Project Clean Air: A Reflection of Me and Everyone Who Made It Possible
A Foreword in Loving Memory of Pastor Anthony Getter
Pastor Anthony Getter -
Photo courtesy of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church
So many people have played a vital role in helping push this project forward, but without one person, Project Clean Air would have never gotten off the ground. I want to dedicate this piece to Pastor Anthony Getter, who oversaw the implementation of the first PurpleAir sensor and was a tireless advocate for public health and community wellbeing.
Although my time with the pastor was limited, I saw first-hand his calming demeanor and thoughtful curiosity. These characteristics helped us navigate through our program journey. Pastor Getter was always there and ready to support, which he also displayed towards each member of the community he loved. It is a privilege to have met and worked beside him.
Community Conversation at Michigan City Public Library w/ Pastor Getter and attendees
My Journey to JTNWI
Photo of me with my dad back home in Saudi Arabia
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, fresh water was never as accessible of a resource as it was here in the United States. Since our tap water was not drinkable and we lived in a desert, we would drive 25 miles to a pump outside our city to fill jugs with enough usable water for the week. From there, we had to consciously use our water not to waste it or run out before the week concluded.
When I first moved to the US, the biggest culture shocks I had were water fountains and drinkable tap water. I had a hard time understanding how water could be such an infinite source here that people could just let it go to waste to water grass or have water ballon fights. In other places, it is an extremely finite resource with the power to displace many. But, I quickly learned that the dire reality of water scarcity extended even into the United States and beyond. While sometimes it is due to climate-related factors, the scarcity often stems from pure negligence and contamination by faceless industries. This started my journey into environmental advocacy.
Michigan City Generating Station from the Lake Michigan lakeshore -Photo by Matthew Kaplan
I was first introduced to environmental advocacy by Professor Rachel Havrelock, founder and professor of The Freshwater Lab, a course on water scarcity and inequality. She encouraged my interest in environmentalism by helping me pair it with my major in Political Science. This further developed my interest in environmentalism, and with her guidance, led me to a summer internship with Just Transition Northwest Indiana (JTNWI).
At JTNWI, I worked on familiar issues related to Lake Michigan and the access to fresh water for surrounding communities. I also learned about the dangers of coal ash in our water and air and the fight the Northwest Indiana community faces against frequent industrial contaminators. Not only did I build on my existing knowledge, but I also gained a new passion from the research I conducted at JTNWI. I researched various topics, from health impacts to municipalization in NWI. This interest in research spread to school, where I conducted independent research on the diffusion of political philosophies worldwide and presented it multiple times.
By meeting many of the incredible people keeping this fight alive, I learned that action needs to be taken properly to address an issue. So I paired my interest in research and environmentalism and took on a monitoring project to help protect the residents of Michigan City and pressure NIPSCO to handle the coal ash they produce properly.
With Hope, Brings New Concerns for Michigan City
Aerial of the Michigan City Generating Station and the coal ash waste
My journey brought me to tackle a pressing injustice facing the Michigan City community: coal ash, the toxic, health-damaging waste produced by burning coal for electricity. I began learning about the scale of the challenges facing the Michigan City community and our collective Lake Michigan lakeshore. Over the past few years, JTNWI has been diligently organizing for a complete cleanup and closure of all the toxic coal ash waste at the century-old Michigan City Generating Station (MCGS). In 2020, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) announced plans to close their five on-site coal ash pits, removing an estimated 171,000 cubic yards of coal ash. NIPSCO announced the majority of the coal would be trucked 45 miles south to the Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield to dispose of in a lined landfill.
