Academic Year Project Started: 2020-2021

Identification of High-Risk Dry Cleaning Sites in San Diego County: Data Collection and Remediation

The goal of this project was to locate and collect site data for all present and historical dry cleaners in San Diego County. Additional data pertained to dry cleaning sites’ responsible parties and operation status. This report pertains to the first phase of this project, which was conducted by students in Environmental Engineering 558: Solid […]

Identification of High-Risk Dry Cleaning Sites in San Diego County: Spatial Analysis

Hazardous chemicals used in traditional dry-cleaning methods pose a serious threat to population health when spilled or discharged illegally into the environment. Children, the elderly, individuals with certain medical conditions, or those living in disadvantaged communities are at even greater risk. San Diego State University students collaborated with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control […]

An Analysis of the Current Climatic Factors Hindering California’s Central Coast Monarch Butterfly Population (Danaus plexippus)

The city of Pacific Grove’s beloved species of butterfly Danaus plexippus, or the Monarch butterfly is a once-plentiful pollinator species that is critical to the health of many plant communities. Monarch butterflies are unique in many ways, but one key characteristic is their ability to follow their long migration pattern over the span of several […]

Public Versus Private Water Analysis

Water has been a contentious issue in California, both historically and to this day, particularly concerns over water supply systems ownership. The City of Pacific Grove (PG) currently has privately supplied water from the California American Water (Cal Am) company. PG and cities on the Monterey Peninsula within Cal Am’s water service area are considering […]

Water Bottle Refill Stations in the City of Pacific Grove

This paper is a report on a capstone project completed at California State University Monterey Bay through the Sustainable City Year Program in partnership with the City of Pacific Grove. This research examines the issue of plastic pollution in marine environments on a global scale, and, more specifically, on a local scale. The local example […]

Environmental Justice in California

In California, and the United States as a whole, low-income and minority communities have often fallen victim to years of environmental injustice through the constructs of elitism and capitalism. This study seeks to understand the process of city development, using data from over 100 California cities to observe whether cities are responsible for different environmental […]

Mosquito-Borne West Nile Virus in California and Policy Considerations for the City of Pacific Grove

West Nile virus (WNV) is a potentially life-threatening illness spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes (Huang et al., 2019). WNV has been active in California since 2003 after its introduction to the United States. WNV currently occurs sporadically in Monterey county according to the California department of public health. Neighboring counties have shown a […]

Impacts of Urban Sprawl on Monarch Butterfly Populations Along the California Coast

The California coast was once a breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of monarch butterflies on their migratory journey, but over the past few decades there has been a dramatic decline in overwintering populations in California. As California’s population has continued to increase to nearly 40 million, urban sprawl has affected many ecosystems and natural […]

Sustainable City Year Program: Active Transport on the Monterey Peninsula

This study sought to assess the components necessary to improve the bikeway infrastructure of California cities to support the recommendations that a Fall 2019 Environmental Studies Capstone group made to the city of Pacific Grove. The recommendations include the implementation of more Class II bikeways throughout the city as they are an efficient and cost-effective […]

Navigating the legal aspects of providing child care

As identified in the Workforce Innovation for a Strong Economy (WISE) Plan, one of the big issues that our community is facing with regard to available workforce is the lack of available childcare for potential employees. This is a larger issue for the community than just its impact on workforce, because early childhood development is […]

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