Despite the rapid growth of warehouses and polluting trucks that follow, Illinois residents, lawmakers, and regulators have no way to understand the impact on public health. There is no public registry of warehouses and the network of air pollution monitors has shrunk over the last 20 years, meaning communities overburdened with harmful pollution may get left behind on investments for zero-pollution technology.

Costly, yet incomplete private real estate databases indicate massive leased warehouse growth – 33% in the last decade and 72% in the last two decades – with 2 million Illinois residents now living within a half mile of a leased mega-warehouse that’s at least 100,000 square feet.

High truck traffic areas near warehouses, highways, and ports have the worst pollution levels, and because of historic and ongoing discrimination, the surrounding neighborhoods tend to be communities of color or low wealth. Across the state, communities of color live in the areas with the highest levels of truck-related pollution at a rate nearly double that of white residents.

The Warehouse Pollution Insights Act would establish rules of transparency for warehouses and other truck attracting facilities, expand and diversify monitoring methods to identify the communities most deeply impacted, develop solutions in lockstep with impacted communities to reduce health inequities throughout Illinois, and require new facilities to be ready for zero-emission vehicles. Sign this petition to urge your State Representative and State Senator to support the Warehouse Pollution Insights Act.