The Michigan City Soul Steppers from a 2019 event in Pullman Park with the Michigan City Generating Station cooling tower in the backdrop
NIPSCO’s announced excavation represented a preliminary part of a bigger closure plan announced in 2020, culminating in the complete retirement of the MCGS facility as coal becomes less profitable in this new era of renewable energy. While this was welcomed news to many, the closure plan revealed serious gaps, deeper concerns, and uncertainty. Despite their excavation, millions of tons of coal ash are being allowed to remain on Lake Michigan indefinitely, leaking into the lake behind a deteriorating steel seawall structure. Our fears were coupled with the fact that this plan was being proposed during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic, where additional air pollution has been proven to exacerbate the impacts of the virus, leading to worsening symptoms and even death for the most vulnerable, predominantly in low-income communities and communities of color, like Michigan City, where nearly 4,000 individuals and families live within a mile of the plant.
Ready, Set, Launch!
Proving, yet again, the power of grassroots organizing, JTNWI won a postponement in the planned NIPSCO excavation during 2020 after a multi-month effort; still, we knew our work did not stop there. Despite repeated inquiries to NIPSCO and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to install community air monitors to safeguard public health from Michigan City to Wheatfield during their removal operations, we were not being responded to. Thus, as a small and scrappy but resourceful community organization, we decided to take matters into our own hands to protect both our collective water and air. This was the impetus for launching Project Clean Air in anticipation of the rescheduled NIPSCO excavation in April 2022.
Our petition and joint letter delivery to EPA Region 5 in Chicago in December 2022
Photo by Matthew Kaplan
In early August 2021, I jumped to the drawing board and created an outline for this program to utilize a network of low-cost PurpleAir sensors. PurpleAir is often the go-to for organizations to have the tools to monitor their air quality in real time and, in turn, safeguard the health and well-being of the community. To jump-start this project, I used my resources at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Here, under the advice of Professor Serap Erdal, from the College of Public Health, I began creating an action plan, which included finding researchers and mapping out monitors, funding sources, and locations. This was the start of a long and tremulous project only made possible because of the community support and regional assistance it received.
Building our Dream Team
Pastor Jacarra Williams holding up one of our yard signs at the Urgent Community Health Forum at H.O.P.E Center in the summer of 2022
I remember the moment we got our first two PurpleAir sensors. JTNWI’s Executive Director, Ashley Williams, Susan Thomas, JTNWI’s Legislative and Policy Director, and I headed straight to New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. It is there where we met Pastor Anthony Getter there, who had the same excited look in his eyes as we did. He, along with Pastor Williams, was one of the most vocal supporters of this program, and this project had been a long time coming. As we talked about possible host locations for the sensors, Pastor Getter gleefully snapped his fingers when an idea sprung into his head. He had the perfect first location.
Me, Ashley, and Gail at her home after we just installed our first PurpleAir sensor
Because of Pastor Getter’s dedication to the health and well-being of his parishioners, we were able to set up our first sensor just feet away from the NIPSCO excavation site. It took twenty minutes, a couple of extension wires, zip ties, and storytelling. As I configured the sensor, I listened to Gail, our host, tell us about the history of her home and neighborhood. Our conversation gravitated from the tulips she planted along her fence to her concerns of having a generating station right in your backyard. Her experience wasn’t unique, just down the road, we talked with a man who grew up under the shadow of the cooling tower. He recalled his mother constantly worrying about the health impacts of living so close to the generating station and her frequent attempts to rally the community together. That same afternoon I had the privilege of meeting Mrs. Collins, who lived on that same block and had her back fence knocked down by NIPSCO to make way for construction. We stood on her porch, talking for hours about her frustrations with NIPSCO and the neighborhood. As if nature read our mood, it began to rain.
On the car ride back home, I realized that these talks were not meant to dampen my spirits, rather they were meant to uplift them. All these issues, mistrust, and sentiments against NIPSCO must be continuously addressed. In addition to our campaign, this air monitoring project was meant to empower those affected by NIPSCO and be a thorn in the side of perpetrators. Setting up our first PurpleAir sensor was the domino we needed to push to get the whole program in motion. And it was. Within the next few months, we had set up multiple sensors, all within a mile range of the excavation site.
