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It sure fooled me for a few minutes.  After taking this photo I watched the narrow cloud just kind of stay in one place for awhile.  Then I realized it was simply the Mt Poso Cogen power plant trying to pollute our clean air on a stormy afternoon.  They burn coal and tires out there.

I also passed by a dairy which was not well drained.  This kind of practice breaks the rules of both the Regional Water Board and the Air District but no one checks.  No wonder we get extra nitrates in our drinking water; never mind the antibiotics and hormones.

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Prevention is the best medicine.  Researchers have discovered a strong link between cleaner air and fewer ear infections in children.  www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/aaoo-aqi0 92809.php

What does it mean for Kern County?  Since our winter time particulate problem has not improved at all over the past ten years, it probably means children here are not seeing a decrease in ear infections.  Other areas that have seen significant improvements in their air quality are reaping the benefits of happier children, happier parents and less time and money spent on doctors and medicine.

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Where else would they get away with this stuff?

Locking out workers at Boron is a dirty business.  So is the huge power plant they want to build 7 miles west of Bakersfield. 

This 250 MW power plant will add hundreds of tons of pollution annually to our overburdened air.  The basic proposal is to burn coal and petcoke, all of which will be brought to Kern County from other areas with a couple hundred dirty trucks daily clogging our highways and worsening our air.

Both Ray Watson and Harvey Hall welcomed this project with open arms because of the jobs.

Rio Tinto and BP are partners in this project called Hydrogen Energy Caifornia.  They were kicked out of LA because of environmental concerns so they came up here.

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Where does he get his common sense?

In an unheard of spate of common sense proposals this week, President Obama has just done it again!

white house press release, Jan 29

WASHINGTON, DC – President Barack Obama today announced that the Federal Government will reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by 28 percent by 2020.  Reducing and reporting GHG pollution, as called for in Executive Order 13514 on Federal Sustainability, will ensure that the Federal Government leads by example in building the clean energy economy.  Actions taken under this Executive Order will spur clean energy investments that create new private-sector jobs, drive long-term savings, build local market capacity, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in clean energy industries.

Since these proposed reductions in GHG emissions can all be gotten with efficiency measures plus some solar panels on top of government buildings, this is a really obvious thing to do, both for the economy and for reducing our dependence on foreign oil.  Even past Presidents could have done this if they had been smart enough.  Should be good for some jobs also so we don't have quite so many homeless on the streets as in this tent city under HWY 41 in Fresno.

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I have driven by this dairy many times while traveling the country roads of this great valley.  It is the biggest milk factory I have seen between Fresno and Kern County so it may well be the biggest in the world.  It has a permit to milk 9,000 cows per day meaning it has around 18,000 animals total.

The owner seems to live right on the site.  Kind of stupid because I understand the hydrogen sulphide fumes can make you go crazy, they being some kind of nuerological poison.

I shot the video over the past year or so and I go by this particular place at least once per month.  I always have time to take a few pictures.

Warning:   a few gross scenes of dead animals

www.youtube.com/watch

Three little birds in my backyard not bothered one bit by the storm yesterday.

www.youtube.com/watch

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This faux billboard shows the reality of the happy cows myth. 

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Actually, it never arrived.

These are photos taken today, January 13, of my organic garden.  Because of the mild winter, we have not stopped  enjoying daily salads and/or boiled greens from this garden since the middle of October. 

I recently noticed the strawberries are flowering and the apricot buds are pushing out.  I hope my peach trees remain dormant until at least the end of the month.

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It has to be more nutritious and have more depth of flavor.

Michael Pollan claims in his book, In Defense of Food, that an apple grown organically will have better flavor and three times the nutrition value of an apple fed with fossil fuel based fertilizer.  Same should be true for wine, I suspect. 

I didn't care to go wine tasting while traveling through Napa Valley last week until a friend hooked us up with a special tour of this organic place.  It was kind of nice, even with the overcast sky.  The wine did not disappoint either.  It was good stuff.

www.youtube.com/watch

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Clean Renewable Energy

Today's article in TBC about solar energy in Kern County mentions the land issues and difficulty of finding the right piece of land.

Oviatt said it takes about six acres covered in solar panels to generate one megawatt of electrical power.

"One of the challenges for these projects has been finding the right piece of property," Oviatt said.

The county controls 600 acres in the center of Bakersfield that is good for nothing currently but a polluting oil refinery that is bankrupt (Big West).  This land should be made available to one of these solar companies to put in 100 MW of solar panels.  The environmental review should be a snap.

Why shouldn't Bakersfield, with its polluted air, produce most of its electricity in this way?  It would have to be a bonus to the local economy.

