San Antonio, TX
Climate and environment | 2026
Capturing air quality in neighborhoods to monitor recycling facilities’ regulatory compliance.
For more than a century, San Antonio’s Thompson, Quintana, and Villas de Esperanza–Kelly Park neighborhoods have been exposed to air pollution and groundwater contamination from the former Kelly Air Force Base and other nearby industry. These facilities were sited decades ago in areas of the city that were and are home primarily to people of color and low- and moderate-income families. Contamination has been exacerbated by recent fires and explosions at facilities that are recycling metal and auto parts, which although preferably not situated in residential areas, are a critical part of the recycling ecosystem. In 2025, San Antonio revised local codes to better regulate the harmful effects of these facilities. The Bexar County Community Health Collaborative will work with partners at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Community Information Now to collect data to assess whether those facilities are complying with new regulations related to frequency and length of fires, and whether air quality has been affected.
The Health Collaborative and its project team will form a community science steering group composed of neighborhood residents to codesign data collection protocols and tools. The team will deploy up to 10 outdoor air quality sensors across the four neighborhoods to measure particulate matter emitted by recycling facilities. To capture data on incidents like explosions, smoke, fire, and particulate matter coating playground equipment, the project team will develop a crowdsourcing platform and train resident volunteers to report these visible issues. Data from both sources and a nearby research-grade air quality monitor will be regularly integrated and analyzed with neighborhood residents to inform the research as needed. The Health Collaborative and residents will share their findings through presentations and a fact sheet for San Antonio policymakers.
In quantifying residents’ exposure to air pollution and their experiences as neighbors to metal recycling facilities, the Health Collaborative and its partners aim to better understand whether the recent regulations are having their intended protective effects. The team and community science steering group will also brief the San Antonio City Council’s Planning and Community Development Committee and other regulatory actors that enforce air quality concentration standards. The project’s results will inform future regulations and compliance enforcement efforts.
