Along with an announced effort to crack down on trucks left idling at the Peace Bridge, the State Department of Environmental Conservation has also agreed to conduct air monitoring on Buffalo's West Side near the bridge's inspection plaza.
Air monitoring will begin within the next 45 days and will be conducted over a two-month period. The latest data was collected in the late 1990s.
"DEC is pleased to partner with the Peace Bridge Authority to determine how reducing traffic congestion affects air quality near the Peace Bridge," DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a statement. "This data will not only help us understand the air quality impacts of the Peace Bridge corridor, but also enhance our understanding of the air pollution burdens present on Buffalo's West Side."
Peace Bridge General Manager Ron Reinas says the Peace Bridge Authority wants to do more to improve the environment.
"The customs plaza is not a truck stop. Truckers don't want to wait here. We want to get them in and out of here as quickly as possible. Anything that we do in terms of plaza improvements is designed to make the traffic flow better and then, by extension, that makes air quality better because we don't have the stopping and starting and the idling," Reinas said.
Rienas says he expects to see improvements in air quality. He points out that in the past five years, there have been dramatic changes in fuel and engine technology.
"All trucks are now running on ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel, so the emissions that are coming from a new truck manufactured today compared to one just even a few years ago is 95 percent less emissions," said Reinas.
Peace Bridge Authority chairman Sam Hoyt says past studies have shown the port to be well within state compliance levels for vehicle emissions.
Advocates including State Senators Mark Grisanti and Tim Kennedy, Assembyman Sean Ryan, and Buffalo Councilman David Rivera applauded the announcement at a news conference Friday morning.
