Data associated with "Health and environmental justice implications of retiring two coal‐fired power plants in the southern Front Range region of Colorado"
| dc.contributor.author | Martenies, Sheena | |
| dc.contributor.author | Akherati, Ali | |
| dc.contributor.author | Jathar, Shantanu | |
| dc.contributor.author | Magzamen, Sheryl | |
| dc.coverage.spatial | Southern Colorado with a focus on Pueblo and Colorado Springs | en_US |
| dc.coverage.temporal | 2017-01-18-2035-08-18 | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-05-06T15:05:35Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-05-06T15:05:35Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.description | R code used to conduct the health impact assessment is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2669422. | |
| dc.description | The dataset includes model predictions of ozone and particulate matter less 2.5 microns in diameter over southern Colorado during years of 2017 and 2035. These files are stored as netCDF files. | en_US |
| dc.description | Department of Mechanical Engineering | |
| dc.description | Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences | |
| dc.description.abstract | Despite improvements in air quality over the past 50 years, ambient air pollution remains an important public health issue in the United States. In particular, emissions from coal-fired power plants still have a substantial impact on both nearby and regional populations. Of particular concern is the potential for this impact to fall disproportionately on low-income communities and communities of color. We conducted a quantitative health impact assessment to estimate the health benefits of the proposed decommissioning of coal-fired boilers at two electricity generating stations in the Southern Front Range region of Colorado. We estimated changes in exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone due to reductions in emission using the Community Multiscale Air Quality model and predicted avoided health impacts and related economic values. In addition to estimating health benefits of reduced emissions, we assessed the distribution of these benefits by population-level socioeconomic status using concentration curves. Across the study area, decommissioning the power plants would result in 4 (95% CI: 2 – 6) avoided premature deaths each year due to reduced PM2.5 exposures and greater reductions in hospitalizations and other morbidities. Health benefits resulting from the modeled shutdowns were greatest in areas with lower median incomes, lower percentages of high school graduates, and higher proportions of households with incomes below the poverty line. However, in our study area, we did not observe higher benefits when examining area-level percentage of residents of color, largely due to the distribution of the smaller proportion of the population in the region that identifies as non-White. Our results suggest that decommissioning the power plants in the southern Front Range and replacing them with zero-emissions sources could have broad public health benefits for residents of Colorado, with larger benefits for those that are socially disadvantaged and historically bear greater environmental pollution burdens. These results also suggested that researchers and decision makers need to consider the unique demographics of their study areas to ensure that important opportunities to reduce health disparities associated with point-source pollution. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | American Lung Association. | en_US |
| dc.format.medium | ZIP | |
| dc.format.medium | RTF | |
| dc.format.medium | NetCDF | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10217/194871 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/194871 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Colorado State University. Libraries | en_US |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Research Data | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Colorado Public Utilities Commission. (2018). Decision No. C18-0761: Phase II decision approving retirement of Comanche Units 1 and 2; approving resource selection in Colorado Energy Plan Portfolio; setting requirements for applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity; and setting requirements for the next electric resource plan filing. Retrieved from https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Company/Rates%20&%20Regulations/Resource%20Plans/16A-0396E-Phase-II-Decision.pdf | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Fann, N., Fulcher, C. M., & Baker, K. (2013). The recent and future health burden of air pollution apportioned across U.S. sectors. Environmental Science & Technology, 47(8), 3580–3589. https://doi.org/10.1021/es304831q | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Harper, S., Ruder, E., Roman, H. A., Geggel, A., Nweke, O., Payne-Sturges, D., & Levy, J. I. (2013). Using Inequality Measures to Incorporate Environmental Justice into Regulatory Analyses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 10(9), 4039–4059. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10094039 | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Hubbell, B. J., Fann, N., & Levy, J. I. (2009). Methodological considerations in developing local-scale health impact assessments: balancing national, regional, and local data. Air Quality Atmosphere and Health, 2(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-009-0037-z | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Levy, J. I., Wilson, A. M., & Zwack, L. M. (2007). Quantifying the efficiency and equity implications of power plant air pollution control strategies in the United States. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(5), 743–750. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9712 | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Martenies, S., Gan, R., Magzamen, S., Akherati, A., & Jathar, S. (2018). Health impact assessment of coal-fired boiler retirement at the Martin Drake and Comanche power plants. https://hdl.handle.net/10217/201058 | |
| dc.relation.isreferencedby | Martenies, S. E., Akherati, A., Jathar, S.,& Magzamen, S. (2019). Health and environmental justice implications of retiring two coal‐fired power plants in the southern Front Range region of Colorado. GeoHealth, 3. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GH000206 | en_US |
| dc.subject | health impact assessment | |
| dc.subject | environmental justice | |
| dc.subject | inequality metrics | |
| dc.subject | ambient air pollution | |
| dc.subject | economic assessment | |
| dc.subject | community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) modeling | |
| dc.title | Data associated with "Health and environmental justice implications of retiring two coal‐fired power plants in the southern Front Range region of Colorado" | en_US |
| dc.type | Dataset | en_US |
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