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Most of the year Kern residents will experience increased incidence and higher intensity of asthma episodes.

Since we have relatively high ozone and/or particulate matter levels for 80% of the year this study confirms the worse:  those who suffer from asthma experience worse symptoms and more emergency room visits during serious pollution episodes.

The study, done right here in the San Joaquin Valley, confirms what we already knew, that the costs of our polluted air are great and it is well worth the cost of decreasing this pollution.  The study is printed in the current issue of The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

"...(the) findings suggest that individuals with asthma living in areas of the SJV with high ozone and particulate pollution levels are more likely to have frequent asthma symptoms and asthma-related ED (emergency department) visits and hospitalisations."

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Happy Cows Campaign a Bunch of Bull

This is old news but a picture taken a few miles from Bakersfield tells the story.

Happy birds, happy sheep, and half a dozen cows (circled) standing in their own waste wondering what all the commotion is about over in the sweet smelling pasture they have never set foot in.

The bulk of the pollution from factory dairies is a direct result of not raising these animals in a natural way.  Antibiotics are a constant part of the feed because the feed and the conditions the animals are kept in is unhealthy.

The public loses.  I don't personally lose sleep over the cows but the false advertising from the dairy industry is pretty disgusting.

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www.youtube.com/watch

Just messing around on a rainy day since my ongoing outdoor endeavor in food self-sufficiency is temporarily put on hold.

(the direct youtube link for media does not seem to be working)

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Highway Barriers Can Protect Nearby Neighborhoods

If you haven't noticed, we are having severe levels of fine particulates in our Bakersfield air this weekend.  One sign is extra mucous in the throat and sinuses as the body reacts against these foreign invaders.

Hundreds of studies show the harmful effects of fine particulate matter on human health.  Many studies have shown that living very close to freeways can be especially harmful.  The effects include respiratory disease, cardiovascular illness and cancer.  One study shows strong links between highway pollution and premature births. 

A study released in October shows that highway sight and sound barriers do prevent some of the particulates from traffic moving directly into nearby neighborhoods.  But, it concentrates them at even higher levels on the freeway itself.   On a day like today, when particulate levels are already above federal health standards, you don't want to breakdown along the inside of one of those barriers.

CARB Should Not Change or Suspend Diesel Rule

Despite Lois Henry's sensationalizing of the idiot at CARB who lied about his credentials the diesel rule is valid and necessary, even in these tough economic times.  These rules are always about 5 years behind in their making and implementation.  There is no valid reason to delay implementation.  The science is not in dispute as there are literally thousands of studies linking particulate exposure and health effects.  The improved health benefits from the rule are not in dispute.  The gains definitely outweigh the costs.  The trucking industry cries that they have to bear the cost alone.  Not really, since trucking rates will rise incrementally so we will all pay in order to reap the benefits which will include a net economic gain for society and improved quality of life for millions.

I hate to condescend to those who claim the science is in dispute because it so obviously is not, but I will list below, for those interested, just a few of the thousands of studies that are out there.  Unfortunately, most of these are in journals and require subscriptions to read so there are no internet links.  Maybe a good journalist, like Lois Henry, has access to them at work.  Maybe she should start reading a few of them before writing her next article criticizing the diesel rule.

The titles alone should be impressive and interesting reading for most people.  You can't make this stuff up.  I apologize for the lousy formatting in this list.

·         EPA, Particulate Matter: Health and Environment, http://www.epa.gov/oar/part...

·      U.S. EPA, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, Health Assessment Document for Diesel Engine Exhaust (2002)

·      National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, “Carcinogenic Effects of Exposure to Diesel Exhaust,” Current Intelligence Bulletin 50 (August 1988), available at

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/88...

·      International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Diesel and Gasoline Engine Exhausts and Some Nitroarenes. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, no. 46 (Lyons: World Health Organization, 1989), pp. 41–185 

http://www.healtheffects.or...

·      International Programme on Chemical Safety, World Health Organization, “Diesel Fuel and Exhaust Emissions,” Environmental Health Criteria 171 (1996)  

·         Vineis P, Husgafvel-Pursiainen K. (2005) Air pollution and cancer: biomarker studies in human populations. Carcinogenesis. 26:1846-1855

http://www.catf.us/projects...

·      Brauer, M et al. (2002). Air pollution from traffic and the development of respiratory infections and asthmatic and allergic symptoms in children. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, v. 166, p. 1092-1098

United States; Health Effects Institute Research Report No. 94, Cambridge MA (June 2000)

·      Dockery, D.W.,Pope, C.A., Xu, S. and Spengler, J.D., et al; An Association Between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities; 329 New England J. Medicine 1753-59 (1993).  http://nejm.org/content/199...

