Interactive features and local index provide context for Oxnard soot levels
VENTURA — A new interactive webpage gives residents an easy-to-understand view of real-time and historical black carbon levels in the air in Oxnard and Port Hueneme along with information that helps explain the source of the soot.
Black carbon is formed from the incomplete burning of organic materials such as oil, diesel, coal and biomass, such as plant material. It is a component of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which can enter the lungs and bloodstream and lead to respiratory issues, heart attacks, strokes and other serious health problems.
South Oxnard and Port Hueneme rank in the top 5% of communities in the state for exposure to diesel pollution, according to CalEnviroScreen.
The “My Oxnard Air” Black Carbon Monitoring page on the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District website is a collaborative effort by VCAPCD, the Port of Hueneme, Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas and California State University Channel Islands. It interprets high quality data collected by monitors at Art Haycox Elementary School, the Port of Hueneme entrance gate and the Oxnard Union High School District and in La Colonia. A Community Advisory Committee made up of South Oxnard and Port Hueneme residents helped select the last two sites based on local priorities and proximity to emission sources and people who are sensitive to pollution.
While the port has provided monitoring data on its website, the new webpage uses a color-coded index developed by VCAPCD and an Interactive Environmental Data Viewer to help residents better understand the information.
Displayed on easy-to-read dials, the index compares black carbon concentrations from each site to typical conditions across all four monitors, noting when they are higher than usual. The index is intended to provide context for changing black carbon levels and is not a measure of health risk or a regulatory standard.
The Interactive Environmental Data Viewer allows the public to compare information from multiple sites over custom time ranges in graphs or tables. People can view black carbon concentrations and the percent that was produced by biomass burning along with temperature, humidity, and wind speed and direction.
A high biomass-burning percentage indicates that wildfires, prescribed burns or agricultural burning are the primary cause of the black carbon. A low percentage points to fossil-fuel combustion such as heavy traffic and industrial pollution. Wind direction can help determine sources.
The port installed two monitoring stations on its own and received a grant from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 that paid for the other two and the webpage.
The webpage can be found at myoxnardair.org.