LAT: L.A.'s the Capital of Dirty Air Again

[DeepModem Mom]

L.A.'s the Capital of Dirty Air Again
Despite having fewer smoggy days this year than last, the region ranks as the worst in the nation for unhealthful haze, the EPA says.
By Miguel Bustillo, Times Staff Writer


Los Angeles is America's smog capital once again.

The megalopolis actually has had fewer smoggy days this year than last, continuing a relatively steady three-decade trend toward cleaner air. However, Houston and California's San Joaquin Valley, which in recent years rivaled and even surpassed L.A. as the smoggiest areas in the country, experienced exceptionally clean air this year.

As a result, the Greater Los Angeles region is again home to the worst smog in the nation, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's latest barometer for measuring the unhealthful haze — a dubious distinction the region has held for most of the last half-century.

Air quality in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties has exceeded the federal health standard for more than 2 1/2 months this year.

"It's a tough job cleaning up the ozone at this point because there are not a lot of easy emissions to target," said Joe Cassmassi, planning and rules manager for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the region's chief smog-fighting agency. "The low-hanging fruit, as a lot of people like to say, has been taken."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-smog14nov14,0,3689526.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews

[slackmaster]

1. It's only the US capital of dirty air

The world's dirtiest air award goes to Beijing, Peoples' Republic of China.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200510/28/eng20051028_217528.html

[joefree1]

2. Because of inversion layers and the surroundng mountains

... we have to live with our smog. So we get the high numbers. In other cities the smog simply blows away contributing to the overall pollution in the world. Sleep tight.

Also thanks to Firestone for buying and closing down mass transit in the Fifties. Thank you developers for contributing to urban sprawl and our massive freeway system. :sarcasm:

[KansDem]

3. I grew up in Southern California...

Lived there from 1954 to 1979.

There were times in the mid-'60s I would be out riding my bicycle during really smoggy days, and would have to pull over and lie down on someone's front yard and close my eyes and rub them until the stinging decreased. That's how foul the air was then.

In elementary school during the '60s, sometimes during the last recess of the day if I took a deep breath while on the playground during a smoggy day, it might feel like a knife was being thrust into my lungs. That's how foul the air was then.

I thought conditions were improving...

[goclark]

10. I'll take it smog and all

I've lived in the freezing cold in the Mid West

The icy roads and thunder storms of the East

I'll take the sun breaking through 98 % of the mornings ,the beaches, the choices, the excitement, the absolute thrill of living in Los Angeles.

We would love for everyone else to stay whereever they are so we can enjoy our smog in peace. :)

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Beautiful city -- one of the great cities of the world. It's the twilight

hour that gets me. When the sky, and even the air, turns rose pink, with the shapes of palms outlined against it. And as soon as the sun starts to set, the desert cools off for the night.

[AnneD]

19. I don't trust air...

I can't see.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. Good one!

[anitar1]

15. Don't worry. Most of us who bailed out 25 yrs ago

won't be coming back. I love breathing.

[DBoon]

18. If all the LA residents who coml;ain bitterly

about how terrible the place is would just move back to where they came from, it would eliminate all our traffic problems and make life easier for those of us who enjoy this city.

[K8-EEE]

22. Amen To That, From Another Native Angelena!

This time of year especially is my favorite. It annoys me when people move here from whereever and complain there are no seasons. They are beautiful if more suble here -- I just planted my Christmas dinner lettuce and snow peas and cilantro, I wouldn't be doing that in June, there you are, SEASONS!!

[shanti]

13. oh i remember that pain too!

having grown up in the OC then as well. the smog was literally brown seen from a distance.

[KansDem]

25. Once or twice a year, winds would blow enough of the smog out

of the LA basin that one could see the San Bernardino Mountains. We were amazed as we viewed this rarely-seen mountain range from the playground. Included in this range, of course, was Mount Baldy, with its ever-present cap of snow. Since I was a towhead, my nickname for the day became "Mt. Baldy," in "tribute" to the landmark of the same name. This new moniker usually didn't extend much pass that particular day, as the smog would soon return and the mountains would disappear, along with the name.

[David Zephyr]

23. Great improvement.

First stage smog alerts that we all assumed were every day occurrences back during the time you described and even well into the 1970's are rare now days.

The sort of nasty air which was once a soupy orange color and that was so tainted that I could not see beyond a single block in downtown L.A. where I worked during the 1970's is a distant memory now.

