hey, everybody. This is Lisa from the Greater East Side, District 2 Community Council, and this is D2 You. Today we are talking to Story who is an air quality scientist with TD Enviro. She is working with District 2 and several other district councils on an exciting project in the city called the AirNet Project, which is being funded by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Welcome, Story, and thanks for coming on the pod today. Thanks. I'm so excited to be here. Let's start by telling everyone a little bit more about you. How long have you been with TD Enviro? And tell us a little bit more about your role as an air quality scientist. Totally. I have been working with TD Enviro for the last six years. We're a really tiny consulting company, and we mostly work at the intersection of the technical aspects of how we monitor and measure our air quality, and the intersection of that and community outreach and education. So I do a lot in that realm. So this, project that I'm about to talk about that we're working on together is kinda right in that, in that niche. Very cool. What is the most difficult part of your job? That is a really good question. I wanna caveat this by saying I don't think difficult means bad. Right I think the most difficult part of my job is probably effectively talking about really technical air quality information that is, pretty complex and a lot of chemistry sometimes, and talking about that and translating that for different audiences with really different backgrounds. We often work with, even in one room, often the audience has a has really different backgrounds and life experiences and previous exposure, to air quality. And, so that can be tricky, but it's, but it's also fun. So what is your favorite part? I'd say my favorite part is probably building relationships. We work with groups and, nonprofits, community organizations, all the way up to, national governments, all across the world. And, they do some really... people just do really interesting and innovative things when it comes to air quality, and, it's really fun to get to build relationships with people who are doing cool stuff. I think that's one of my favorite parts of my job as well is- Yeah is getting to know people and building relationships with them and seeing where we can go from there. Yeah. Right? It's good stuff. Right. What is one thing that people are surprised to find out about you? Let's see. I am a huge audiobook person. I listen to a... Last year, I listened to 100 audiobooks on the library's Libby app. I don't know if you use that. Big fan. Oh, I do. Big fan of the app. I do. But I also am really, weird in that I listen to them at triple speed. I listen to all of my audiobooks at triple speed, which is really the only way I'm able to listen to 100 of them. But I think, often people are very, confused by the speed at which I am listening to things. But I worked my way up to it over many years. I did not start at triple speed. So if you're interested in one day being a triple speed listener, you can get there with some hard work and many years of dedication. Well, I'm already at one and a half, so- You're... See, you're halfway there. There you go. So of course, now my question is, what book are you reading now? Oh, that's a great question. What book am I reading right now? I'm always reading, like, a number of different books. I'm, I actually just finished a book, and I am about to start a book called Abundance, which is about remaking the world. Very cool. Fiction, nonfiction, mix of both, what- I'll listen to, like, anything. If somebody suggests it to me, I'll request it from the library, and someday I'll listen to it. And I won't remember who suggested it to me, but I'll, I'll probably enjoy it. There you go. Well, let's talk a little bit more about the AirNet project itself. What exactly is it? Great question. So, AirNet is a community air quality monitoring project that is funded by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, or MPCA. And AirNet, there's a number of different other grant programs who are also doing, community air quality monitoring. But AirNet specifically is the one that we are working on together, you and I, Lisa. And there are six community partners who are involved across St. Paul and Minneapolis, and then also a support team, who are working collectively to develop air quality monitoring projects in each of the six communities that we're working in, that measure local air quality interests and report out about what the data is saying and how people can use it to protect themselves. So you said six. I think, is there four or so in St. Paul and then a couple in... Oh, five in St. Paul and then one in Minneapolis. Yes. Yeah. So we have, yeah, a total of six community partners. We've got, you all, Greater East Side Community Council. There is, the Payne-Phalen Community Council, the North End Neighborhood Organization, Union Park District Council, West 7th-Fort Road Federation, and the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute. And then, as I mentioned, we have a support team, that's run by the Great Plains Institute, and then my company supports that, is part of that support team, TD Enviro. And we kinda help with a lot of the technical, air quality monitoring. You know, like, what do we monitor, and where do we monitor it, and how do we get good data out of a project? You're the science-y