Adams administration faults state air quality forecasts at heated NYC Council hearing

At a New York City Council hearing on Wednesday, municipal agency heads were grilled about what they knew and when they acted during the wildfire smoke crisis that swept the metro area in early June.

The tense hearing stretched for nearly four hours on a day when the city faced yet another air quality alert — this time for ground-level ozone, an urban pollutant worsened by hot, stagnant weather. Most of the Council’s questions were directed toward Zachary Iscol, the commissioner of the city's Office of Emergency Management.

Iscol praised the city government’s response. He added that Notify NYC is the city’s primary means of sending emergency alerts, and that it communicates in 14 languages and regularly sends alerts when the air quality index tracked by the state Department of Environmental Conservation reaches orange (100 or higher). State environmental officials feed these alerts to the mayor's office and local branches of the National Weather Service.

Councilmember Lynn Schulman, who represents parts of Queens and chairs the health committee, received the alerts in early June. She responded that she didn’t know what to do with the information, and added that the warnings didn’t come with any details.

The mayor’s press office contacted Gothamist prior to Wednesday’s hearing to state that the administration’s “public messaging around potentially bad air quality began a week before the worst of the smoke.”

But these air quality alerts — for June 1 and June 2 — were due to elevated ozone levels, not smoke. City officials referenced the same ozone alerts as evidence for their messaging on the smoke crisis during Wednesday’s Council hearing.

For many answers, Iscol deferred to other city agencies or offered to follow up after the public hearing. Among the missing details were the extent and sources of outreach to inform the public — especially vulnerable communities such as homeless New Yorkers — about the unhealthy air.

Members of the public who testified at the hearing expressed disappointment with the city’s overall response — especially those who are not digitally connected.

“The administration did not act quickly enough,” said Eunice Ko, deputy director of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance.

Cynthia Norris, a mother who has asthma, testified that because she wasn’t prepared for the poor air quality, she had to choose between taking her asthma pills or breastfeeding. She said her medications interfere with her ability to provide milk for her baby. With prior notice, she could have pumped food for her baby in advance.

The Adams administration had also faced criticism for waiting until close to midnight on June 6 to cancel public school outdoor activities for the next day. City officials testified that they tried to spread the word via other channels outside of Notify NYC. This included interagency communications, calls to elected officials, in-person outreach to homeless New Yorkers, social media, press conferences and community organizations.

“What you're saying is that given the information and the circumstances as they played out, the city did the best they could, is that accurate?” asked Jumaane Williams, the city's public advocate.

“100%,” Iscol replied.

“Which worries me and troubles me a lot because that means given the same set of circumstances, you would do the same thing,” Williams said.

Testimony by Adams administration officials also highlighted their efforts to distribute masks, but some constituents who testified during the public comment portion of the hearing said they were unable to find high-quality masks such as N95s or KN95s. Health experts state that while surgical masks and other face coverings can help against wildfire smoke, N95s and KN95s provide the best protection.

One resident brought along a mask they had picked up from a city-run distribution site at Grand Central Terminal and claimed the covering was not appropriate for protection from poor air quality. Iscol said the city has stockpiles of masks but didn’t specify how many were available or what kinds they had.

Iscol said it was very difficult to act ahead of the poor air quality because the agency depends on the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s data to determine how to proceed. Iscol said the state’s initial forecasts for air quality were lower than what was actually measured on June 6 and June 7. Those forecasts were only listed as dangerous for vulnerable groups, or level orange on the air quality index. Iscol called the forecasts complicated and unreliable.

But the state government began issuing air quality warnings for NYC and Long Island as early as June 5. It also issued an updated forecast the morning of June 7, stating that the city would reach red on the air quality index, a level considered unhealthy for members of the general public.

“DEC’s air quality monitoring experts use the best available science to predict daily fluctuations in air quality and take great pride in coordinating with the State Department of Health and other experts to ensure accurate and timely information is provided to New Yorkers as conditions change,” ​​Jeff Wernick, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, stated via email. “DEC will continue to provide regular updates throughout this unprecedented wildfire season and encourages all New Yorkers to check www.airnow.gov for accurate information on Air Quality forecasts and conditions.”

City Councilmember Lincoln Restler was critical of the city’s emergency response. He said the Adams administration should have a network of “clean air centers,” which use the city’s network of cooling centers to provide places for people to go when the air outside and in their homes is unhealthy to breathe, similar to ones in California.

Likewise, homeless New Yorkers should have a place to go, Restler said. The Brooklyn councilmember questioned the administration about why it did not put out a “code red” that would allow homeless New Yorkers living on the streets immediate access to shelter.

“You never pitch a perfect game,” Iscol said. He added that his agency is generating an “after action report” to be given to City Council that details how his agency could have done a better job.

He added that the Office of Emergency Management has already begun drafting a protocol for future air quality emergencies, which it will share with the Council, when it becomes available.

The Council will continue to accept testimony from the public for up to 72 hours after the hearing via email.

Bria Suggs contributed reporting. This story was updated with comments from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.