·         Garshick, E., Laden, F., Hart, J., Rosner, B., Smith T., Dockery, D. And Spiezer, F. (2004). Lung cancer in railroad workers exposed to diesel exhaust. Environmental Health Perspectives, v. 122, no. 15, November, 2004 

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Dairies may benefit from clean air rules

The article in the Californian this morning should read "Dairies may benefit from cap and trade or greenhouse gas reduction rules".  The article has nothing to do with clean air rules.

There is a big difference between air pollution emissions from dairies and green house gas emissions.  The methane from a dairy is not part of our air pollution problem.  The stuff they are not cleaning up like the ammonia and several kinds of volatile organic compounds listed by EPA as criteria air pollutants.

This same misconception applies to renewable energy.  Advocates of increased biomass incinerators here in the valley claim they are clean energy systems.  Nothing is farther from the truth.  They are classified as renewable energy because they burn carbon that was produced in the last 50 years in constrast to the carbon from fossil fuel.  These biomass incinerators pollute our air worse than coal burners.

We should never assume that a technology that reduces green house gas emissions is something that will also clean our air.  In the case of photovoltaic panels that is true.  With methane digestors and biomass incinerators, it is not even close.

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Have you had any gunk dripping down your throat the past couple days?

Not surprising.  We basically had the worst fine particulate levels of the season yesterday in Kern County.

We were close to twice the federal health standard for pm 2.5 yesterday and it will be worse today.

What causes it?  Diesel soot is part of the problem despite Lois Henry denials.  Another large part of the problem, that has gotten worse in recent years, is the mixture of ammonia from dairies and NOx from cars and trucks.  This mixture forms ammonium nitrate during the cooler hours of our day during the winter.  NOx has gone down because of fleet turnover giving us cleaner vehicles.  But, ammonia is double what it used to be a few years ago with the doubling of the local dairy industry.  This has to be the main reason our pm 2.5 levels have not been decreasing as predicted by our air district.  The gains from the fireplace ban and the conversion of diesel irrigation engines to electricity has been more than offset by our Supervisors' open invitation to hundreds of thousands of cows the past dozen years to take up residence in our county.

On a related note, Ray Watson has the nerve to say that last winter we had the cleanest air on record.  He says this during a public service ad paid for by the air district.  I hereby call him a liar although he probably doesn't have a clue what the carefully selected conditions were for that conclusion which he read for the camera.  The fact is last winter was one of the worst winters for average levels of pm 2.5 over the past eight years according to the Bakersfield monitor.

Is Kern County going to defend itself?

It will cost them some money because there are plenty of faults with the environmental documents.  Maybe the county approved this to appease Tejon Ranch (who paid off everyone who could be bought) but know the courts will throw it out.

In any case, it will cost the county and Tejon Ranch some serious dollars and a lot of time to straighten this thing out with the Judge.  Then the Supervisors will get to show their loyalty to the money people and approve it again.  This time around there will be even more overwhelming evidence against the project.

The lawsuit was filed today in Bakersfield court according to my sources.

As Milk Prices Rise Look for a Corresponding Increase in Local Air Pollution Levels

Of course, there will be a lag period, but milk prices have gone back to average levels for the past 5 years and dairy herds will begin to increase again after massive culling the past 12 months.

One reason for better air quality last summer was smaller herds at local dairies.  I was  eyeballing a couple freestall barns lately while driving by some local milk factories and it seems that many are half empty.  That should not be true a year from now if prices continue their upward trend. 

Too bad we can't find a more sustainable way to make money in this part of the world.  Anyone notice an increase in flies lately?

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Our local air monitors indicate violations of health standards for ozone and particulate matter today.

The graph shows how high we are, so far today, above the federal health standard for PM 2.5.  The red line is the level where damage to heart and lungs begins to be noticed.  Today, we are approaching the higher levels where warnings should be issued to parents and schools to keep kids inside.  Forget about sports for today.  The air will be much better by Friday.

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Our Air District totally miscalled the air quality for today as Moderate

The federal standard for the PM 2.5, 24-hour average, is 35 ppm but the average today in Bakersfield is going to be well above 50 ppm.  It is clearly an unhealthy air day.

We will also experience a violation of the state's 8-hour ozone standard this afternoon here in Kern County.

So, a double air quality whammy!!  And, it was all over the news last night and this morning by forecasters that today the air quality would be moderate.

