We are a group of students, most of whom attend Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach. During our spring semester, we worked together with scientists at UC San Diego’s Airborne Institute, learning how to use air sensors to better understand the air we’re breathing. We recorded particulate matter counts, which measure a mix of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air, and photographed how air and water quality are impacting our daily lives.
Not so long ago, Imperial Beach was a vibrant, thriving community enjoyed by locals and tourists. Our beach was a hot spot of activity, a place where families could get together and tourists could vacation. It was a clean place where everyone could have fun, swim and enjoy activities like surfing, dog surf competitions, boogie boarding and sand castle building.
In the last few years, a lot has changed. Heavy water pollution from the broken sewage plants in Tijuana and one in the United States owned by the International Boundary and Water Commission has closed our beaches, affecting our community economically, physically, and mentally. The pollution even affects our air quality, but the air is often forgotten because it’s invisible. Pollutants transfer from the ocean into the air and IB locals are breathing the contaminated air, even far from the beach.
As youth advisers to UCSD’s Airborne Institute, we wanted to understand how this binational public health crisis is impacting our community. One of us documented how the pollution has negatively impacted local residents’ business and tourism prospects. Another explored the link between air quality and housing costs. Our friends and family shared their experiences with increased migraines, asthma attacks, and stomach issues in the days after big rainfall events. Our findings supported what our community has been saying for years about how the pollution is affecting us, including Mayor Paloma Aguirre’s repeated calls to declare the sewage spill a state and federal emergency.
We believe the data we collected is the first of its kind, which highlights how little information actually exists on the problem. There are no U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stations monitoring particulate matter in Imperial Beach, and the national PurpleAir network, a citizen science project that uses high quality sensors to collect and share air quality data in real time, shows a big gap where we need information most, our community. The nearest air quality monitor is nearly four miles away from our school, in Coronado. The second closest is five miles east. In comparison, there are 15 sensors west of the Interstate 5 from Bird Rock to the Birch Aquarium.
We are happy the county has allocated funds to study this problem. As youth advisers to the Airborne Institute, we developed a list of questions that we think need to be included in research in our community.
We want to know:
- How can we get outsiders to care?
- What is the role of capitalism and industry?
- How can we work from a place of solidarity instead of blame?
- Where is the money going?
- How can the community get involved besides awareness?
To state and federal leadership that has so far failed to declare a state of emergency to address what is happening here, we want to know: What would it take for you to care about our situation?
Clean air should be a priority for our government at all levels. This is more than a small-town issue. We live on an international border where millions of people on both sides are affected by this situation. The air doesn’t stop at the border. We all share and breathe the same air. We should not blame one side or the other. We all live in one world, and we must solve these issues together.
In addition to testing the air and water for pathogens and chemicals, we advocate for the following continuing efforts:
- Ventilation and filtration for indoor air, especially in schools where we spend most of our time
- Transparency on how local government budgets are allocated and spent
- Funding to repair the broken sewage plant
- Increased involvement in local advocacy efforts
Air doesn’t have a label indicating the level of quality like the food that we eat. We can’t check to see if it is good or bad before we decide to take a breath. We know that if more people – even people who don’t live in IB – get involved in raising awareness about the issue, we can find long-term, lasting solutions to help the IB community. Like good neighbors, we should care because this is one planet we all share. We have to work together to make things better. Everybody deserves clean water and air.
The Youth Climate Advisors are mostly Mar Vista High School students working with scientists at UC San Diego’s Airborne Institute and Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health to study how the Tijuana sewage crisis is impacting Imperial Beach. They are Adam Reid, Celeste Bonilla, Jesus Chavarria, Arayah Mullins, Joshua Nungaray, Erika Preciado, Daniel Garcia, Melina Jimenez Esparza, and Navya Arora who attends Elite Academy in San Marcos. Mar Vista High School teacher Katrine Czajkowski and UC San Diego researchers Rebecca Fielding-Miller, Kimberly Prather, Beatriz Klimeck and Marlene Flores also contributed to this op-ed.
This inspiring article by students from Imperial Beach highlights the urgent need for clean air and water in their community. Their collaboration with scientists to monitor air quality reveals the severe impact of pollution from broken sewage plants on both sides of the border. The data they collected underscores the lack of proper monitoring and the health issues faced by residents. Their call for government action, community involvement, and sustainable solutions is crucial. Everyone deserves clean air and water, and it’s time for leaders to prioritize this issue and for all of us to work together for a healthier planet.