The California Air Resources Board awarded $2.5 million to San Diego County’s Air Pollution Control District to monitor air quality in the Portside area, county officials announced Friday.
The Portside area — composed of Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, Sherman Heights and sections of National City — is one of 10 regions the state board selected for its Community Air Protection Program.
The state created the program in 2017 to assist areas that may be at a higher risk of air pollution due to nearby ports, freeways and industrialized neighborhoods.
The Air Pollution Control District plans to incentivize local businesses and residents to improve the area’s ambient air quality by switching to vehicles and machinery with electric or low-emission diesel engines. The agency has also established a steering committee for the program, made up of residents from the neighborhoods being monitored.
The agency started collecting and reporting air quality data in Portside this month at Sherman Heights Elementary School.
More air quality testing sites in the other Portside neighborhoods are expected to begin collecting data in the next several months, according to the county.
The next steering committee meeting is scheduled for April 23 at Perkins Elementary School. Residents can visit the Air Pollution Control District’s website, sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/apcd/en.html, for more information on the county’s air quality monitoring efforts.
–City News Service
