Public Presentation on Air Quality at UCI Research Center

By J. David Garmon, M.D.

Trustee, Borrego Valley Endowment Fund

All interested community members are invited to attend a free public presentation on air quality in the Borrego Valley at the UCI Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center Sunday Feb. 18, at 3 p.m.

The presentation will focus on the second year findings of a three-year research project on air quality in the Borrego Valley that is currently underway. The project is led by internationally recognized atmospheric researcher, Charles Zender, Ph.D, Professor, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine and by Morgan Gorris, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine. There will be a Question & Answer session following the formal presentation.

Dr. Zender will speak about the reduction of air quality in our region as a consequence of the shrinking Salton Sea. Ms. Gorris will present findings from the second year of the three-year study. The first year of this research project was completed in Spring 2017 and established a baseline for the normal variation of particulate matter (dust) in the air in the Borrego Valley. Data collected in the second year of the project has been used to create a model of particulate matter circulation (“dust weather”) in our region, and will be the subject of Ms. Gorris’s presentation. The third year of the project will use the results of the first two years to identify the specific source(s) of dust affecting the air quality in the Borrego Valley.

Dr. Zender’s and Ms. Gorris’ research has been made possible by a $65,000 grant from the Borrego Valley Endowment Fund (www.bvefund.org). Other major contributors to the project are the University of California, Irvine through a $270,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and a $30,000 grant from the Borrego Water District.

Those interested in seeing “research in action” may go to http://24.223.109.133/index.html to view real time measurements of particulate matter in the air from five monitoring stations located throughout the Borrego valley.

All community members are invited to this free event. No registration is required.