Project Overview 

Communities in the rural Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) experience impacts from many sources of indoor and outdoor air pollution, including substandard housing, agricultural burning, illegal fires, and the exposed Salton Sea playa. This collaborative project establishes an Air Quality Academy to provide resources and training that will improve environmental literacy and air quality data in this community. The Academy will include community health workers and other community members and provide training on how to use the data to help make informed decisions. The project objectives are:

1. Air Quality Training: Provide training on the Air Quality Index (AQI), and actions to reduce exposures (e.g., home air filtration systems/purifiers) to indoor and outdoor air pollution (e.g., illegal dumping and burning). This will involve:
   • Recruiting participants 
   • Developing training modules on outdoor air quality basics, outdoor air quality policy, and indoor air quality basics 
   • Delivering the training to participants 
   • Evaluating the training outcomes 
2. Air Quality Sensor Training: Provide training about air pollution measurement, and how to get local air quality information from a blended AQI map, which uses both regulatory monitoring and sensor data. Participants will also have an opportunity to install their own air quality sensor. This will involve:
   • Developing training modules on air quality sensor basics, sensor installation, and how to use air quality data 
   • Delivering training to participants 
   • Community sensor installations
   • Community health worker outreach
   • Evaluating training and academy outcomes 
3. Community Environmental Health Report: Publish a report on environmental health metrics in the ECV, including statistics on environmental hazards, social vulnerabilities, and public health metrics. This will involve:
   • Gathering community perspectives 
   • Gathering data sources and conducting analysis 
   • Drafting and publishing the Environmental Health Report 

The proposed project complements the ongoing efforts to partner with the ECV community to address local air quality priorities through the AB 617 program. Through the AB 617 program, South Coast AQMD staff established Community Steering Committees (CSC) to guide the strategies and actions to reduce air pollution emissions. The ECV CSC has expressed an interest in increased community air monitoring to help address the sparsity of data in the ECV.

Funding for this project has been provided under a US EPA State Environmental Justice Cooperative Agreement Program/COVID-19 Project.

ECV Air Quality Academy Flyer (.pdf 1.8MB)