Rio Grande International Study Center invites public to June 7 workshop after yearlong Laredo air‑monitoring project

The Rio Grande International Study Center invited residents and officials to a free, in‑person workshop on June 7 at the UT Health Science Center to review results from a 12‑month air‑monitoring project that installed 19 low‑cost sensors across Laredo and neighboring Mexican neighborhoods.

The project team said the workshop, organized through the Binational Air Council and funded by NAB Bank, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Mexico’s Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat), will present a public data dashboard and seek community feedback on local air quality and possible next steps. "We're basically here ... to invite you and the members of the committee to our first in‑person workshop for the Binational Air Council," presenter Tricia Cortez said to the advisory committee.

The dashboard and sensors focus on particulate matter (PM2.5). Presenters said the monitoring network is accessible through the Rio Grande International Study Center website and updates twice daily; the raw sensors log data every five minutes and one of each pair of co‑located sensors runs a longer validation cycle twice per day. "Those data are disseminated ... on our website to create a data dashboard, which is access to all community members," Cortez said.

Project staff described two project goals: (1) expand…