A blog about Health & Wellness and Kern County.
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Dust is in the Air Criminal Behavior by Air District Air Was Unhealthy For Everyone IS TAP WATER SAFE? Damaging Young Lungs Phlegm and Chest Pain AIR DISTRICT LIES Death Sentence rubber stamp on bad air Flies November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 
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What progress?
One reason given for not approving a stricter cleanup plan for the ultra-fine particulate matter we are plagued with, was the huge improvement the local air district has made since 1999. Keep in mind, we now know that we are dying, on average, 10 years earlier, than those fortunate to live with cleaner air. www.fresnobee.com/263/story/621822.html State officials said the region's concentrations of the pollutant have dropped by 45% since 1999. ...."Tremendous progress has been made here," said state board chairwoman Mary Nichols. "In fairness, the district has been doing a good job." Well, everyone knows it is easy to play with statistics in order to prove a point. Mark Twain said, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." I can play that game also. I looked at the readings taken at California and Stockdale since 1999 during a ten week period covering the months of November and December when PM 2.5 readings are often high. The federal health standard is 35 (micrograms per cubic meter) although many say that is not low enough. From 1999 to 2006 there is an improvement of around 45% in the number of days over the standard. If you go to 2007, the improvement drops to 38%. If you only look at the past five years it is shocking to see that every year the number of exceedences has increased. In 2003 there were only 13 days of killer air during this 70 day period. In 2004, 21 days. In 2005, 24 days. In 2006, 25 days. In 2007, 30 days. That is a 231% increase over the last 5 years in contrast to the district claim of a 45% improvement over the past nine years. It all depends on your assumptions and baselines. Why has the air worsened over the past five years? I can only speculate that since ammonium nitrate is the main particulate causing the PM 2.5 violations it is the tremendous growth in Kern County dairies which coincides with these same five years. Ammonium nitrate needs two ingredients in our air. NOX from cars and trucks and ammonia from dairies. Our NOX levels have actually decreased the past five years due to natural fleet turnover to cleaner burning vehicles. Our ammonia levels have skyrocketed during the same time. The attached graphs are from CARB. I have estimated the number of violations through rough interpolation where gaps appear and I have not counted with extreme accuracy those violation days very near to the standard which is the black line. The scale changes on some of the graphs as well. Although the exact numbers may be disputed, the fact our air is getting worse and not better the past five years is indisputable. Note: there are no local measurements for PM 2.5 before 1999.
CARB Does It Again
Even after the shocking news that people are dying ten years earlier due to the exact particulate problem we suffer from in Kern County and the San Joaquin Valley, CARB rubber stamped a do nothing particulate clean up plan formulated by our local good-for-nothing air district. The plan simply relies on natural fleet turnover to reduce NOX and a truck rule that the state has not yet passed and won't do anything significant for at least five more years, if at all. We will probably never see the serious plan that goes after all sources of our pollution such as VOC's and ammonia emissions from dairies and a major clamp down on sprawling development and the oil industry.
It is not dust and soot that are the major part of the problem either. It is ammonium nitrate. This fact is brushed off while everyone at the air district points the finger at fireplaces. Fireplace smoke can aggravate asthma attacks but it doesn't enter the bloodstream and destroy the heart, lungs, and brain like the ammonium nitrate particles in our air.
www.bakersfield.com/102/story/452227.html
Cleanup Plan Up for Approval by State Air Board
In Fresno on Thursday the California Air Resources Board will meet to consider approval of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's particulate matter cleanup plan. In the past they have rubber stamped every weak plan put out by the district resulting in years of delay to any significant progress in cleaning our air. New information will be presented at the meeting showing that people living in polluted places like Bakersfield die 10 years earlier on average. We will see if that information makes a difference to the state authorities this time around. 24,000 deaths per year in California linked to air pollution
Fly Solution?
If, like me, you live a few miles from several of those newly arrived factory-run-mega-dairies, you may have noticed more flies than usual during the spring, summer, and fall. These dairies weren't around a few years ago and many people around me think the flies are now worse than they used to be. I can't prove a specific fly comes from a particular dairy but I do know flies can travel a mile or two per day. It doesn't take them long to find homes to bother. Why they want to leave those manure piles I will never figure out. Anyway, I have taken to planting bulbs of insect eating plants to which flies seem fatally attracted. This spring I will have flowers blooming for about one month straight. I don't know if I can get these things to bloom in the fall but it is theoretically possible. Free fly traps like these are fairly easy to grow in any case. The only drawback is the slight odor of dead meat coming out of the cavernous trap deep inside the flower.
