COVID-19 Shutdown Reveals Patterns of Environmental Injustice in Minnesota

Abstract:

In January 2020, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 appeared in the United States and quickly spread. The emergence of this virus led the governor of Minnesota, along with other United States governors, to enact statewide shutdown orders in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. This resulted in a massive decrease of in-person economic activity. Many reports have shown that air quality in major cities has improved due to the government backed shutdowns. However, there has been little work on what the shutdown measures reveal about environmental injustice in these areas. In this study, we investigate what the COVID-19 shutdown uncovers about causes of disproportionate pollution exposure in the Minnesota Twin Cities metropolitan area. We use data from a network of PurpleAir monitoring sites measuring fine particulate matter, PM_2.5. We explore the initial shelter in place period to see whether it produced disproportionate effects for low income, Black, and Hispanic communities. We control for known static factors of disproportionate pollution exposure, road density and income, and for time varying factors of disproportionate exposure, weather and mobility. Controlling for these factors during the COVID-19 shutdown allows us to isolate remaining inequalities in pollution exposure which are driven by nonlocal economic activity. This contribution to disproportionate pollution exposure has previously been difficult to untangle from other factors in “business as usual” times. This new understanding of economic structure will provide important information regarding policy decisions addressing environmental injustice in the future.