Mary at her home following the installation of her PurpleAir sensor
On this journey, we made friends, friends who have become the backbone of Project Clean Air. Our second sensor brought us these friends, Tina Mahone and Mary Newson. At that time, I was thousands of miles away in France but still frequently checked in on the PurpleAir interactive map, which provides real-time particulate matter (PM) 2.5 (fine inhalable pollution) readings to the public and anyone who interfaces with the map, allowing us to quickly and effectively determine what the air quality is on the ground. I would also hop on late-night calls to ensure the project's continuity. Ashley told me during one of those late nights, “We found a second location and some help setting it up!” At 3 am the next day, I waited anxiously by my laptop, ready to provide support if needed, and just as I was about to fall asleep, I got the “it’s live” text. And there it was, the community’s second PurpleAir sensor was live and already crunching data. Mary has continued to support us tremendously through ongoing maintenance of the sensors across Michigan City with the support of Tina.
Our team churned like a perfectly oiled machine within the next few months. Any time a sensor went down or got a mysterious issue, Tina and Mary were on it. Anytime I slacked off, they were there to keep me accountable. It was their passion that kept the project churning.
While setting up our last sensor with Mary, I asked her thoughts on the project. She shrugged and said, “It's important.” She had known many people, neighbors, who were suspected of having fallen ill from coal ash contamination. She believes this project could provide some clarity or support and work as an important tool for a community battling coal ash. To her and all of us, community awareness is one of the most important takeaways from this project. Mary believes the attempt to educate her neighbors, friends, and even foes keep the community’s fight alive against coal ash. That is exactly why I launched this program with JTNWI, believing that anything is possible with educated and organized people. This project is a beautiful story about how one community, neighbor to neighbor, banded together to take care of each other, and I hope this is one that we can carry with us always.
Gratitude & Acknowledgments
In addition to the professors at UIC, who helped provide necessary background information about the world of air monitoring, JTNWI is blessed with many allies from all over the region.
Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel with Earthjustice, has supported this project from the very beginning and provided connections and feedback that shaped our overall game plan. Through the generous support from Earthjustice, we set up our first monitor four months ahead of schedule, just in time for NIPSCO’s excavation.
At the suggestion of Lisa Evans, I also reached out to Ron Sahu, an environmental, mechanical, and chemical engineering expert, who spoke to me over the phone for two hours. We talked at length about how to properly monitor, navigate some challenges we may face, and successfully use the data we receive.
Next, having experts in the area performing similar research allowed this program to be enriched by exchanging knowledge. Dr. Julie Peller and Dr. Chris Iceman from Valparaiso University provided a pillar for our program, in the event we needed one. Their availability and suggestions were instrumental in keeping this program strong.
During month two, our PurpleAir sensors saw a spike in air quality near the excavation site. I hadn’t noticed at first, but Representative Pat Boy had. I woke up the next morning with a thread of emails from everyone talking about a change in air quality readings. Turns out Representative Boy saw this spike and immediately sprung to action. She let us know and contacted the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to address this spike. IDEM, seeing her persistence and concern, conducted an inquiry that didn’t yield the results we wanted, but it let NIPSCO know that we were still being vigilant. Thanks to Representative Pat Boy, we know we have a strong voice in the state congress ready to support us.
Most importantly, the people of Michigan City made everything possible. New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and its congregants were vital in securing hosts and spreading the news about the program. Through their generous donation, JTNWI could push the program to the next level by installing more sensors and beginning weekly air quality updates. New Covenant Outreach Ministries’ support of outreaching and hosting our sensor was instrumental in ensuring widespread monitoring. Special thanks to Mary Newson and Tina Mahone for carrying Project Clean Air. Together, they set up most of the sensors in Michigan City and continue to perform maintenance on them as JTNWI’s onsite volunteers. Their incredible work has kept the sensors online, and it would be safe to say this program would be unrealistic if it were not for their help.
From the initial conception to the nine month anniversary of continuous monitoring, I came across some of the most supportive, helpful individuals that truly shaped the trajectory of this project. While this may seem like a simple air monitoring project, it served as a testimony to how persistent this community is in securing the safety of its friends and neighbors. And, it will reflect our continuous fight for a clean, healthy future for all.
