REGION: Unflattering report card for smog
Riverside County tops nation's soot list, San Diego County 24th worst in ozone
By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | ∞
San Diego and Riverside counties have once again received failing marks for air quality in the American Lung Association's annual report card on smog.
Riverside County had the dubious distinction of topping the list of the nation's counties with the worst long-term soot pollution, according to the association's "State of the Air 2008" report, released Wednesday night.
Riverside was in third place on the list of counties with the highest levels of ozone, a primary ingredient in smog. San Diego County was listed at 24th worst in the country in the report.
Soot and high levels of ozone make it difficult for people who are very young or old, or who have heart and lung ailments, to breathe. Studies have linked air pollution with premature death.
Riverside County's ranking is comparable to how it fared in previous association reports, while San Diego County's ranking is worse than in recent years.
Bill Brick, senior meteorologist for the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District, said the San Diego area's disappointing showing is largely the result of a sharp uptick in bad air days in 2006, which was marked by an extended heat wave.
Ozone tends to form from all those chemicals that come out of the tailpipes of cars and smokestacks of factories, and cook in the summer sun.
The ranking of 24th "doesn't mean our air pollution is getting worse," said Bill Brick, senior meteorologist with the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District.
Still, the report underscores the fact the battle for clean air is not over.
"They're doing a good service trying to remind people that we still have a ways to go," Brick said.
In the list of rankings for the nation's major metropolitan areas, the San Diego area came in as 12th worst. As in the county-by-county comparison, that represents a significant deterioration from recent years.
In those same metropolitan rankings, Riverside County is lumped in with Los Angeles and Orange counties ---- the region with the nation's worst smog, according to the report.
In a twist, however, Pittsburgh pushed the Los Angeles-Riverside region aside to take the nation's top spot for soot, the report showed.
"It's not that Pittsburgh has gotten worse, it's that Los Angeles has gotten better," Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy for the association, said during a conference call with reporters.
Despite the data, significant progress has been made in cleaning up the air in Southern California, Nolen said.
"You've come a long way," she said. "It is a clear sign that steps are being taken that are working. But you came from farther back and you have farther to go."
Despite the progress, nearly 700,000 people in San Diego County and more than 450,000 in Riverside County with cardiovascular disease are at risk, not to mention tens of thousands more with asthma, lung diseases and diabetes, according to the report.
Critics suggest those numbers overstate the true number of people with ailments who breathe dirty air because pollution levels are anything but uniform in the two counties.
David Gemmill, a Temecula man who formerly worked for the UC Riverside's Center for Environmental Research and Technology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Southwest Riverside County air is not nearly as dangerous as the brown cloud that settles in over the city of Riverside during the summer.
"You're much better off in Temecula or Murrieta than you are in Riverside," Gemmill said. "The source of our air is comes from the ocean, across Camp Pendleton and through the (Interstate 15) gap."
Likewise, North County smog readings tend to be lower than at Alpine along Interstate 8, which tends to accumulate the pollution blowing inland from downtown San Diego.
"The big driver is our Alpine station, which reflects a small part of the (San Diego) county population," Brick said.
Still, said Ross Porter, a spokesman for the lung association office in San Diego, "When Alpine has a problem the whole county has a problem."
Clearly, Brick said, "Our goal is to have clean air for everybody."
Association officials stressed that the rankings, based on readings from the years 2004, 2005 and 2006, could have been worse because the EPA recently tightened the ozone standard. But for this report, they said, the former standard was used.
Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.
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Carter wrote on Apr 30, 2008 11:06 PM: No wonder - we take action without thinking of the consequence. By this time everybody knows, as stated in the above article, that our autos are the source of smog and bad air. Yet it seems that every move we make contributes to more bad air; e.g., School districts getting rid of busing for the children. What do you think will happen? An increase in the number of cars on the streets getting children to school. As it is, the traffic jams at schools are bad. Just you wait until the Buses stop running.