stuff. I, yeah, Great Plains Institute's doing some of that too, but they're also really helping a lot with grant management, which is excellent, 'cause I don't personally know anything about grant management. So, in theory, about how many air monitors will- are in process or have already been installed? And, what exactly are they looking for? Yeah, that's a great question. So we total, for this project, across those six communities are going to have, 24 sites. And currently we have 15 up and running right now. So it's very- Like in our backyard. Yes, there is one indeed in your backyard. And they are monitoring a bunch of different things. Each community is looking at a different array of pollutants. Some of them are overlapping and some of them are, different. Last summer ran some community meetings to understand what each of our different neighborhoods was concerned about or interested in monitoring, and that really helped us guide what we monitor. I, an air quality scientist, I don't wanna dictate what we're monitoring. I want to know what the community partners are interested in and what residents are concerned about in the area, and then use my air quality lens to sort of say, "Okay, people are concerned about X, Y, Z. That means we should consider measuring these pollutants." Those, meetings really, led to what pollutants we monitor in each community. I will say a big through line through every community was vehicle pollution and traffic. And that was actually the biggest interest here in the greater East Side. So because of that, we decided to monitor for nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, as it is called. And NO2 is generated through fossil fuel burning typically, and gas-powered vehicles specifically are one of the main culprits of, NO2 pollution in our communities. NO2 is also, a really well-studied pollutant. There's a ton of research behind it, and it has, some really known health impacts, negative health impacts. And that makes it, a really great thing for us to monitor as well because it's easy for us to talk about the health impacts of the measurements that we are taking. So can you talk a little bit more about what those health impacts are of NO2 specifically? Yeah, totally. So I wanna mention one more pollutant 'cause we are also- Monitoring for, fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which I think, people have often heard a lot more about PM2.5. PM2.5 is, is like fine inhalable particles with like with really small diameter. Their the diameter is generally two and a half micrometers or smaller. That's where the 2.5 comes from. So really tiny particles, and part of why people have heard a lot more about PM2.5 is because it's typically gonna be seen when we burn things, and that's especially, like wildfire smoke for instance is predominantly- Ah, yes made up of PM2.5. So we are both measuring that NO2, which is related to traffic pollutants, and then also measuring PM2.5, which is gonna be looking more at like wood burning, trash burning, smoke, those sorts of things. It also can often, be associated with vehicles as well but is typically less of a predictor of that and is gonna be a much more helpful pollutant for us during smoke season, which, fingers crossed is not crazy, but it's a wild world out there. But yeah, so health aspects of this. I wanna caveat this all by saying I'm not a health expert, but I do spend my days thinking and talking a lot about these pollutants. And there are both a number of short and long-term health effects that come from breathing in both NO2 and PM2.5. They can be associated with things like premature mortality, increased hospital admissions for heart or lung disease, a chronic bronchitis, an acute bronchitis, asthma attacks, and then also over time the development of asthma in those who don't already have it as well, and that's especially true of NO2. Breathing in these pollutants increases the amount of emergency room visits that happen and can also just cause general respiratory symptoms that you and I might experience on a day-to-day basis. I know I personally, when there's smoke in the air during a wildfire event, I, my eyes are runny, like itchy, and like my nose starts running and I feel like I'm having allergies. Yeah, and- So those are some of the big health impacts As an allergy sufferer, welcome to my world. But unfortunately, I can see how, all of these impacts, not only impact us today but the future as well. Yeah. So what about the city of St. Paul and the neighborhood in Minneapolis that you're working in made this a good site for this project? What kind of brought you to us? Yeah. Well, first, St. Paul, I mean, St. Paul and Minneapolis, right? These are big and diverse and dense areas of people. We have a lot of people who live here, and we have a lot of businesses and industrial activities that happen, and a lot of major roadways. And a lot, especially, as I mentioned, vehicle traffic was a big concern for a lot of the communities we work within because there are major roadways that are running right through our communities. And, in many ways, they help us get to where we need to go and they also, though, are sources of air pollution ultimately. And so all of those sorts of things, right, this, big, diverse population, having a lot of different pollution-creating activities in our communities make this, a really good place to do air quality