SAN DIEGO — People in the South Bay have been complaining about smelly odors in the air for years. Now, data from new monitors confirms their fears.
"It smells like poop!" said Andres Caraveo who lives in Chula Vista. "We are used to this funky smell in the air in the South Bay."
"It kind of just smells like there is trash above my head," said Ciara Lewis and Kayla Wilde, tourists visiting from Missouri.
Just days after it was installed, a new air pollution control sensor behind a fire station in San Ysidro detected levels of hydrogen sulfide, one of the main chemical components of sewer gas.
"The number that California has set as an odor threshold and as a number is .03 and we are seeing numbers at .04 and .05; so 1 and a half times the standard," said David Sodeman the Chief of the Monitoring Division at the Air Pollution Control District for San Diego County.
He says this proves the air is unhealthy to breathe.
"It's not going to kill you, but it is going to bother you. People that are more susceptible to odors are going to find it very unpleasant. It may trigger your asthma or cause headaches, nausea and make you sick to your stomach. It's not a level we want anyone to be breathing in," he adds.
The sensor collects data every hour. He says in the three days they measured, it exceeded the threshold three times and that’s not something the girls visiting from Missouri want to hear.
"That’s not great considering we are on vacation. California is a touristy place! People want to come here and knowing the air isn’t great doesn’t make you want to be here. It makes me want to go home," said Lewis and Wilde.
People flooded social media with comments writing:
“I have been trying to move out of here for a long time. The smell is unhealthy and now so frequent.”
“This odor is toxic. My wife and have felt sick.”
"It's horrible! The other night, I felt sick to my stomach.”
The Air Pollution Control District plans to use this new data to ask for help from state and federal agencies to raise awareness and help fix this issue.
For now, visitors are ready to leave.
"When you see California in movies, it seems so perfect; so it's not portrayed like the movies," said Lewis.
San Diego County’s Air Pollution District plans to have six sensors put out in total including the Tijuana River Valley, Imperial Beach and other areas of the South Bay within the next few months.
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