It’s been a good year so far for our air. That’s what pollution
control monitors are saying, although we’re still not out of the
woods
– smog season lasts from May to October. But the cool summer so
far has resulted in less smog being generated or blown into the
South Valley area.
It’s been a good year so far for our air. That’s what pollution control monitors are saying, although we’re still not out of the woods – smog season lasts from May to October. But the cool summer so far has resulted in less smog being generated or blown into the South Valley area.
This year has been one of the best on record for the air districts that encompass San Benito and Santa Clara counties, but fighting air pollution is a classic example of doing more with less – or, in California’s case, doing less with more – emitting less pollution as more and more people populate the state.
“We are doing better in a lot of ways, but because of our population, we keep teetering on the edge of slipping backwards again,” said Margo Sidener, executive director of the American Lung Association of Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. “With some of the problems of work and housing, there are way more vehicle miles driven than there used to be.”
California has been able to keep emissions down because of better technology for industry, cars and homes and because of strict air quality standards – the state has some of the most stringent standards in the nation. But even with the hundreds of state and federal regulations aimed at controlling the emissions of everything from SUVs to industrial cleaning operations to residential water heaters – meeting just the federal standards, such as the provisions in the Clean Air Act, can be a challenge. The state and federal standards have helped to reduce harmful pollutants, such as ozone, carbon dioxide and small particles in the air, but it’s a continuing battle.
“If people keep driving more and more, we’re going to erode some of those improvements,” Sidener said.
The Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District, which monitors air quality for San Benito and two other counties, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which tracks Santa Clara County air, have monitoring sites set up throughout their districts to measure ozone and small particles in the air, which can be especially damaging to lungs. This year, the Monterey air district has not had one violation of the state’s ozone standard so far, and there have been half as many ‘Spare the Air’ days – four instead of eight – issued by the Bay Area air district than there were this time last year. The Bay Area air district also measures carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and lead in the air.
Janet Brennan, a supervising planner for the Monterey air district, said air quality in the district has improved over the years, with significant reductions from motor vehicles and the Moss Landing power plant, which used to emit around 20 tons a day of oxides of nitrogen. It now emits under three tons of the oxides.
While the cleaner air is good news, especially for those particularly susceptible to smog’s ill effects – the very young, the elderly and those with compromised health – having another such year is a goal that doesn’t necessarily depend totally on the people and businesses in the South Valley. That’s partly because a lot of what we breathe in our semi-rural paradise is from out-of-town.
“We estimate about 50 percent of our exceedences of the (air quality) standards are totally caused by transport from the Bay Area,” Brennan said. Transport is the pollution carried on air currents. “Thirty percent is a combination of our air basin and theirs.”
Because of transport, some of the worst air in the basin monitored by the Monterey district is in one of the most pristine places.
“In terms of air quality in the whole basin, the county with the greatest numbers of violations (of federal air quality standards) is San Benito County,” Brennan said. “Most of those violations are at the Pinnacles National Monument.”
Hot temperatures contribute to pollution because the heat causes a chemical reaction between emissions and organic compounds that leads to smog. In the Gilroy and Morgan Hill areas, that means some of the worst air quality in the San Francisco Bay area, said Luna Salaver, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area air district.
“Winds blow easterly and southerly from the Pacific Ocean. You’re getting a lot of pollution from other metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco and Oakland,” she said. “Your topography is such where you have hills surrounding shallow valleys – that helps trap pollutants in summer.” Those pollutants end up costing people in the state money because they damage buildings, plastics and rubber, and can keep crops from producing as much as they otherwise would.
The pollutants can also cause or exacerbate asthma, and they frequently result in more people checking into hospitals for lung and heart disease – and more people dying during times of high pollution, said Sidener.
While the state’s air quality standards, set to protect the health of the state’s residents, are already stringent, they are based on young, healthy adults, and not for children, the elderly or those with health issues.
“It would make more sense to set them at standards that really were more protective,” Sidener said.
“We would like to see it enforced and see people meet the ones we have now.”
Things people can do to cut emissions
• Carpool, take mass transit or ride a bike to work. “Even if people carpool once a week, that helps,” Sidener said.
• Find a job closer to home or telecommute – perhaps not feasible for everyone, but for those who can, the savings will be not just in emissions, but in commute time and aggravation.
• On Spare the Air days, put off mowing your lawn with a gas mower to a day when air quality is better.
• Use fewer spray products.
• Have fewer fires in fireplaces or woodburning stoves. During winter wood smoke accounts for about 40 percent of nighttime air pollution – second only to cars.
• Link your trips. Instead of going from home to the supermarket, back home, then to the post office, then back home, and then out to another store and back home a third time, try doing it all in one shot. Go from home to the post office to the store and then to the supermarket and then back home. That saves time, trips and “cold starts” of your engine – which sends out more emissions than just driving.
Source: Margo Sidener, executive director of the American Lung Association of Santa Clara and San Benito Counties.
