With support from the Julia R. Brown Fund, MAS Climate Science and Policy student Marina Minic built a network of 19 indoor air-quality monitors in homes, schools, and community spaces across the South Bay to investigate how pollution from the Tijuana River may be affecting indoor air. Working alongside Dr. Kim Prather’s lab and local community partners, including youth scientists in the Airborne Institute’s Youth Climate Advisors program, she compared indoor and outdoor data to better understand pollution exposure in Imperial Beach and surrounding neighborhoods. Her research adds a new dimension to the growing evidence that Tijuana River pollution is harming the health and well-being of South Bay residents.
My project focused on pollution from the Tijuana River, and how that pollution may be influencing indoor air quality in South Bay residences. I was able to connect with Dr. Kim Prather and the Prather Lab, where research on the Tijuana River was already being conducted. The lab was monitoring air quality around the South Bay, and had already set up a network of outdoor air quality monitors. All that I needed to do was create a network of indoor quality monitors. That is where the Julia Brown Fund came in. I was able to purchase 19 AirGradient indoor monitors that could be placed in residential and institutional buildings throughout the South Bay. With the indoor sensor network in place, I was able to compare indoor air quality to outdoor air quality, to see if a signal between the two emerged.
The key to creating an indoor sensor network was to place the sensors in various locations across the South Bay. This meant I had to find people and institutions willing to host the monitors. One group, and arguably the most important group of hosts, were youth scientists part of the Airborne Institute’s Youth Climate Advisors (YCA) program. YCA is a program aimed at encouraging high school students to get interested in and involved with atmospheric science. I met this year’s YCA cohort in March, and they had already started conducting their own research, using data from very simple indoor air quality monitors given to them by the program. By hosting an AirGradient, students not only helped me with my research, but they gained access to a second set of data, helping them conduct more robust research. I was able to spend some time with the YCA students on a day where they were learning about environmental injustices, and how youth citizen science in other communities had been used to combat local environmental justice problems. Many of these students live in close proximity to the Tijuana River and are impacted by the pollution, and therefore intimately understood the importance of gathering data and using it to advocate for change.
In addition to the students, additional Imperial Beach residents, Imperial Beach City Hall, the Tijuana Estuary Visitors Center, and two local schools also hosted monitors. Every host was interested in the research, and voiced concerns about how the Tijuana River pollution is impacting their community.
This coming summer I will be working to publish my research and I hope it will contribute to the growing literature that the Tijuana River is a local source of pollution. The novel finding in my research is that the Tijuana River is likely worsening indoor air quality for residents of Imperial Beach. As residents continue to advocate for faster and more long-lasting solutions, I hope this research, and the data collected by the indoor air monitors, will aid them in their goals.
Blog content and images provided by Marina Minic – thank you!