Soot Line
Ports move your stuff. Their neighbors breathe the exhaust.
Consumer-facing port air pollution accountability — automated, neighborhood-level air quality journalism that correlates ship traffic, port activity, nearby industrial facilities, and health-relevant pollution spikes so people living near major ports can finally see what they’re inhaling, when it gets worse, and who profits from it.
Niche Explored
Port city air quality accountability — correlating vessel traffic, port operations, and industrial emissions with air quality data at monitors near major US ports to produce consumer-facing health impact scorecards for port-adjacent communities.
Existing Competition
- EDF/Google partnership “sniffing trucks” — Focused on truck emissions, not vessels. Local project.
- Port of Long Beach/LA emissions inventories — Annual PDF reports, dense, technical, not consumer-readable. Published 12-18 months after data collection.
- AirNow.gov — Real-time AQI, but no attribution. Tells you air is bad, not WHY.
- EPA ECHO — Enforcement data for port-area facilities, not synthesized or narrative.
- CleanAirMoms.org — Advocacy, not data journalism.
- No dedicated consumer-facing site that specifically correlates port activity with neighborhood-level air quality data and translates it into human-readable health impact reporting.
Data Sources Found
- EPA AQS API (https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/documents/data_api.html) — Free, requires signup for key. Historical ambient air quality data from 2,500+ monitoring stations. PM2.5, NOx, SO2, ozone, CO. Updated twice yearly (June + December). JSON output.
- AirNow API (https://docs.airnowapi.org/) — Free key. Real-time AQI from 2,500+ monitors. Current + forecast. Great for “right now” dashboards.
- EPA ECHO Web Services (https://echo.epa.gov/tools/web-services) — Free REST APIs. Facility-level compliance, enforcement, permit violations. Can filter by geography around ports.
- EPA Envirofacts API (https://data.epa.gov/efservice/) — TRI (Toxics Release Inventory), RCRA (hazardous waste), FRS (facility registry). Free, JSON/CSV/XML.
- USACE Navigation Data Center (https://www.navigationdatacenter.us/data/datawcsc.htm) — Port tonnage, vessel calls, commodity data for all US ports. Annual + quarterly. CSV downloads.
- NOAA Marine Cadastre AIS archives (https://marinecadastre.gov/ais/ ; daily files index e.g. https://coast.noaa.gov/htdata/CMSP/AISDataHandler/2025/index.html) — Free historical AIS vessel traffic data. 2025 daily archive totals ~81.5 GB. Perfect for berth density maps, vessel counts, and port-adjacent traffic intensity.
- MarineTraffic/VesselFinder — Optional supplementary AIS snapshots. Paid for richer historical layers, but not required for MVP.
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics — Port performance, freight stats. Downloadable datasets.
- CDC WONDER — Mortality data by county. Can correlate with port-adjacent counties.
- Census ACS — Demographics for port-adjacent zip codes. Environmental justice overlay.
SEO Analysis
- Keywords: “port air pollution”, “shipping emissions”, “port city health”, “harbor air quality”
- Long-tail: “air quality near port of [city]”, “ship emissions health effects”, “living near port health risks”
- Search volume: “air quality port” growing steadily. Major spikes during port expansion debates (Long Beach, Houston, Newark, Savannah).
- Competition: LOW for consumer-facing content. Academic papers and PDF reports dominate. Very few sites doing readable data journalism on this topic.
- Google News: frequent articles about port pollution, but no dedicated ongoing tracker.
Communities
- r/LosAngeles, r/Houston, r/NewOrleans — port city subreddits regularly discuss air quality
- r/environment (5M+ members) — environmental justice content performs well
- Environmental justice orgs: NRDC, Earthjustice, Sierra Club port campaigns
- Local advocacy groups: East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (LA), Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services
- Health-focused communities: asthma support groups near port cities
Image/Graphic Feasibility
- Excellent for automated generation:
- AQI heatmaps overlaid on port maps (can generate with DALL-E/Midjourney style + data overlays)
- PM2.5 trend charts for port-adjacent monitors vs inland monitors
- Port traffic volume vs air quality correlation scatter plots
- “Health impact radius” maps showing pollution gradients from port
- Community demographic overlay maps
- Vessel traffic density visualizations
- Ranking bar charts for worst/best port cities
- Custom illustrations for mascot possible (grumpy seagull with a gas mask)
- Infographics translating µg/m³ into cigarette equivalents
Sources
- https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html
- https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/documents/data_api.html
- https://docs.airnowapi.org/
- https://echo.epa.gov/tools/web-services
- https://data.epa.gov/efservice/
- https://www.epa.gov/heatislands
- https://www.navigationdatacenter.us/data/datawcsc.htm
- https://marinecadastre.gov/ais/
- https://coast.noaa.gov/htdata/CMSP/AISDataHandler/2025/index.html
- IIHS/BTS port performance data