With hybrids now allowed to travel in the Diamond Lanes (HOV) and a continued growth in popularity of the Metro, I expect that L.A. will again be below Houston and others again soon which has been the overall long term trend.

[readmylips]

4. ....and dirty politics...

why California elected that jerk Ahhnold still makes me want to vomit.

[Rose Siding]

6. Davis did some important work on this

The only time I ever wrote to that state's governor was when he signed the emissions legislation. It sure cost him. The feds and some powerful industry forces are in the courts with it, still, I suppose.

SACRAMENTO, California, July 22, 2002 (ENS) - California today became the first state in the nation to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from motor vehicles. Governor Gray Davis signed legislation ordering the state's air quality board to develop statewide standards for tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, beginning in model year 2009.
....
"The technology is available. It's affordable. And it's widely utilized in other countries," Davis explained. "We're merely asking business to do what business does best: innovate, compete, find solutions to problems and do it in a way that strengthens the economy."

"Opponents of this bill say the sky is falling," Davis explained. "But they said it about unleaded gasoline. They said it about catalytic converters. They said it about seat belts and air bags. But the sky is not falling. It's just getting a whole lot cleaner."
....
Even other nations took note of California's new law.

"This is a dramatic breakthrough," said Gerry Scott, director of the climate change campaign at Canada's Davis Suzuki Foundation. "This is the single biggest initiative on global warming ever taken in North America. And if California can do it, so can Canada."

http://www.global-warming.net/californiawilllimitcaremissions.htm#automakers

[Wise Doubter]

5. L.A. native.....

(cough-cough hack urrgh)

I don`t know what they`re talking about

(cough-cough-hack-urmph sputter)

[AnneD]

7. We wuz robbed....

everyone know that Houston's is #1 in ozone. Drat that Mayor Bill White. He must have arranged a payoff......;)

[DBoon]

16. He did - they changed the definition of smog

It used to be 8 hours straight of being over the federal limit for ozone. Now a single hour a day makes the whole day count.

LA's smog is automobile produced, so you expect peaks around rush hour. Houston's is industrial - more sustained amounts throughout the day.

This change in the definition was to Houston's benefit and LA's detriment.

Coincidence? I think not.

[TX-RAT]

8. Better than it used to be.

My grand father had tons of pictures taken back in the early 1900's. This was back when everybody was using wood burning stoves for heating and cooking. The oil wells were like a forest, in the area where Dodger stadium is. There were times you couldn't see more than a couple of hundred yards.

[Algorem]

9. Ohio's #1 state air polluter!Rahrahsisboombah.& Bush is f'n it all more-

Annual polluter reports may end; U.S. EPA considering cutback to reduce costs to industry

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051114/NEWS06/511140305

By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER


Ohio released more chemicals into the air from industry smokestacks and similar devices than any other state between 1998 and 2003.

And, in 2003 - the most recent year federal reporting data is available - the Buckeye State came in fourth for overall releases to the environment. That takes into account everything that an industrial source released to the air, water or land.

And, in 2003 - the most recent year federal reporting data is available - the Buckeye State came in fourth for overall releases to the environment. That takes into account everything that an industrial source released to the air, water or land.

Those statistics are the kind of things that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made available on an annual basis for nearly 20 years, under a public right-to-know program called the Toxic Release Inventory...

[SoCalDem]

11. And because it's hard to "find out who did it", we just inhale-exhale

but tobacco "crimes" are easier to prosecute..

I would venture a guess that the chemical cocktail that people breathe from the moment they are born, is more to blame than any single pollutant..

and it's impossible to isolate which substance(s) or which day's 'load" was/were the culprit for whatever eventually does you in:(

[0007]

14. USC v. Texas in the Dirty Air Bowl

If the one-hour standard were still used, Houston would have topped Los Angeles as the nation's smog capital. Houston violated the one-hour standard on 33 days this year, compared with 30 days in the L.A. region.

Texas officials said they took no comfort in ceding first place in the annual smog derby to Los Angeles. They said they are tightening restrictions on air pollution in the Houston area, which largely stems from the cluster of oil refineries and chemical plants near the city.

USC by a landslide.......

[hogwyld]

17. We're #1

Although, Mexico City is pretty bad also.

[AnneD]

20. Hey the SMOG BOWL...

is like the World Series in baseball. US cities only!

[Megahurtz]

24. Oh thanks for making my day

with this article. :sarcasm:::silly::+