Residents in communities with low incomes face structural barriers to health and quality of life. One such challenge is the siting of hazardous industries and toxic waste facilities near where residents live, work, and play. Industrial pollution of the natural environment has been linked to poor health and developmental outcomes. Yet across the country, regulations that could limit pollution’s impacts on nearby residents are often either underenforced or nonexistent, while entrenched power dynamics can limit residents’ abilities to advocate for themselves. 

With funding from the Local Data for Equitable Communities grant program, five organizations are working to address the impacts of pollution in low-income communities. Although the communities face unique challenges, these organizations are taking similar approaches by collaborating with residents, collecting environmental data, and building toward a future where industries are held accountable. 

Investigating air pollution in Texas, Georgia, and California 

Auto and metal recycling facilities are critical parts of the recycling ecosystem, but both have been associated with environmental hazards to workers and residents living nearby, including cancer risks and water contamination (PDF). In San Antonio, these facilities are located near neighborhoods that are home primarily to people of color and low- and moderate-income families. 

San Antonio revised local codes in 2025 to better regulate the effects of these facilities, yet recent fires and explosions have raised questions about whether the facilities in these neighborhoods are complying with the revised codes and whether those codes are sufficiently protective. The Bexar County Community Health Collaborative is partnering with researchers at UT San Antonio and Community Information Now to answer these questions by deploying air quality sensors and collecting crowdsourced observations of major incidents. By demonstrating with data and physical evidence the hazards these facilities create, residents can bring evidence to local regulators in support of stronger regulatory enforcement. 

In Lumber City, Georgia, residents have expressed concerns about the impacts of a wood pellet biomass manufacturer located close to their homes and the town’s only park. Wood pellet production is considered by some to be a part of the sustainable economy but has been associated with harmful emissions. 

To investigate how the plant may be harming the community, Dogwood Alliance is analyzing air quality in Lumber City along with students and professors from the Georgia State University School of Public Health. They plan to produce an air quality dataset and community-facing report that will equip residents to advocate for real enforcement and, ultimately, safer conditions for their community. 

Another widespread source of pollution in many rural communities is pesticide use in the agriculture industry. Airborne pesticides in particular have been found to degrade air quality and threaten human health. Many of these impacts fall disproportionately on predominately Latinx and low-income agricultural workers. These concerns are familiar to residents of the San Joaquin Valley, which is the highest-pesticide-use region in California, yet pesticide use is not well documented and is difficult for communities to access.

Clearya, a chemical data analytics platform, is partnering with Californians for Pesticide Reform to address knowledge gaps by using the Clearya Insights platform to build an accessible interactive data tool mapping confirmed pesticide use data in relation to where residents of San Joaquin Valley spend their time. The team will share findings with residents, who can reference data in public comments and hearings with county officials, regulatory agencies, and municipal decisionmakers. They also plan to share findings with agricultural commissioners in Kern, Fresno, and Tulare Counties, which can support their permitting and oversight efforts and inform air pollution reduction.

Highlighting water contamination in West Virginia and Washington

Some agricultural practices have resulted in water contamination, including concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Despite federal efforts to regulate contamination, reforms have been implemented slowly. This is especially true in Washington’s Lower Yakima Valley, where Latinx dairy farmworker families are disproportionately exposed to CAFO pollution and are at risk of contaminated water supplies. 

Empowering Latina Leadership and Action is working to address CAFO water contamination in the Lower Yakima Valley, compiling groundwater data and interviewing affected residents. Their findings and the personal narratives they compile through their conversations with residents will inform public materials that highlight these CAFOs’ harmful impacts. By sharing what they learn, they will provide valuable and accessible data for residents to advocate for reforms, including tighter permit enforcement for CAFOs, stronger nutrient management regulations, and limits on CAFO expansion. 

In Appalachia, coal mining activities have polluted many water sources through acid mine drainage, which can lead to higher rates of birth defects, cancer, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among nearby residents. In West Virginia, source water protection plans are one of the few ways to limit the emissions the coal mining industry creates, but few communities have access to the appropriate data to inform these plans. 

Appalachian Voices is filling this gap by helping communities find the data they need to enforce cleaner mining practices. They are collecting water samples from water sources across four West Virginia counties, which they will analyze for heavy metals. They plan to share these data with residents who are adversely affected by poor water quality and plan to survey them about their perceptions of water quality and associated health risks. Appalachian Voices hopes these data, which will be compiled into a report and shared with local water authorities, will help empower residents to hold the coal industry accountable and to secure safe drinking water in their communities. 

What These Communities Can Teach Us 

These projects remind us that in the face of entrenched power dynamics that can make it hard for communities to fight back against pollutive industries, data can be a powerful tool for collective organizing. By assembling timely data on air and water quality in their communities, these organizations are equipping residents to assemble evidence related to their concerns about local pollution and inform regulations that hold these industries accountable. 

About the Initiative 

The Local Data for Equitable Communities grant program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is supporting 30 grantee organizations across the country to use local data and community experience to improve conditions specific to those places. These projects span rural and urban areas, engage a broad range of community members, and address such issues as environmental health, food access, housing and land use, climate sustainability, and justice. Learn more about all the Local Data for Equitable Communities grantees. 

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Our next post in this series will share grantee projects focused on the impacts of climate change. Stay tuned.