Physico-Chemical Characterization of Dust: A Comprehensive Study of Particulate Matter (PM) in the Environmental Justice (EJ) Community of Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV)

CHRISTOPHER LIM, Mohammad Sowlat, Julia Montoya-Aguilera, Steven Boddeker, Freyja Berg Lopez, Laura Saucedo, Cynthia Berg, Angela Haar, Stephen Dutz, James Rothchild, Eric Holden, Sina Hasheminassab, Matic Ivančič, Martin Rigler, Payam Pakbin, Andrea Polidori, Jason Low, South Coast Air Quality Management District

     Abstract Number: 485
     Working Group: Identifying and Addressing Disparate Health and Social Impacts of Exposure to Aerosols and Other Contaminants across Continents, Communities, and Microenvironments

Abstract
The enactment of Assembly Bill (AB) 617 by the California legislature and establishment of the Community Air Protection Program (CAPP) by California Air Resources Board (CARB) provided the opportunity for the South Coast AQMD to further address air quality issues in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution. Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) is an AB 617-designated EJ community in the Salton Sea Air Basin that is impacted by several sources of particulate matter (PM), including desert and Salton Sea playa dust, agricultural burning, and motor vehicles. As part of efforts to better characterize emission sources in ECV, South Coast AQMD developed and implemented a comprehensive study from January 2022 through May 2023 to better characterize PM/dust and identify its sources and origins in the area. This campaign relied on a combination of time-integrated PM sampling techniques and time-resolved measurements by continuous monitors to fully characterize physical characteristics (size, shape, and morphology) and chemical composition (i.e., carbonaceous compounds, trace metals, and ions) of the PM/dust in this area. This presentation will give an overview of the study design as well as the methods/instruments used for time-integrated and time-resolved characterization of dust/PM, and provides preliminary results from this comprehensive campaign. The information gathered in this study will help distinguish different sources of dust/PM and their relative contribution to air quality in ECV. These monitoring efforts help support effective actions to reduce emissions of and exposure to dust in ECV and will provide valuable data to inform future actions by different stakeholders (community, researchers, governmental agencies).