By Willa Gruver, Resilient Communities Program Manager
SuSol Program Manager Willa Gruver explores CalEnviroScreen maps with Vallejo community members
On a Wednesday evening in June, Vallejo community members gathered at the Joseph Room in the JFK Library to share their experiences and concerns about air quality — something that has a huge impact on our bodies and long-term health, but that we don’t often think about or notice.
The meeting was part of Sustainable Solano’s effort to build community capacity to tackle air quality issues as a county through education, listening sessions, youth programs, community-based green infrastructure projects, and coalition building. The event gathered community feedback to shape a countywide Air Quality Summit, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17 in Suisun City. Shaped through the efforts of an advisory committee and community meetings like this one, the Air Quality Summit will bring together experts, policymakers, and community members for interactive sessions and workshops that will build shared understanding of air quality issues across the county, provide practical tools and resources, facilitate connections and community-building, and connect interested residents with ways to get involved.
Over pizza, we explored maps from CalEnviroScreen 5.0, a free online mapping tool developed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) that anyone can use. It combines public health, demographic and environmental data and can be used to see which communities are the most disproportionately burdened by pollution.
This map shows the estimated number of ER visits for asthma by census tract from 2022–2023.
The darkest green area of Vallejo ranks in the 99th percentile statewide, meaning that asthma-related emergency room visits are higher than in 99% of other California census tracts. Because air pollution can trigger asthma attacks, this data helps illustrate one of the many health impacts associated with poor air quality.
As we reviewed the maps, I asked participants whether the data reflected their lived experiences in Vallejo. I also wanted to hear which pollution sources concerned them most and what topics would be most valuable to cover at the Solano County Air Quality Summit in October. Participants raised concerns about historical cleanup sites, new development that could increase traffic and further burden nearby neighborhoods, and proposed industrial manufacturing activity on Mare Island. The conversation generated a long list of ideas, resources, and priorities that will help shape the event.
We’d love to see you at the Solano County Air Quality Summit. You can learn more, stay updated on programming and register for the event here. To let us know what you’d like to see or learn about at the Summit and share what air quality issues you notice in your community, please take our survey! Your feedback will help shape our work in Solano County.
The Solano County Air Quality Summit is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Invest, formerly known as Cap-and-Trade, dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.
