Assessment of Air Quality and Empowerment of Knowledge in Schools across the Region of Rio Grande Valley

The Lower Rio Grande Valley (RGV) region comprising the Brownsville-Harlingen-McAllen metropolitan area is a low-resourced and under-served majority-minority community comprising around 91.8% of its population as Hispanics/Latinos/as. The area is located at the southmost coastal tip of Texas, with its employment rate at 50.88%, and median household income at $ 42,050. Even though this region is usually in compliance with the USEPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for criterial air pollutants, a recent report published by Environment Texas Research & Policy Center documents that Brownsville-Harlingen region had 128 days and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX had 92 days with elevated PM_2.5 pollution with the AQI above 50, respectively (ETRPC, 2021).

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) which is the environmental agency for the state operates five Central Ambient Monitoring Site (CAMS), one each in Brownsville, Edinburg, Harlingen, Mission, and Port Isabel. With only two CAMS monitoring O₃ and four monitoring PM_2.5 (out of which data from instruments at two CAMS does not meet EPA quality assurance criteria and cannot be used for regulatory purposes), renders the CAMS monitoring insufficiency in depicting accurate levels of air pollution exposure for the 1.3 million individuals living in the area. With 24.7% of the total families residing in the region living below poverty and 30.2% of the total population lacking health insurance coverage, it is very important to assess the air quality of the region with high spatial resolution and to increase the general awareness about the health impacts due to acute/chronic exposures of CAP’s.

This project which is funded by the North American Development Bank (NADB) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), aims to increase the knowledge on air quality (particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide and black carbon) and associated health impacts, by evaluating the air quality in the schools across the region of Rio Grande Valley. Schools that are selected for the participation in the project are based on various criteria including their location in 90^th percentile for the Environmental Justice index of PM_2.5 exposure, the proximity of schools to major roadways and highways, and financial status of neighborhoods. Low-Cost sensors which have gained popularity due to their role in increasing spatial resolution of air quality have been used in this study. A 28-day calibration activity in two different environments was conducted before these sensors were deployed at schools. These sensors were collocated with FEM instruments to determine the accuracy and precision of the data.

Low-Cost TSI Blue Sky Monitors will be deployed in each of the schools for a period of 2 weeks and the analysis of data collected will be presented to elementary, middle, and high school students at the respective schools. To empower the knowledge of students, various activities like presentations on air quality issues in the region, associated health impacts, and real time indoor radon testing are also conducted. The students will also be trained on how to analyze the data collected by monitoring stations including low-cost sensors, central ambient monitoring sites and NASA satellite imagery. Apart from these activities, a clean air tool kit which is an age-appropriate module will be created and introduced to the children. This kit has information primarily about air pollution, major sources and preventive measures that could be taken to prevent air pollution and limit their air pollution exposure burden. This project is based on the premise that increasing the knowledge regarding air quality to the students helps them in not only limiting the exposures to polluted environments but also take preventive steps to limit air pollution. The findings presented in this study will provide the air quality in various types of schools in the region of South Texas. Study will start from October 01, 2023, and findings from three months of field work will be presented at the AMS conference in January 2024.