East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce
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Contact
Overview
- Selection year: 2018
- Selected for: Community Air Monitoring Plan and Community Emissions Reduction Program
- Air District:South Coast Air Quality Management District
- CARB Community Lead Contact: Adrianna Hernandez
The community of East Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Boyle Heights is located in the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), east of downtown Los Angeles. The neighborhoods in this community include East Los Angeles, Ramona Gardens, City Terrace, Boyle Heights, and portions of West Commerce. The community is impacted by freight and freeway activity, as well as industry. The community has a high cumulative air pollution exposure burden, with a significant number of sensitive receptors, and includes census tracts that have been designated as disadvantaged communities.
The community of East Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Boyle Heights has an area of 17 square miles and a population of approximately 230,000. The community is impacted by freight activities including six railyards, and large facilities with activities such as metal coating and smelting refining and rendering and meat by-product processing. Major freeways bisecting the community include Highways 101 and 60, and Interstates 5,10, and 710, resulting in four freeway junctions. The community’s sensitive receptors include 90 schools, 48 licensed daycare facilities, and 14 hospitals. The community has high rates of poverty and unemployment and schools that are in close proximity to pollution sources.
Community Boundary
East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce's AB 617 boundary files
Community Air Monitoring
In 2018, the Community was nominated by the District and selected by CARB as a monitoring community. The District published the AB 617 Community Air Monitoring Plan For the East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce Community in April 2019.
The Community Air Monitoring Plan identifies areas of interest for AB 617 monitoring such as stationary and mobile sources, monitoring site locations, sampling schedules, and types of equipment and strategies. The plan was designed to obtain detailed air pollution levels through the Community, determine areas in the community of highest risk, quantify sources of air pollution within the community, and position the Community to develop emissions reduction strategies and monitor the effectiveness of those strategies.
CARB and the District have historically implemented air monitoring which includes regulatory monitoring in Los Angeles County. The AB 617 community air monitoring plan is specifically designed with the community steering committee input to measure and collect localized and elevated air pollution levels data. The District considered health statistics, air quality concerns from residents in multiple communities, as well as screening tools that combine environmental, health, and socio-economic information to calculate community-wide risk factors in the planning and implementation of community air monitoring. Community-level expertise through steering committee meetings and input from a broad range of stakeholders supported the District's development of this plan.
The collection of comprehensive air quality data is essential to develop emissions reduction plans and strategies. The monitoring data will be provided to CARB once available and can be downloadable on AQView where monitoring data from other AB 617 community air monitoring plans are also included.
Community Emissions Reduction Program
South Coast AQMD convened a community steering committee to develop the Community Emissions Reduction Plan: East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce. South Coast AQMD hosted a workshop to get the broader public’s feedback on the Plan in July 2019. The Plan focuses on reducing exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOC), and toxic air contaminants from sources such as neighborhood and freeway traffic from trucks and automobiles, railyards, metal processing facilities, rendering facilities, and auto body shops along with actions to reduce exposure to air pollution at schools and daycare centers with 25 actions.
Community Engagement
Community engagement is a key part of the AB 617 program. Air districts are responsible for convening a community steering committee using an open and transparent nomination process. Community steering committees create new, and foster existing, local partnerships that drive the AB 617 program. In this advisory role, community steering committees oversee the development and implementation of the program such as in community identification, community air monitoring, and community emissions reduction programs. The steering committee aims to identify metrics, track progress, solicit, and share information with the East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce community. The current Community Steering Committee was selected representing a diverse range of community viewpoints. This broad range of stakeholders also forms a collaborative AB 617 Technical Advisory Group, which provides input to South Coast AQMD staff on technical details related to source attribution, air monitoring, and other technical analysis needed to develop air monitoring plans and Community Emissions Reduction Plans for AB 617 implementation.
The current Community Steering Committee charter describes the East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, West Commerce membership process, how meetings are conducted, and how information is made available to its members and the public.
Annual Implementation Progress
Annual progress reports are completed by the District. Qualitative and quantitative progress assessments as well as status updates from interim milestones identified by the CARB Governing Board are available in the annual progress report and accompanying metric workbooks. A detailed update for each strategy can also be found here as it is made available.
- Annual Progress Report for AB 617 Community Emissions Reduction Plans (District Link)
- 2020 Annual Progress Report and Annual Report Data Template