Study: 5% of industrial facilities responsible for about 90% of industry-generated air pollution

A small minority of industrial facilities are responsible for the majority of air pollution generated by the industry, says a study by researchers at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and the University of Maryland published in Environmental Research Letters.
 
Researchers "examined what they term 'hyper-polluters': Industrial facilities that, based on EPA data, generate disproportionately large amounts of air pollution," Chris Mooney reports for The Washington Post. The study, which examined industrial emissions at about 16,000 industrial facilities—excluding power plants—"found that '90 percent of toxic concentration present in the study area is generated by only 809 (about 5 percent) of facilities.' The highest polluting facilities were also more likely to be located in proximity to poor and minority neighborhoods." (Study map of exposure to pollution based on low income (red), mostly white areas (green) and low-income mostly non-white areas (blue))