1 million on the Western Climate Initiative, made up of seven western states and four Canadian provinces. That money comes from a $6 million fine levied against a Honeywell plant for discharging harmful solvents and jet fuel into the sewer system and soil.
The new program was announced Oct. 8 by Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, D-16, who has fought against industrial pollution in south Phoenix, which encompasses her district. In an Oct. 8 news conference on the Capitol lawn, Landrum Taylor said the money will be used, in part, to screen schoolchildren for asthma and other respiratory ailments.
"We have one of the highest incidences of asthma of children in the country," Landrum Taylor said.
She was joined at the news conference by Rep. Cloves Campbell Jr., D-16, and Republican Corporation Commissioners Gary Pierce and Jeff Hatch-Miller. The District 16 lawmakers - including Rep. Ben Miranda - objected to the DEQ plan to spend fine proceeds on a regional initiative. They had prepared a letter saying the environmental needs of south Phoenix were being overlooked.
In response, DEQ officials put together the south Phoenix project during an Oct. 7 meeting with District 16 legislators and Pierce.
The WCI money was not redirected toward the project. Instead, the agency will draw on the Air Quality Fund, which receives money from various fees, including a portion of registration fees for autos and diesel trucks.
In moving south Phoenix to the front of the funding line, DEQ Deputy Director Patrick Cunningham said: "We simply saw this as a higher priority than others."
A statement prepared by DEQ and the District 16 lawmakers described the south Phoenix program as a "three-part strategy ..."
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