Benicia group seeks $4.8 million grant to expand citywide air‑monitoring network

Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program (BCAM) representatives on Wednesday outlined a $4.8 million grant request to build a citywide air‑monitoring and alert system that would add four new monitoring stations, two open‑path optical systems and three years of installation, operation and maintenance.

BCAM treasurer Kathy Carriage told the Benicia Industrial Safety Citizen Oversight Commission the goal is to ‘‘provide one place to get information’’ about local air quality and give residents ‘‘a right to know what we’re breathing.’’ She said the network would feed data to a unified website and a phone app, provide historical records for health studies and enable alerting based on user parameters.

The presentation, billed as Item 7B, was technical and informational; Chair Lindsay disclosed she also serves as president of BCAM and the city attorney advised she need not recuse for this informational briefing. Don Gamillis, president of Argo Scientific (BCAM’s contractor), described the pollutants the systems would track — including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene, total hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone and particulate matter (including metal‑bearing PM) — and the mix of technologies proposed.

Gamillis outlined two principal measurement approaches: ‘‘open‑path’’ optical systems that send beams of light across long distances and identify gases by the wavelengths they absorb, and point monitoring stations that measure gases and particulates at fixed locations. He said open‑path systems have been demonstrated in other U.S. communities, including refinery sites in Los Angeles, and that Argo runs similar systems in Wilmington and Porter Ranch. ‘‘These systems are monitored 24/7,’’ Gamillis said, adding they have remote auto‑positioning and high uptime.

Carriage described BCAM’s community and technical capacity, citing partnerships with UCLA’s School of Public Health and advisory board members with measurement and regulatory experience. The group said the proposed grant package includes equipment that can be disassembled and redeployed where needed and that point monitors and trailer‑mounted systems could be moved rapidly to suspected events; by contrast, fixed open‑path installations require line‑of‑sight set‑up and are less mobile.

Commissioners asked operational and sustainability questions. One commissioner asked how quickly units could be mobilized when an event occurs; Carriage and Gamillis said certain instruments are plug‑and‑play and can be transported and powered where shore power exists, while other devices require more time to set up. Chief Chadwick of the city noted the current grant application focuses on monitoring hardware; notification and app development are being pursued separately and are not guaranteed parts of the submitted application. ‘‘The grant that we’re talking about right now is just the monitoring,’’ Chief Chadwick said.

Commissioners also asked about long‑term maintenance, industry partners and seismic resilience. Gamillis said the open‑path systems have few moving parts and ‘‘are extremely reliable’’ with reported uptimes around 98% in deployments; he named Sirionix as a commercial partner that licensed the UCLA optical technology and said consumable components such as light sources typically last years before replacement.

BCAM representatives stressed that the monitoring data would support public education, regulatory engagement and future health studies; Carriage cited past BCAM comparisons with local fence‑line monitors as examples of the group’s measurement work. The presentation did not include a formal commission vote on funding or an official action; commissioners thanked the presenters and moved to the consent calendar for unrelated routine items.

The commission approved the March 18, 2026 minutes by roll call and adjourned. The BCAM grant remains an application and will be considered further by city staff and grant reviewers; no commission decision was made at this meeting.