monitoring. We want to understand how air pollution impacts people, in, for this particular project. And air quality monitoring can help us get there. So that high density of people, high density of pollution sources means we can impact and reach a lot of people with this data and with this information, hopefully. So what are you hoping to learn from once the data is collected? Yeah, great question. I think about this in kind of twofold. I think, first, we're hoping that everyone learns from this data, right? And specifically, I think we're interested in having people learn how to use it on a day-to-day basis to make personal health decisions., A goal that often we go into projects with, community air quality monitoring projects with, is, that people look at air monitoring data like they do weather data. So when- Oh I wake up in the morning, I open my phone up and I plan what I'm gonna wear and what I'm gonna do that day based on the weather. And you can and often should do that with air quality data. And hopefully this project will allow people more access to data that's closer to them to allow them to make those decisions, right? So I might open up my air quality data app and see that, oh, today it looks like I'm being impacted by wildfire smoke. I might choose to not go on a run outside then. Or, I bike to work every day and I might see that, this intersection has a high, higher concentration of NO2, and I might choose to shift my route that I bike myself to work on in order to, you know, decrease my exposure to NO2, for instance. And the second thing, so that's kind of the first part of your question. But the second thing is that we're always looking for patterns, and then we're also looking for abnormalities from those patterns. So we're looking, across time and over time and over space, what patterns are we seeing in our air monitoring data, in our air quality? And we have monitors as part of this project, right, across all different parts of the cities. And we're going to see certain patterns happen, right? Like having a rush hour creates pollutants, and so we see typically patterns within that. But, a monitor that's placed right at a busy intersection is gonna see higher peaks and, lower dips than, Valley. Right, yeah. Lower valleys, thanks, than somewhere that's, placed in a more residential area without- with less traffic. And being able to sort of see that difference is really important 'cause it's oh, how much is traffic impacting this particular part of our neighborhood? Are they seeing, statistically significantly higher exposure to air pollution because of where they are located and how we've laid out our city? So, we can use that data, as I said, kind of to both help us, inform our actions as individuals and also to advocate for certain changes to our communities and how we run them. We often use air quality monitoring data to tell a, larger story about what air quality looks like in our neighborhoods and use that to advocate for ourselves and for, decisions that we want and changes that we want made. That is so exciting. And I'm assuming that to accurately track those trends, those peaks and valleys, you're gonna need some time- to accurately test that. So what is the timeline for this project? Yeah. So as I mentioned in the beginning, we've got a good chunk of our air monitors out now. And the rest will kind of be going online in the next month or two here. And then, there is very soon going to be released a public data dashboard, so that's where you'll be able to view all of this air quality data in real time and use it to make those kind of moment-to-moment decisions. And then these monitors will be out till the end of the grant, which I believe is in mid-2027. And we'll kind of see what happens next with the project after that. If the data has been useful, we might choose to continue the project in some way. But, that's the current timeline right now, so we'll have at least one year plus of monitoring data. Is that sufficient, do you think, for this project? That's a great question. I think that's a tricky one to answer. I think it ultimately depends. You know, each of our communities has different goals and different interests in what they're monitoring and what they're looking at. Longer term data can be really useful for looking at long-term patterns and understanding, long-term health effects. But also, having a year of data to get people exposed to it and understand what's going on and take a snapshot can also be, valuable as well. So I think, more does not always necessarily equal better, but if you're running the monitoring network well and you're finding that people are utilizing it, then, like- Let's see what happens next. Let's see if we can continue. Knowledge is power. So you mentioned that the data's gonna be going online in the next month or so, public. How does someone access the information? You mentioned there's gonna be, like, a dashboard. Yeah. So right now, in this exact moment in time, you can access information about the project, and then eventually the data will also be up on the website. The Great Plains Institute, that partner I mentioned at the beginning who's, our lead on this project, they have a website about the project right now. It's airnet.betterenergy.org. And that will lead you to information about the project, and eventually also lead you to the data once it is public. But I would also suggest