Hemmed in by three freeways and backed up against the border and port of entry, San Ysidro residents are exposed to an unceasing stream of air
pollution from millions of vehicles passing through the community that is the busiest gateway to Mexico.
Over the years residents have expressed concern about the air pollution, pointing to an unusually high number of asthma cases.
Now, as the U.S. government works to expand the border crossing, San Ysidro residents are bracing for an even busier border – and all the health
effects that might come with it.
David Flores, community development officer at the advocacy group Casa Familiar, said there has never been an effort to collect data to determine if
the asthma and car exhaust are linked.
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The border expansion has heightened health concerns as calls for an air pollution study of the community have gone unheeded, Flores said. So, San
Ysidro residents, led by Casa Familiar, have obtained $229,935 in funding from CalEPA to do their own air-pollution study.
The two-year program will include 12 air pollution monitors being built specifically for the project by University of Washington scientists. The
equipment will be placed in different areas of the community to collect air-pollution data.
Sam Delson, spokesman for the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, said the study is unique because most air-pollution research is
done by industry and government. Delson’s agency, which is part of CalEPA, was designed to assist communities just like San Ysidro. The community,
which is 93 percent Hispanic, has the highest population density of the five communities identified as a South Bay Sub-Regional Area, the lowest
median household income, at $35,993, and a poverty rate of 25 percent.
Flores said he and others decided to act after getting a disappointing response about their health concerns from the General Services Administration.
The federal agency is in charge of the $735 million expansion of the San Ysidro Port of Entry to be completed by 2019.
Customs and Border Protection figures 14.3 million vehicles, 6.6 million pedestrians and 32.8 million total travelers passed through the San Ysidro
Port of Entry in fiscal year 2015. The average wait time for cars was 32 minutes, compared with 61 minutes in fiscal year 2010, according to CPB.
The expansion is intended to speed up northbound border crossings for vehicles and pedestrians, and construction on the Mexican side is supposed to
facilitate and speed up traffic entering Mexico. The GSA’s Environmental Impact Statement said there would be “no impact related to environmental
health and safety risks to children” caused by the expansion.
That conclusion is based on an analysis that found air pollution would rise slightly because of an “increase in daily traffic trips” on the freeways,
but pollution from vehicles crossing to and from Mexico would decrease. Queue times at the border crossing will be faster and vehicle idling times
shorter when construction is completed, resulting in an overall pollution reduction, the agency said in an emailed statement.
Customs and Border Protection, whose officers man the port, said wait times would likely drop when construction is completed but also predicted an
increase in the number of vehicles.
CBP officials said traffic increased by more than 25 percent when the number of lanes grew from 17 to 25 during Phase 1 of the project, which is
scheduled for completion this summer. Phases 2 and 3 are set to be completed by fall 2019.
Flores questioned the GSA’s findings that traffic will move faster through the port.
“We believe all this expansion will only result in more vehicles idling at the port. Stopped vehicles produce pollution that on most days blows into
San Ysidro. Pollution aggravates respiratory problems, and asthma rates for San Ysidro school kids are already very high,” he said.
Longtime San Ysidro resident Rudy Lopez, 37, whose family has owned a grocery store in the community for decades, has a 4-year-old son who suffers
from respiratory ailments, including a chronic cough.
Lopez, who said he is also involved in a business in Tijuana, is a frequent border-crosser and scoffs at GSA claims of shorter wait times when the
expansion is completed.
“You’re still going to have cars stopped and engines idling,” he said.
A 2015 study by SANDAG showed that San Ysidro and the South Bay have an asthma rate nearly 18 percent higher than San Diego. The area also has rate of
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 20 percent greater than San Diego.
A 2003 state law prohibits the building of schools within 500 feet of a freeway or major roadway unless air pollution can be mitigated or space
limitations leave no other option. The SANDAG study found that 41 percent of households in San Ysidro lie within 500 feet of a “transportation related
air pollution source.” The figure is 12 percent for San Diego.
The study cited research that shows that by age 18, children exposed to higher levels of pollution caused by fossil fuels are five times more likely
to have underdeveloped lungs.
The SANDAG study also noted that California has labeled diesel engine exhaust a carcinogen, and the state said diesel engine exhaust accounts for 70
percent of the cancer risk from air pollution. The figure is an ominous one for San Ysidro residents. Thousands of trucks that bring agricultural
products and manufactured goods from Mexico use the 905 freeway, which borders San Ysidro to the north.
Other studies have shown a direct link between air pollution and childhood asthma. A 2012 USC study concluded that at least eight percent of childhood
asthma cases in Los Angeles County “can be attributed to traffic related pollution at homes within 250 feet of a busy roadway.”
Flores said that studies like the ones conducted by SANDAG and USC have raised the level of concern in San Ysidro over the port expansion. He said
temporary monitors placed at the port, 200 feet north of the port and at a “clean site” in Imperial Beach a few years ago showed that pollution was 10
times higher at the port than in Imperial Beach.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District placed an air pollution monitor at the San Ysidro
Port in February 2015 for a two-year study. The monitor measures fine particulate matter in real time, but it has been down since last month because
of port construction, said district spokesman Bill Brick, chief of monitoring and technical services.
