Port of Hueneme strives to meet folks where they best relate to air quality monitoring

Miguel Rodriguez, the port’s director of Community Relations and Workforce Development, was a community organizer for the non-profit Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) at the time. He approached Giles Pettifor, the port’s director of Environment and Sustainability, to find answers. Their investigation revealed that the county’s Air Pollution Control District had just one air-monitoring system located north of U.S. Route 101, leaving South Oxnard uncovered.

“Giles and I asked the port’s leadership for the funds to buy monitoring equipment so we could determine the port’s contribution to air emissions and the impacts on neighbourhoods,” Rodriguez recalls. The port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the nearly $150,000 in air quality monitors in late 2018.

Reaching out to the community – including some of the port’s harshest critics – staff related the data it had and still lacked. It also collaborated to form a neighbourhood group called All Inclusive Residents for Equity. AIRE, the Spanish word for air, began organizing community events to share the plans to install monitors and to find solutions to air quality issues based on existing and soon-to-be gathered data.

“We chose Haycox Elementary because of its proximity to the port and its representation of the broader community in South Oxnard,” says Pettifor.

“We installed reference grade particulate monitors so that we could differentiate between the black carbon emitted by diesel use for vessels, cargo-handling equipment and port vehicles from other sources that include residential cooking, domestic fireplace use, and agricultural burning,” Pettifor explains.

Nine months after the equipment’s installation, the port had great news. The air quality near the port was relatively good. The port also now had a benchmark from which to make further improvements. While most would leave matters at that, the port assumed the challenge of effectively communicating air quality developments to the community on a regular basis.

Finding a straightforward way to relate complex air quality data was prioritized for South Oxnard, a farmworker-dense community where some people speak neither English nor Spanish, nor know how to read or write. This is where the port team has become insightful and innovative.

“I noticed that one of the graphs looked like turkey feathers, so it was easier to explain that the way the ‘feathers’ pointed indicated the wind patterns, while the colour depth reflected the wind’s intensity, which together can affect the port’s air quality,” recalls Rodriguez who by then had joined the port staff. “We also created a colouring book so that young people and perhaps those who don’t easily read English or Spanish would see how this works.”

The colouring book was distributed at every local school and eventually made its way to most every neighbourhood living room.

New recruits

Committed to the air quality monitoring program, the port hired Lucia Ayala as one of its Environmental specialists, and Maripas Jacobo as a Community Outreach specialist. They both grew up in the community, studied environmental science, and interned at the port before joining the staff two years ago.

While Jacobo moved away for her post-secondary education, she always intended to return to apply her environmental studies to the benefit of the greater Ventura County. “Like Miguel, I worked for CAUSE where in the interest of social and environmental justice we talked about how trucks going to and from the port might be lowering air quality,” she recalls.

Ayala liked the idea of working for a port authority with democratically elected officials accountable to the community. She has also appreciated the mentorship she has received from Pettifor.

_{Lucia and Maripas took part to Green Marine's GreenTech conference in June 2025. We can see Lucia between Eleanor Kirtley, Green Marine Senior Program Manager, and David Bolduc, President & CEO. Giles Pettifor is on the right in this picture.} 

She likewise appreciates the port’s commitment to going beyond the state’s already robust air regulations and its push for cleaner energy use to achieve greater decarbonization.

Top results

Decas had the port join Green Marine in 2015, shortly after hearing a presentation about the environmental certification program at a meeting hosted by the American Association of Port Authorities. Next June will mark the port’s 10^th consecutive year of Green Marine certification. For its 2024 year of operations, the port achieved its highest levels of performance in the indicators related to air quality, community impacts, and community relations.

The Port of Hueneme was among the first U.S. ports to install shoreside power for vessels, as well as port-wide crane electrification, non-polluting cargo handling equipment, and recently the launch of two emissions capture and control barges.

Although Jacobo appreciates understanding the science, her main interest is in figuring out how to communicate air quality and other information to everyday folks in relevant ways. “I did some of my schooling in Chicano Studies because for me it’s essential to give People of Color who have been disadvantaged – and disenfranchised – a clear understanding of information so they are empowered to bring about positive change,” she says.

She values how the port leadership’s prioritizes community relations. “I know our CEO is really proud of how our Community Outreach department has been made a collaborative partner with not only the City of Hueneme and the City of Oxnard but the county as a whole by opening its doors and engaging with policymakers and the public,” she says.

Innovative approaches

Figuring out how communications should be done to be understood and believed is a huge undertaking. “We just getting started in terms of developing innovative outreach tools,” Ayala says.

The believability factor is being further addressed with the help of a project funded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that has facilitated installing two additional regulatory air quality monitors. “We’re also collaborating with the Air Pollution Control District, the California State University Channel Islands, and a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing gas and oil use,” Ayala says. “Part of this project is also taking a community-centric approach to obtain direct feedback on what people consider the most relevant, culturally dignified ways to obtain information meaningful to their everyday lives.”

Rodriguez says this is where the experience in community organizing is a strong asset in understanding the community issues, such as a lack of affordable housing and equitable access to parks and other green space.

Community feedback is considered essential. “We want to find ways to make all the scientific numbers digestible in a region where 75% of residents are Hispanic or Latino,” Jacobo explains. “And so that the information gives the community the knowledge and confidence to take part in the processes available to make positive changes.”

Building trust

Ayala concurs. “Given the challenges that many within this community are facing just in terms of feeding their families and keeping a roof over their heads, they don’t have time or interest in the usual brochures or social media posts,” she says. “So we’re trying to find out how best to engage with people.”

The port has posted videos that explain atmospheric science terms in straightforward relatable ways in English and Spanish. For example, cups with varying levels of coffee are one of the ways the port explains an inversion layer, which occurs when warmer air sits above cooler, denser air and forms a kind of lid that concentrates air emissions for a while.

“If we just hand out pamphlets, there’s a risk people will think we’re greenwashing,” Jacobo adds. “So we need to meet with people so that we build trust and inspire them to become informed and involved which is challenging with many other political issues facing many of them now, but air quality is fundamentally important to their health.”