The Border Ozone Reduction and Air Quality Improvement
Program has awarded seven new applied research
grants for projects designed to reduce high levels of
harmful ozone and other air pollutants and to facilitate
the creation of shared cross-border environmental standards
in the Mexicali, Baja California, and Imperial Valley, California,
border region.
LASPAU began the program in 2002 with a $2 million seed
grant from InterGen, a power generation firm with projects around
the world, including operations in Mexico. The program is one of
a number of InterGen’s sustainable development initiatives.
The Border Ozone Program is designed to facilitate partnerships
between academia and the industrial, civic, and government
sectors, with the shared goal of improving air quality in the border
region. The current grants represent the second round of funded
projects.
“The research supported by this program has already had a positive
impact on the Mexicali–Imperial Valley region by providing
essential tools to improve air quality. The partnerships being established
between the research community and policymakers will
result in significant reductions in air pollutants,” said Daniel Jacob,
the Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry
and Environmental Engineering at Harvard University and a
member of the program’s independent, binational scientific advisory
board.
 The following individuals received grants in the second round
of funding:
Marco Antonio Carrillo Maza, director of graduate programs at the
Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior (CETYS), will develop a
master’s degree program in environmental management and sustainable
growth. The new program will address the need for specialized
applied research and will generate knowledge, networks, and synergies
focused on environmental problems in the Imperial Valley and
Mexicali.
Efrain C. Nieblas Ortiz, a researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de
Baja California, will establish a binational plan for the Imperial Valley
and Mexicali to reduce ozone production and improve border region
air quality. The plan will include a binational environmental district
encompassing the Imperial Valley and Mexicali, an international environmental
impact protocol, and an emission offset protocol.
Alvaro Román Osornio Vargas, head of Environmental Health at the
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a medical investigator
at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, will conduct an evaluation
and composition analysis of airborne and soil particles collected
in different zones of Mexicali. The results will help determine which
suspended particles contribute most to the adverse health effects of
atmospheric contamination so that control measures can be appropriately
prioritized.
Marco Antonio Reyna Carranza, a professor and researcher at the
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, will continue his project
to determine the relationship between airborne contaminants and respiratory
diseases in order to provide a baseline for future efforts to
improve binational environmental health policies. In the second phase
of his work, Reyna will design a prediction model for health officials.
Jesús Rivera Garibaldi, also a professor and researcher at the Universidad
Autónoma de Baja California, will study the composition and
concentration of volatile organic compound emissions in Mexicali in
order to verify contaminated zones and establish emissions limits according
to the production activities of specific industries.
Alan Sweedler, professor of physics and director of the Center for
Energy Studies at San Diego State University, will create a model of
pollutants that are indicators of air quality in the Mexicali and Imperial
Valley region. He will conduct an in-depth analysis to reveal lesserknown
methods of improving air quality in the region, and he plans
to have the results integrated into air quality policy.
Rick Van Schoik, managing director of the Southwest Consortium
for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP), received funding
for SCERP’s 2005 annual conference, Border Institute VII: Transboundary
Air Pollution and Binational Air Quality Management, held
in Rio Rico, Arizona, in April. SCERP, a collaboration of five Mexican
and five U.S. universities, conducts applied environmental research
to guide policymaking in order to improve the quality of life of
residents of the border region.
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