looking out for your neighborhood's, what outreach they do, around this project. If you are in one of our partner organizations, there's gonna be some, outreach that are, Lisa, you in the Greater East Side Community Council are going to be doing, and that all of our other partners will be doing as well. We also are very fortunate to have TPT Now as a partner on this project, and they are going to be- Yes doing some cool outreach on, their TPT Now channel, so their, TV channel. And we'll be putting some of the data and information out there as well. So that's kind of a, a cool access point for hopefully a lot more people. Because, while we're monitoring in these specific communities, if you live outside of these communities, this monitoring data is often still really relevant for you, right? You might live or you might work or play in that area. And also, our air quality's a shared resource, right? So, like, if I am in the Greater East Side and I go down to Dayton's Bluff, we're breathing a lot of that same air in. There are some, really hyper local changes that we might see that we're looking for in this project, but overall, air quality's going to generally be similar across the Twin Cities. Well, and just to address two of the things that you've just mentioned. We will be putting links to the dashboard on our website. We're also doing some rebranding of the intersection of White Bear and Larpenteur, called the Bear-Larp District. Mm-hmm. So we will be linking to, on that website, all the social media, all of that. But then also, talking about how things that are happening in the Greater East Side can be felt in Bluff, Sun Ray, Battle Creek, et cetera. The Northern Iron Boundary that's located in Balan- has been a concern of ours just because we're downwind. Talking about those weather patterns we have, typically they move from west to east, and we are east of them. So I, I can see how, you know, we can track some of that. Maybe that's part of that PM2.5 particulate matter that you're talking about. Yeah, we'll put some of that in there for sure probably. I think we have a couple of locations that are in the southern part of our, neighborhood, which would be, I say, directly downwind from Northern Iron. So- Sure. And, and that, that is actually a big thing that Pain- the Painesville and neighbor, uh, Community Council is looking at themselves. That was a big driver for, what pollutants we looked at in that neighborhood and what instrumentation, we put out in that neighborhood. We're actually gonna be looking also at, weather patterns specifically in that neighborhood so that we can correlate high concentrations potentially with wind direction. Well, and I think, too, it'll be interesting once this data is collected. You know, this may lead to future public health type grants or something like that. If we see, high concentrations, we can track families', data of what their health impacts have been from being close to these, larger cluster sites if we have them on the east side. So I can see how this could lead to lots of future opportunities. Yeah, I, I think air monitoring data can be a really great, place to draw connection and, It's also a resource that, a lot of people are interested in, and a lot of organizations are interested in. And it can be a good thing to, share out and "Hey, I have this for you to utilize. How can you assist me in, in things that I wanna accomplish as well?" Well- Right is there anything else that you want to tell us about the project or where we're at in the game or Great question. So far things have been really great. It's been an absolute pleasure, getting to spend, time over in the greater east side and, east side more generally, neighborhood, setting up monitors and meeting a lot of neighbors and business owners and things like that. I'm really excited to, figure out this next portion of our project, which is gonna be, I think, a lot more of the education and outreach, piece, where up to now it's been a lot of the technical what are we buying? What are we putting them? Is that make sense for the goals that we have, for our data?" So that's something to look forward to. Yeah, absolutely. And then, hopefully once we maybe are midway through this project, maybe we can invite you back and you can talk about what you've learned so far. Yeah, that'd be lovely. Wonderful. Well, there are a couple of questions we like to ask all of our guests. First off, what is your favorite thing about the East Side of St. Paul? I love this. No, I, uh, I grew up in Minnesota, and I have spent a lot of my adult life not living in Minnesota, but recently moved back, which has been- Oh really a pleasure. And, I think something that I so appreciate about, Minnesota is just, the access to nature that we have here, and I think the East Side has a lot of that. A, a really stunning and, and wonderful place to go is, Wakahiki Park, formerly known as Mounds Park. And, a beautiful view and also a really cool place to connect and ground to our history here as as Midwesterners and Minnesotans. Absolutely. Y- you're not the first person to mention that park as their- Right one of their favorite things about the East Side. The views there are just so beautiful. And then, like you say, it's a good place to touch grass and ground yourself in history from generations before us. So- Yeah beautiful place. So if you met someone who had never been to the East