Brick said that so far officials have not seen readings that “have jumped off the page.” The monitor is one of five active monitors maintained by the
district throughout the county. He said that when the port monitor registers high pollution, monitors at the other sites usually have high readings
too. Brick said this is usually due to pollution blowing in from Los Angeles, or atmospheric conditions.
On days when the port monitor is showing higher readings than other areas in the county, Brick said it is because of pollution moving into the South
Bay from Tijuana. The monitor is next to a roadway, noted Brick, which he said is “an extreme case.”
But University of Washington researchers, who are partnering on the new San Ysidro study, said the lone monitor used by county and federal officials
at the port of entry is not adequate to measure the effect of air pollution in the community.
The goal of the community study is to measure how air pollution changes over time and space, and identify areas in San Ysidro where pollution is
greater. Using information gathered from the 12 monitors, the scientists will assist residents in developing strategies to reduce exposure.
University of Washington scientist Dr. Edmund Seto attended a March 29 community meeting on the study, and said the researchers will partner with the
community as it moves forward.
“It’s their study. We’re here to offer technical and scientific advice but they’re going to plan and make decisions about how to proceed,” he said.
Seriously, someone thinks the air pollution in San Ysidro is from border traffic? Have they looked across the border into TJ? We were at Otay Mesa
last month and the smog was so thick you could not see the hills. Just awful. The smog source is TJ and Ensenada, not cars crossing the border!elgatoloco - 4-25-2016 at 05:27 PM
Seriously, someone thinks the air pollution in San Ysidro is from border traffic? Have they looked across the border into TJ? We were at Otay Mesa
last month and the smog was so thick you could not see the hills. Just awful. The smog source is TJ and Ensenada, not cars crossing the border!
Which way was the wind blowing that day last month?
Surely there is some cause from the industry in TJ. Good luck trying to curb that.
San Ysidro is the busiest land border crossing in the WORLD. 33,898 vehicles a day on average (2011). I'm guessing (like you) that cars idling for
hours on end DO contribute to the problem.
Another study can't hurt right?bent-rim - 5-11-2016 at 03:54 PM
Do Mexican cars have to get smog certificates, like cars in the US?durrelllrobert - 5-11-2016 at 04:23 PM
Do Mexican cars have to get smog certificates, like cars in the US?
As of Jan. 2012 smog testing became mandatory but apparently there is no requirement to pass and no way for the government to track if you were even
tested.
Tijuana has implemented smog checks in the past few years. They're required annually to renew the car's registration. Other Mexican metropolitan areas
also require smog checks.
It will take TJ a while to get all the old polluters off the streets. They can't really stop a poor guy driving a wreck back and forth to his menial
job.
It's good for south San Diego county that the prevailing wind is from the northwest, off the ocean, and not from the south. Although, of course, there
are southerly winds sometimes.
The dirtiest smokestack I've seen in the area is the oil fired power plant on the coast in north Rosarito. Very few smokestacks in TJ that I've seen
but I'm not familiar with the eastern part of the city.
The biggest pollution problem originating in TJ is still the TJ river which flows into San Diego county and empties into the ocean just south of
Imperial Beach. The pollution control systems both on the TJ and US sides get swamped when it rains and the overflow goes into the river.
I've read the population of TJ is expected to double in the next 15 - 20 years, from 1.5 to 3 million people. And of course, San Diego is growing too.
So yeah, the border is getting busier.
The Economic importance of the crossing far outweighs whatever negative effects are felt by those (mostly Low-Income ?) residents.Udo - 5-11-2016 at 08:02 PM
He's right...the general prevailing wind is out of the West, which means that the wind blows in from Playas or Imperial beach.
So the smog gets blown from San Ysidro toward Otay and East.
Which way was the wind blowing that day last month?
Another study can't hurt right?
sancho - 5-12-2016 at 01:57 PM
Cost of $750 mil., 30 something additional US Customs booths,
what was it, 8 months back or so, wait was reduced to 1 1/2 hrs.
on a Sun. afternoon, TJ traffic lane vendors gave up because
line was too short. Read of a crosser coming back on a Sun., a couple months back, in
line 4:30 pm. got to Customs 11:30 pm, 7 hrs., so what happened?
Just another Govt. boondoggle?
[Edited on 5-12-2016 by sancho]Pescador - 5-13-2016 at 07:42 AM
One of the border guards told me they have very strict limits of time that the officials can be in the booth and even though they have air filtration
in the booth, they still get a heavy dose.
Maybe they can do like Mexico and just wave them on through.SFandH - 5-13-2016 at 08:42 AM
They built tandem booths to double the number of inspectors, 2 in each lane, but they seldom man the second booth. I have seen it, but not in the past
4 or 5 months.
The lines would move significantly faster if they fully utilized what they have built.