You will know what I'm talking about if you go outside and view the haze (particulates).  You will really understand if you try and get some cardio-vascular exercise outside and feel the pain in your chest.  Those with even slight breathing problems are probably wondering why they are so hoarse today.

By the way, this is one of those typical days where studies have shown positive links between the poor air quality and higher hospitalization rates for heart and lung problems.

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What is the nature of our particulate problem?

This time of year begins an almost daily period of high particulate levels in the air we breathe.  Also, the problem is much worse at midnight than at noon.

The health effects are many.  Ultra-fine particulates are linked to premature death and lowered quality of life in dozens of studies because of how these tiny foreign particles can enter the bloodstream through the lungs and do damage from the inside to various aspects of the circulatory system.  Early onset of dementia has even been linked to this form of pollution.

The sources of these particulates are many.  Diesel exhaust from trucks and farm equipment gives us a steady and direct source of fine particulates which peaks during the day.  Those most affected from this source live or work within a few hundred yards of freeways. 

Another source is smoke from fireplaces.  In the city, a neighborhood full of smoking fireplaces can cause breathing difficulties to anyone with asthma or respiratory problems.  This problem peaks more in the evening and early morning hours.  This year, farmers will also not be allowed to burn on days of fireplace bans but unless you live near an almond orchard you would not be affected directly by this ban.

One other source of PM 2.5 is very predominate here in Kern County and it is indirect in nature.  This is ammonium nitrate which forms in the cool damp hours of the day from the ammonia in our air and the NOx from vehicle exhaust.  These particulates dissipate during the day when temperatures rise.   The attached graph of November 1, 2009, from Bakersfield data, shows the higher levels of PM 2.5 during the night and the lower levels during the day. 

Since our ammonia levels have increased dramatically the past few years, due to the doubling of our cow population, we have also seen a corresponding increase in PM 2.5 levels, despite rules like the fireplace ban being strengthened.  The second attached graph shows this general increase over the past several years. Year 8 on this graph corresponds to last year (08-09).

Maybe, the recent decrease in our cow numbers, due to low milk prices, will have a beneficial effect this year on particulate matter. 

Although the bad economy can lower our particulate pollution through fewer cows and traffic, it might also lead to more people burning wood for heat which could negate most of the improvement.  Either way, expect a lot of bad air over the next 16 weeks unless we a have a stormy winter.  There is nothing better than a warm fireplace on a rainy day.

Pollution helps pretty it up.  It is always special to watch the sun settle at the end of the road on the last day of summer.  Sometimes you can't hardly see the sun reach the horizon but this year we had a couple days of fresh air and the particulates haven't yet built up that much.  It will be worse tomorrow, guaranteed.

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Some Children Exposed to Diesel Exhaust Regularly

The rest of us are exposed constantly as well but children on older buses can get hit with really heavy doses as the exhaust can sometimes come right into the bus through cracks in the floorboards.

A recent study clearly links the fine particulate matter found in diesel exhaust to cancer.  We have plenty of that kind of pollution around here.  In the study they put one milligram per cubic meter of diesel exhaust into the filtered experimental air for mice to breathe.  That was enough to begin the growth of cancer cells after just a few hours.

Our air has between 20 and 30 micrograms per cubic meter of similar particles (pm 2.5) everyday in the summer and double that amount quite often in the winter.  Places near highways, like at the air monitor on Golden State Highway in Bakersfield, often measure above 100.  Not all of this pm 2.5 is diesel exhaust but it can be safely assumed that a half or more is due to this source.  The rest is usually other sources of fine soot like the exhaust from restaurant grills that refuse to put on filters and the mixture of ammonia from dairies and NOx which forms ammonium nitrate, another dangerous, ultra-fine particle.

The air is bad enough yesterday and today to cancel football and cross country practice.  It is over 100 degrees and the ground level ozone levels are on the line between unhealthy and very unhealthy.  If there were school flags indicating air quality in Kern County they would be either red or purple today.

The attached chart is from Sacramento.  I can find no such guidance from our air district but that is not unusual since they usually try to downplay the severity of our air quality problem.  Why do they do that?  Because otherwise they would have to put some real restrictions on our business and personal activities in order to protect our health.

Below is part of the instructions that goes with the chart and is apparently sent out to all schools in the greater Sacramento area.

"Ground-level ozone is an invisible pollutant and a strong irritant that can cause constriction of the airways, forcing the respiratory system to work harder in order to provide oxygen. It can also cause other health problems such as aggravated respiratory disease, damage to the deep portions of the lungs, wheezing, dry throat, headache, nausea, increased fatigue, weakened athletic performance and more.  Long term exposure can have permanent health effects including decreased lung function, possible development of diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, or a shortened life span."