Is the air quality in these Sacramento neighborhoods bad? Residents can now tell in real time
It’s well documented that air quality is worse in poor neighborhoods and communities of color across California and the United States, but until now, that trend was hard to determine in Sacramento.
That’s changing: More than 20 rooftop solar-powered air quality monitors have been installed across North Sacramento and Oak Park, allowing residents to see what pollution levels are like in real-time.
Between the soot from car exhausts along highways and smoky air billowing from wildfires, Sacramento faces “serious air quality and public health challenges,” according to Patrick Guild with Breathe California Sacramento Region.
But low-income neighborhoods with large communities of color like North Sacramento and Oak Park have long been air monitoring “deserts,” leading to a dearth of data.
“We have very little understanding of how poor the air quality may be for residents living in those communities,” he said in a statement.
The monitors are placed across North, Central and South Oak Park, as well as across Old North Sacramento, South Hagginwood and Del Paso Heights up to Interstate 80.
The new equipment is part of the California Air Resources Board’s Community Air Protection program, which aims to address environmental inequity by helping residents living in high pollution-burden areas better understand air quality issues at a neighborhood level.
Through the program, CARB awarded a two-year grant to a group of local nonprofits called the Sacramento Neighborhoods Activating on Air Quality coalition to monitor neighborhood pollution and develop strategies to achieve cleaner air. That coalition includes Valley Vision, WALKSacramento, Breathe California Sacramento Region, and Green Tech Education.
The rooftop monitors measure fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides, two types of pollution that can result from pollutants emitted from cars, trucks, power plants, refineries, warehouses and other sources.
The microscopic particles can irritate airways, burrowing deep into lungs and even bloodstreams. And longterm exposure to nitrogen oxides can contribute to the development of respiratory diseases like asthma, and also increase susceptibility to respiratory infections (like COVID-19.)
Because of discriminatory practices like redlining and high housing costs, generations of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have frequently been forced to live near air pollution hotspots like industrial parks and highways. That means they also experience the negative health impacts of poor air quality disproportionately.
“I think about the generations before and after me, from a researcher’s point of view, and I wonder how many have asthma, allergies, and other health conditions based on factors from their zip codes,” said Nykchasia S. Scott, MSSW, a North Sacramento resident on the all-resident committee that determined air monitor locations, in a statement.
The goal is to help equip community leaders and residents with important real-time data that can be used to proactively address air quality issues in their neighborhoods and reduce exposure. The real-time data from the monitors can be viewed on the public portal on Valley Vision’s website.
“This project is fundamentally about ensuring that all residents in our communities are afforded the basic rights to live, work, go to school, play, and pray in a safe, healthy, and clean environment,” WALKSacramento executive director Kiara Reed said in a statement.