Author: Clean Air Coalition

Got Asthma? Got concerns about heavy truck traffic emissions? Curious about what the burning of limestone at the nearby cement plant is doing to the air? Sensitive to the return of wildfire smoke events from Canada? These are legitimate health concerns that can now be monitored by every person who owns a free PurpleAir monitor. It’s long past time we get serious about how to protect ourselves.

Join us for a virtual event on: Thursday, April 9th, 2026 at 6pm with the Air Justice Lab, NATURE Lab’s community air monitoring project, to learn more.

ATTEND THE ZOOM FORUM BY REGISTERING HERE.

PurpleAir monitors collect the critical data that helps people with respiratory issues stay alert to the air quality outside their home. It does not collect anything other than real-time, hyper-local, informative data to track harmful particulate matter.

There are no onboard video cameras, no audio devices, no recordings of any kind made by this little, unobtrusive device. It’s designed to monitor live pollution levels so people can make informed decisions about whether to stay indoors and/or avoid activities that trigger asthma or other breathing-related issues.

PurpleAir is especially useful in towns like ours with high amounts of heavy diesel truck traffic and industrial zones with known pollution sources. 

The Clean Air Coalition has been sounding the alarm on the truck traffic crisis for years. Today, it came as a relief to see it finally addressed on a local TV station. We commend ABC News 10 and reporter Dan Passante for listening to community concerns that focus on the dangers and damages of increased truck traffic on Route 144. However, there’s much more to this story than what was reported.

Diesel truck exhaust is a major source of air pollution, releasing harmful pollutants like fine particulate matter (soot), nitrogen oxides, and toxic compounds like benzene. These emissions are linked to serious health issues like asthma, heart/lung disease, cancer, and premature death.

Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to these emissions. With over 200 heavy-duty diesel trucks running through the Village of Ravena/Town of Coeymans every day, hundreds of families and dozens of businesses are at risk of dirty, dusty and toxic emissions.

If you live near heavy truck traffic, you can help monitor your air by installing a small Purple Air Monitor. PurpleAir monitors are highly effective, reliable, and widely trusted low-cost sensors for measuring particulate matter. The CAC can help you install one for free. These truly are critical for monitoring our public health. They offer real-time, hyper-local data that captures air quality trends, such as wildfire smoke and truck traffic.

A group of local “woodland warriors” donned rain jackets and flashlights this week in an effort to save our slippery friends.

Every Spring, a cadre of defenseless little critters come alive from a long winter dormancy. They are instinctively drawn out of the woods and migrate to nearby creekbeds and vernal pools for breeding and spawning.

CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen, lives on the border with Hannacroix Creek near Route 144 where the annual migration takes place. The event is triggered by warm, rainy nights, and Monday evening (3/16/26) proved one of those ideal crossing opportunities. Heinzen puts out a ‘call to action’ in advance to folks willing to assist the slimy, little species in their journey across the busy road.

Volunteers walked up and down both sides of the road, scooping up hapless toads, frogs, salamanders, and peepers. They are released into Barbara’s wetlands, also known as a Barbets Duet.

A total of 80 living things were collected and protected from roadkill last night. “A stupendous amount,” said Heinzen.

This count helps the NYS DEC in their efforts to gather critical data on habitat conservation. To learn more, visit today’s DEC press release with important links to what you can do to help.

Even if you’re not Irish, this action doesn’t get any greener! Happy St.Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Barbara’s first newt of the night on March 22, 2026.

Judith Enck is our extraordinary local Environmental Policy Expert and good friend to the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena Coeymans.  She invites you to an in-person book event at the Opalka Gallery at Russell Sage College 140 New Scotland Ave, Albany, NY on Thursday, March 26 at 7:00 PM  to learn about “The Problem with Plastic.”  An eye-opening talk about how we can help protect ourselves and our planet before it’s too late.

It’s free and open to the public so please feel free to invite your friends and family to join you. And, by the way, Judith’s new read has a cover that is not made of plastic, a highly unusual first but not the last.

Judith founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change. She was appointed Regional Administrator of Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by President Barack Obama. And she was the longest serving EPA Region 2 Regional Administrator. To learn more about all she has been up to since she left the EPA job go to her website: https://judithenck.com/