Side before, other than sending them to Mounds Park- where would you send them and why? That's a such a good question. I mean, okay, to kind of, tag onto my answer to that last one, I'm a big nature lover, if you can't tell. And, I, I love to go for, a long walk and explore a new little fun area and, find hidden gem. There's sometimes I feel like I'm just walking around in the Twin Cities and I'm like, "Oh, I've never, I've never been to this little park before.", And I feel that way about Frost Lake. It's just such a, it's such a, like, beautiful, fun little place where you get to be like, "Oh, look, look what I discovered. I discovered a nice little lake here, and I get to see water on a day-to-day basis." I think that's a really big, thing that the East Side has to offer of, there's a lot of really great access to, getting to just, see water and feel... Water's so wonderful in a city setting in some ways too because it, it's, you can't build a house on it. You can't build any buildings really on it. And so you, get these, big expanses, or small expanses in some ways, like Frost Lake, but, of, nature that, sort of have to be nature. I think I would send them there and I'd say, "Go on a little walk and explore, explore these beautiful little trails and-" Absolutely. And we are very lucky on the East Side where we do have quite a few of these little pocket parks- Mm-hmm that you forget almost that you're in the city. You have- Yeah these beautiful little trails and beautiful, like you say, access to water. And you forget that there's green spaces when you think about a city as large as ours. And if you go beyond St. Paul's borders into Twin Cities general, you forget that there's so many green space. I remember once- Mm-hmm a, a good friend of mine had moved here from California, and she said, "I can't believe how many trees there are. There's trees everywhere." Mm-hmm. And i- it's something that some of us take for granted sometimes. But, it's so nice to have that opportunity to be outside and be in nature and really think about, you know, why we're here and what we're doing- Yeah and how do we improve this planet that we're living on. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lovely way to put it. So could you give us that website if folks wanna start looking at it now? I know that, our data's gonna be coming up in the next couple weeks. Yep. And we will have a sign-up form, I'm assuming,, to register for that information. We'll have all of that on our website and our social media. But could you give us that AirNet project website- Yeah again? Totally. Yeah. So just to be clear, you'll be able to both check the website for, um, like, current real-time data in all these different locations that we're monitoring in, and then you'll also be able to sign up for text alerts, as you were just alluding to. Perfect. Where if concentrations of certain pollutants go above, unhealthy levels, you would get a text message for the monitor that, like that's closest to your house that you've signed up for- Okay or the closest where you work. And you can get a kind of alert that says, "Hey, air quality is unhealthy here. Potentially consider changing your plans if you're gonna be outside, or close your windows," or something like that. Okay. The website, though, is airnet.betterenergy.org. Perfect. And that's all you need. And we will put that in our show notes as well, just so if folks are looking to start taking a look at some of that data that's out there, they can do so. Yeah. So thanks again, Story. This is a really exciting thing for our neighborhood, and the whole city beyond. And again, I think this can lead to lots of future opportunities and lots of future study of what's happening in our neighborhood. So thank you again, and- Thanks for having me absolutely. And we will have you back maybe, you know, January when it's cold and- hopefully there isn't some bad air quality, so we will check back with you and see what you learn probably at the halfway point. Awesome. I'm excited about it. I'll bring some data. All right. Perfect, perfect. Thanks again. Great. Thank you so much, Lisa. Thank you for listening to today's episode of D2 and you. If you are new here, welcome, and be sure to hit follow or subscribe so you never miss a new episode. Check out our website at greatereastside.org for further information on what is happening in the neighborhood. Special announcement, Starting on June 6th, we will be celebrating Mattie Saturdays every Saturday in June, located on Idaho Avenue between White Bear Avenue and Gary Place between 10 AM and 1 PM. We will have DJs, crafts for the kids, and we'll be right down the street from the Hafner Site food trucks for all those tasty treats. Join us for all these free fun things that'll be happening for the next four Saturdays in June. That's June 6th, June 13th, June 20th, and June 27th. And most importantly, get to meet our brand-new mascot for the Bear Larp district, Mato Ska, also known as Mattie. She'll be there to greet the kids, have pictures taken, and enjoy all the fun. So please join us starting June 6th from 10 AM to 1 PM on Idaho Avenue between White Bear Avenue and Gary Place. That's right in between Exquisite Cakes and Dollar Tree. For more information on Mattie Saturdays or on anything else in District Two, check out our website at greatereastside.org or at thebearlarpdistrict.com. See you then!