Issue: CARE-4-AIR

  • The League Line: Spring 2026

    • Cover: Toxic Synergy: Fracking for Data Centers
    • Director’s Report: Fighting for the Environment in the Era of Trump
    • Mission Finally Accomplished
    • BREDL Air Monitoring Program Update
    • An Update From BREDL’s Rabun Gap Chapter
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  • The League Line: Winter 2026

    • Cover: What Motivates People to Act?
    • Director’s Report: The Challenges Ahead
    • The Hidden Costs of AI Data Centers: Challenges We Must Address
    • BREDL Air Monitoring Program Update
    • Organizing People for Change
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  • The League Line: Fall 2025

    • Cover: Remembering BREDL Leader Sam Tesh
    • Director’s Report: Off-grid Living on the Rise Amid Climate Change
    • Update: PFAS Contamination at Farmer Elementary School and Surrounding Area
    • BREDL Air Monitoring Program Update
    • Prioritizing Economic Resilience
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  • The League Line: Summer 2025

    • Cover: NCDEQ Finds PFAS in Landfill Groundwater
    • Director’s Report: BREDL Has Its Day in SC’S Highest Court
    • Essay: Data Centers on the Horizon
    • New Controversy Surrounding Mountain Valley Pipeline
    • How Does Pollution Impact Our Wildlife?
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  • BREDL Releases Site 1 Air Monitoring Findings for EPA-funded Care4Air Project

    Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) has completed our air monitoring at a site in Hamlet, North Carolina, which is in Richmond County. The monitoring period was November 22, 2024, through April 7, 2025. The air monitoring trailer, known as the B.E.A.S.T. (BREDL Environmental Air Sampling Trailer) is equipped with state-of-the art equipment.

    Our Site 1 report details our findings and provides information on the facilities near the site, as well as activities that could impact air quality in the community. There is an accompanying report which gives additional technical information. “We are adamant about informing the public of hazardous toxins in their communities. Our Care 4 Air project is extremely important when it comes to the health and welfare of the communities we serve across the Southeast,” said Kathy Andrews, Executive Director of BREDL.

    Links to site reports can be found here.

    The BEAST has been moved to Site 2 where it is currently monitoring the air. The Care4Air project was made possible through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

    BEAST video footage for media use can be found here. BEAST photos available upon request.

    View full press release

  • The League Line: Spring 2025

    • Cover: Care-4-Air Launch Continues
    • Director’s Report: Pipeline Case Head to S.C. Supreme Court
    • Essay: Rare Earth Elements, Rare Opportunity for Change
    • The Quest for an Environmental Justice Bill in Georgia
    • Care-4-Air: Meeting the Challenges
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  • The League Line: Winter 2025

    • Cover: BEAST  Unit Deployed
    • Director’s Report: The Preservation of Wild Spaces
    • The Perilous Dust Story
    • Visioning a Resilient Local Economy
    • BREDL Introduces New Logos

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  • BREDL Announces Deployment of “The B.E.A.S.T.”

    THE BEAST UNLEASHED: The BREDL Environmental Air Sampling Trailer has been delivered to our first location and will be deployed to other sites in the Southeast over the next three years.

     

    Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL) has officially launched our community air monitoring project featuring the B.E.A.S.T. utility trailer equipped with high-end air monitoring equipment. B.E.A.S.T is the acronym for BREDL Environmental Air Sampling Trailer.

    The Environmental Protection Agency EPA awarded a grant to BREDL on July 30, 2023, for the CARE-4-Air (C4A) project. The grant funded a mobile air monitoring trailer that will be taken to communities throughout the Southeast that are concerned about air pollution in their neighborhoods. Kathy Andrews, BREDL Executive Director: “This is a great opportunity to provide air pollution data to the general public and target areas where protection is needed due to bad air quality.  We’re grateful to the EPA for providing us funding for this important  project.”

    BREDL’s contractor Wilbur Technical Services outfitted the trailer with monitors for: Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Nitrogen oxides, and Particulate Matter (PM). These pollutants can impact human health and the environment. The B.E.A.S.T. is also equipped with a weather station. Data from the monitors will be obtained online and subjected to EPA approved quality assurance and quality control checks. BREDL will provide the results of the air sampling and meet with impacted communities. We will employ various educational tools—for example Infographics and fact sheets— to inform the public about air sources in their neighborhoods, and to encourage engagement on environmental
    issues that they are concerned about.

    The $432,854 project includes $365,368 provided by the EPA grant and $67,486 in a BREDL cost-share commitment. We appreciate this opportunity provided by EPA’s “Enhanced air quality monitoring for communities” grant.

    “We are excited to be able to provide, at least for a few months, state of the art air monitoring for underserved communities. Communities that don’t have access to nearby government agency air monitoring,” said Mark Barker, Project Operations Manager.

    We are hopeful that all BREDL chapters dealing with air quality problems will consider taking advantage of this remarkable opportunity. If you are interested in having the B.E.A.S.T. deployed to your area, please contact Mark Barker at mebarker@cox.net.

     

    For more information:

    Therese Vick

    Mark Barker

  • The League Line: Fall 2024

     

    • Cover: Victory in Virginia
    • Director’s Report: How Bad Will Weather Related Catastrophes Become?
    • Re-energize Your Campaign with Careful and Creative Planning
    • How our Environment Impacts Mental Health
    • BREDL Air Monitoring Update

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  • The League Line: Summer 2024

    • Cover: The Mountain Valley Pipeline Calamity
    • Director’s Report: We Must Divest From Fossil Fuels
    • Fool’s Gold – The False Promise of Nuclear
    • Care-4-Air update
    • N.C. Chamber Interferes with PFAS Standards

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