The CHP and the Sheriff flatly refuse to control speeding, knowing full well that the faster a car goes the more smog and bad air it creates, especially above 60 miles an hour. Rabbit starts and gunning the engine is very bad also for putting hydrocarbons into the air.
SANDAG has propose an 80 mile an hour HOV coming from the north on I-15 to meet with the one coming from the south. Now there is a smog producing project if I ever heard of one. You would think that those people had not heard that fast autos are contributing to the heating of the earth. If we would take heed we could contribute to our good clean air in our planning. However, one would think that SANDAG lived on some other planet.
Those are just a few sources and causes of smog that came to mind. I am sure each of us can think of a lot more without trying very hard.
Love Temecula wrote on May 1, 2008 5:50 AM:Another great reason to Love Temecula!
Have you seen any of wrote on May 1, 2008 6:36 AM:the cars that get impounded for DUIs and lack of driver's licenses? I truly have to wonder how they pass a smog test or do they even bother doing a smog when it is sold from a private individual to another private individual.
Yawn wrote on May 1, 2008 6:45 AM:This is news? I suppose you have to report it, but not the lead story on the web. We have smog. We get it. When one of our counties actually improves and doesn't get an F, THEN it will be worthy of the front page. Until then, it should be a brief on page B-3.
This also just in: The sun rose in the east this morning, and there is stop-and-go traffic on I-5 heading south! Where are those articles.
LKF wrote on May 1, 2008 6:53 AM:What do you expect? A glowing report from various groups who would go out of business if they admitted the air quality was OK. The air quality is very good, all you need do is look outside and see for yourself. Yes, there are days when there is smog, get over it. Be thankful you have a job, car, home etc. These 'air quality' police would go out of business if they admitted the truth, that air quality is good and we all live in a great place. Don't let yourself get sucked in by the 'doom and gloomers who make a living by scaring you.
This is Clintons fault wrote on May 1, 2008 7:03 AM:it is 2nd hand smoke from the cigars these policians smoke.
John E wrote on May 1, 2008 8:23 AM:No one is making a living by scaring us about air quality. Over the past 45 years we have made huge strides in automobile emission control technology, and the payback has been tremendous. However, we can continue to do better, and we must, as population, traffic congestion, and motor vehicle use steadily increase.
Race to the bottom wrote on May 1, 2008 9:24 AM:Looks like LKF started spouting off without reading the whole article. An air-quality scientist explained the difference between Temecula and Riverside. And LKF apparently has never been to Riverside to see the smog there.
I have been to LA wrote on May 1, 2008 9:36 AM:and seen the smog there, NICE!
dave wrote on May 1, 2008 9:47 AM:Temecula is in Riverside County
topping the list. Im sure La Jolla or encinitas are better than most of San diedo county.
Its not second hand smoke wrote on May 1, 2008 2:16 PM:killing us, its you people with cars, if only they coud invent a device that would pump all of your transmissions back into the passenger section of cars, then we would be ok.
Carter wrote on May 1, 2008 3:31 PM: In addition to the above, the move to electric cars will be logarithmic starting now; meaning that the number on the road will double or triple or more every year from now on. At present solar panels are not efficient enough to power a house and all its electrical devise. Lighting, one TV, a computer, and a few other small items can be ran off solar. However in the next five years solar panels will improve greatly until the entire electrical demand in the home, including recharging a car, can be accomplished by solar alone and the excess generated can be sold to the grid. This will make electrical cars feasible with a "super" charge at home allowing a drive to and from work at long distances and eliminating smog. Another however - it will also require speeds no more than 50 to 60 mph in order to make long trip on one charge, such as from Temecula to San Diego and back. the electrical power generated by solar will eliminate a lot of smog. In the mean time if we were to reduce our speed to 50 to 60 miles an hour there would be a lot less smog. I assure you that those traveling at the speed limit will reach their destination at just about the same time as those travelling at higher speeds. But, we know that those people that make the freeways and streets there playground will not do that.
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