New Jersey snags mixed results in annual snapshot of air pollution

New Jersey has some of the worst and best air in the nation.

A report on air pollution the American Lung Association released Wednesday found that the Newark-New York City metropolitan area, which includes 13 counties in New Jersey, tied with the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the 13th most ozone-polluted city in the nation. That compares to 12th in last year’s report. The same metro area ranked 64th worst for fine particle pollution, with Union County dinged as the area’s most polluted county, by long-term measurements.

The Camden metropolitan area, which includes Philadelphia, Reading, and seven New Jersey counties, was the 35th most polluted metro area nationally. Bergen and Mercer counties got failing grades for “high-ozone days.”

Yet eight New Jersey counties scored A grades for the fewest high-ozone days (Atlantic, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, and Warren) and high-particle pollution days (Cumberland, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, and Morris) from 2020 to 2022, according to the report.

“For New Jersey, we really found sort of mixed results,” said Mike Seilback, the association’s assistant vice president of nationwide policy. “But things are trending in the right direction. Air quality is improving because of the steps that are being taken on the local, state, and federal level, and that’s something that we should be really happy about.”

Western states fared worse, with California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, and Alaska topping the report’s list of the most air-polluted places to live.

“More than 131 million people live in an area that received a failing grade for one of the pollutants that we measure,” Seilback said. “This is a stark reminder that despite the improvements that we’ve made in air quality, far too many Americans are being exposed to unhealthy air.”

The association issued its first annual “State of the Air” report in 2000, and while policymakers have adopted reforms since then to reduce pollution, climate change has undercut progress, researchers found.

“Climate change is making it even harder to be effective at reducing air pollution because we’re having those longer, hotter summers, and the ozone gets cooked up in the atmosphere on those really hot, steamy summer weeks,” Seilback said.

The extreme heat and drought driven by climate change also has sparked more wildfires, which spike particle pollution, he added.

Seilback applauded New Jersey’s shift away from fossil fuels, noting the Murphy administration’s goal for a 100% clean-energy economy by 2035.

“New Jersey is one of several states that has really strong goals and benchmarks that we need to hit,” he said. “That’s not going to happen on its own. It’s going to require continued pushing of markets so that we’re moving away from old, dirty combustion and moving towards cleaner, greener energy.”

The association offered several strategies to reduce air pollution, including forest management to prevent wildfires, full funding of the Environmental Protection Agency, and defending the Clean Air Act on the federal level.

States should phase out the use of coal, oil, gas, and other fossil fuels, prioritize clean energy production, reduce air pollution at ports, invest in zero-emission buses, electrify buildings, expand electric vehicle infrastructure, improve air quality monitoring, and invest in communities overburdened by pollution, the report recommends.

Jackie Greger of the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter said many residents live in areas that fail to meet federal air quality standards. Vehicle pollution is a major driver of elevated ozone levels, she added.

The state made progress last year in adopting a rule requiring all new cars sold here to be electric by 2035, but more stringent rules could cut greenhouse gases more, she said. Policymakers also should work to reduce reliance on natural gas appliances, which make homes and buildings big emitters of air pollutants, she added.

“Highly populated areas in New Jersey and transportation hot zones like the I-95 corridor are hot zones for high-level ozone concentrations,” Greger said. “We must steer away from the burning of fossil fuels with our cars and buildings, otherwise we will never achieve healthy air for us to breathe.”