Improving Air Quality in San Joaquin Valley: Part 3 - Pesticides and New Tools For Community Air Monitoring
In Spring 2025, engineering students from UC Berkeley worked with community organizations within the Stockton AB 617 area, as well as Stanislaus County, to identify local air pollution sources and design mitigation strategies. This is part 3 of a 3-part blog series that highlights the student projects and resources to share with the community. Please see this page for more information.
Pesticides in Stanislaus County:
San Joaquin Valley’s immense agricultural productivity is fueled by pesticides, where there is little transparency about their use. Many schools in Stanislaus County are surrounded by agricultural fields, with minimal notification about pesticide use. These schools are given a yearly list of possible sprays, with no dates, and some of which may never happen. The lack of real-time notification to schools has made taking precautions against pesticides impossible for administrators and parents. Communities in Stanislaus face both short and long-term health issues from exposure to toxic pesticides, ranging from throat and eye irritation to cancer. The UC Berkeley student group partnered with Valley Improvement Projects to analyze the trends of pesticide usage in Stanislaus County, where almonds are the predominant source of revenue. This has led to a high usage of Telone, which was previously banned in CA because of its high toxicity and is currently banned in the European Union. Results showcase how schools in Stanislaus County are especially vulnerable to pesticide exposure, especially with the lack of a real-time notification system. Strategies for pesticide use restriction and a vision for improved school notifications are presented.
More information on this project: StoryMap | Report | Slides | One Pager
New tools for community air monitoring:
New air quality modeling tools are now available to predict wildfire smoke and plume trajectories from other sources. But who is meant to use these models? Most are difficult to use without high-level knowledge of air quality, monitoring systems, and data access tools. A group of UC Berkeley students focused on enabling access to these tools to empower community members to gain their own understanding of local air quality. This was done with the guidance of the Central California Asthma Collaborative and their work on SJVAir, with the intention of eventually adding the tools to the SJVAir website. The tools include: 1) web access to HRRR-smoke model output for wildfire smoke predictions and alerts, and 2) easier-access to HYSPLIT plume trajectory modeling, which provides information on where possible pollution sources are spreading. In addition, the team analyzed pollution dispersion for restaurants in South Stockton. Finally, they also studied the effectiveness of RAAN alerts for schools, showing how certain areas are reliant on alerts attributed to sensors large distances away. Through the usage of tools such as HRRR-smoke modeling, HYSPLIT, and RAAN alerts, the student group pushed for greater accessibility and understanding of air quality monitoring tools for community member access.
More information on this project: Website | Report | Slides | One Pager
Please see this page for more information.