http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39506-in-california-s-imperial-valley-residents-aren-t-waiting-for-government-to-track-pollution
In California's Imperial Valley, Residents Aren't Waiting for Government
to Track Pollution
Friday, February 17, 2017 By Paulina Phelps, YES! Magazine | Report
Each day, the drying Salton Sea and an increasingly busy border take
their toll on the air quality of southern California's parched Imperial
Valley. Despite averaging only three inches of rain a year, this swath
of desert spanning the Mexican border from the Colorado River to San
Diego County is heavily dependent on agriculture, and for decades
farmers have relied on the Salton Sea to drain their fields. Today, the
valley air hangs with toxic dust and pollution, and the residents face
the highest rate of hospitalization for asthma of any area in the state.
"I wish I lived in an area where my kids could play outside any time of
day," said Esther Bejarano, a mother whose two children suffer from
asthma. She is an educator for Comite Civico del Valle (CCV), a local
organization that supports the health of the area's disadvantaged
residents. She knows the risks, regulates how much time her own children
spend outside depending on the levels of pollution, and makes sure they
have their medication and inhalers with them at all times. Despite
taking these steps, she still lives in a state of fear. "I expect the
worst and pray for their health."
Even before Trump took office, government response to air pollution in
the region has been lackluster. Luis Olmedo, executive director of CCV,
said that especially as the recession came to a head in 2008,
environmental health concerns took a backseat to economics, and it is
now clear that environmental protection will not be a government
priority. "With this administration we are back to the [George W.] Bush
era, but we are ready and we are prepared, because we have been there
before," he said.
In 2013, the CCV began an effort to put the power of scientific data
into the hands of community members. Through a partnership with the
California Environmental Health Tracking Program, University of
Washington, and with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the
Imperial Valley Air Quality Control project installed 40 air quality
monitors throughout the valley and set up a website to gather pollution
information and community-generated reports. The project's goal is to
track particulate matter -- the hazardous sum of pollution that includes
pollen, dust, smoke, and soot -- and inform residents of the presence
and distribution of possible health risks.
"It gives the community a record on what the government is doing and not
doing," Olmedo said. That information can be used to hold agencies
accountable and to inform local, state, and national efforts. Olmedo is
confident in the Imperial Valley community's continued support. "We are
not dependent on the federal government, and we never have been," he said.
Residents of Imperial County are predominantly Hispanic and average
about half the California per capita income, according to U.S. census
data. Due to the placement of highways and fossil fuel refineries,
low-income communities of color throughout the nation are exposed to
toxic pollutants at significantly higher levels than upper-income
Whites, and the CCV air quality control project sought to involve the
most affected people from the outset to address this disparity. Imperial
Valley residents worked with researchers to select locations to set up
the air monitors. The online tool, called Identifying Violations
Affecting Neighborhoods (IVAN), was launched in September and allows
residents to access air quality information from each monitor, which
update every 5 minutes, easily report an environmental issue, and see
others' reports.
On Jan. 25, for example, a user submitted a report from El Centro:
"Pesticide being applied while farmworkers harvesting." The site admin
then responded, "The [Department of Toxic Substances Control] Imperial
CUPA has forwarded this complaint to the Imperial County Ag
Commissioner's Office Department of Pesticide Regulation."
Farther west, San Diego County sits sandwiched between the Imperial
Valley and the Pacific Ocean, and it also suffers from extreme levels of
air pollution. The district of San Ysidro, located immediately north of
the Mexican border, where an estimated 50,000 vehicles cross every day,
is at particular risk. Last year, it devised its own community-based air
quality project, based on and using the same low-cost monitors as the
Imperial Valley project.
"The goal is less about seeing if communities meet those EPA standards
and rather understanding where the hot spots are for pollution in the
community," said Edmund Seto, an associate professor with the University
of Washington Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Services, who helped develop the air quality monitors. The two-year
study, a partnership with the California EPA, University of Washington,
and San Diego community organization Casa Familiar, is funded by a
$225,000 grant, and currently operates 12 monitors throughout the San
Ysidro area.
Results show that the border crossing is a notable hot spot. David
Flores, Casa Familiar's community development director, said his
organization saw a rise in community involvement in 2007, three years
after news broke that the federal government would spend $750 million to
rebuild the San Ysidro border inspection facility. This renovation
included new vehicle inspection procedures that created longer queues on
the highway and more greenhouse gas emissions from idling vehicles.
Flores said the federal government wouldn't mitigate any of the adverse
effects from pollution.
Thus, Casa Familiar led the community in developing bottom-up
approaches, like the study, to protect themselves. "This study is
putting the power in the community residents' hands. This is their
data," said Vanessa Galaviz, a staff toxicologist with the California
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. She said this is
especially important for marginalized communities like San Ysidro.
Both Luis Olmedo, of Imperial Valley's CCV, and David Flores, of San
Ysidro's Casa Familiar, were not worried about federal disinterest in
climate justice. Their organizations are community-driven and sustained.
And Flores is confident in the continued support of the state. "I think
the state of California will continue to lead efforts of environment,"
he said.
He hoped the results from the current study would qualify San Ysidro as
an impacted community, opening the door for greenhouse gas reduction
program funding from the state's cap-and-trade proceeds. This would
allow the community to take the next step, from monitoring pollution, to
investing in sustainable housing and transportation to cut it back.