Odor monitors installed in South Bay after complaints of stinky smells caused by sewage spills

Behind a fenced-off area near a fire station in San Ysidro, a humming sound is coming from one of San Diego County’s new odor monitors as it sniffs out potentially dangerous pollutants in the air.

Some of those pollutants are produced by cross-border sewage spills that have been stinking up neighborhoods in the South Bay.

“It burns your eyes and it's just it’s sickening," Imperial Beach resident Clint Shipman said.

"It's like a simultaneous punch in the gut and kick in the face," explained Baron Partlow.

Partlow’s not only a longtime IB resident, he founded “Stop the Poop,” an organization dedicated to getting the sewage issue resolved. He can't wait for the odor monitors that'll be built in San Ysidro and IB to come online after pushing for air sensors back in 2018 while a member of the International Boundary and Water Commission's Citizens Forum.

"You can't argue with the numbers. You can't argue with the science and the results of a well-carried-out technology that this could offer. So, if it offers real numbers in real time that are accurate and [the air pollutants] become a threat, it's just one more tool in our arsenal to go to war with and protect ourselves," Partlow said.

In addition to carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants, the wireless sensors will keep a close watch out for sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, the main causes of the stinky smell.

According to the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, constant exposure to those pollutants can trigger health issues like nausea, dizziness and other problems.

"It’s just unbearable. There are nights you can't close your windows. You can't leave them open. You can't go in, you can't go out, you can't eat because you're nauseous, you can't sleep," Partlow said.

Data collected by the wireless sensors will help decide whether air quality is getting better or worse. 

Giving legislators tangible evidence will get the problem cleaned up, residents hope, so that IB can re-open its shoreline which has been closed for a year-and-a-half due to toxic sewage spills.

"I was born three blocks from the Oceanside Pier. I've been in the water my whole life, so if there's ever a term "fish out of water," it applies here. And to not be able to take my grandsons during their early impressionable years and lose all that time and more was just heartbreaking," Partlow said.

The Air Pollution Control District hopes to have more odor monitors up and running in the coming weeks.