Are Cows Number One?
The Californian is questioning Thompson's billboard which implies cows are a major source of our air pollution. Campaign ad watch: Clearing the air on dairy pollution Sure, we have lots of trucks and cars on our roads spewing tons of NOX into our air. Diesel trucks also put out plenty of diesel soot to add to our particulate problem. But, two ingredients are needed to form smog, VOC's and NOX. One without the other is relatively harmless. Cows are the number one producer of VOC's. My car puts out less than 10 lbs of VOC's in a year. A single cow is responsible for 20 lbs. Although diesel soot, fireplace smoke, and dust help to make our particulate problem one of the worst in the nation, the major part of our particulate pollution is the ammonium nitrate that forms during the cool months of the year. This is created by the mixing of NOX and ammonia. Again, one without the other is benign. Cows are by far our biggest source of ammonia pollution. The paper cannot so easily state that Thompson is wrong when he puts up a billboard saying cows are the number one polluter. Assumptions are everything with such statements. Also, Watson not only scoffed and criticized Wasco citizens's attempt to vote for a buffer zone against dairies, he also fought against a 3 mile dairy buffer zone for all Kern County cities and schools. Corn Ethanol Wastes BillionsThe USDA says that increased biofuel production (the product we make in the
www.turnto23.com/news/16134882/detail.html
Group Files Suits Against Central Valley Ethanol Plants Irritated Residents Say Proposed Plants Aren't So Green
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Opponents of several proposed ethanol plants are clearing the air about health hazards they said the plants pose.
Members of the Association of Irritated Residents, or AIR, have filed suit to stop a corn ethanol plant proposed near Famoso.
They said toxic air emissions from both the plant and trucks going to and from the plant weren't properly analyzed in the environmental impact report.
They've also filed suit against $200 million plant proposals for Wasco and Hanford, which AIR claims would use Mid-western and not central valley-grown corn.
AIR is a central valley-based group. The president of the group is Tom Frantz of Shafter, who is a Wasco High math teacher.
Their April lawsuit against the proposed Hanford ethanol plant may delay the construction of the facility, which was to begin during the summer, according to the Fresno Bee.
Officials argue the facility will be “the cleanest plant in the industry,” but AIR disagrees.
"This issue is addressing the EIR, but what I really hope can happen is they also have more time to take another look at the big picture," Frantz said in an interview with the Fresno Bee.
A new May 1 report from the American Lung Association claims California's central valley, a more than 300-mile area in Central California that stretches from Sacramento to Bakersfield, is one of the most polluted areas in the U.S. They ranked Bakersfield as the second-most polluted U.S. city, while also giving high pollution rankings to Fresno, Visalia-Porterville and Hanford-Corcoran -- all central valley cities. In 2007, Arvin, Calif., which is just 25 miles south of Bakersfield, was touted as having the poorest air quality in the U.S.
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In Case Anyone Missed It
Poor air quality kills. People die sooner when the air is bad. Here's the latest.
From the American Lung Association Top Ten U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-Term Particle Pollution: 1) Pittsburgh, Pa. 2) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif. 3) Fresno/Madera, Calif. 4) Bakersfield, Calif. Top Ten U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution: 1) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif. 2) Pittsburgh, Pa. 3) Bakersfield, Calif. Top Ten U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Ozone: 1) Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif. 2) Bakersfield, Calif.
They Do Less Rather Than MoreYou would think improving the health of residents would be the top priority for a health agency like the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. No, saving businesses money is their goal.
Air board OKs new plan
Activists say strategy to clean up soot, debris will take too long, may not work.
04/30/08 23:54:00
The regional air board Wednesday adopted a new cleanup plan for soot and chemical debris that cause early death for more than 1,000 Valley residents each year -- but activists say it will take too long and might not work at all.
The fine particles would drop to safe levels by 2014, officials said. The plan tightens rules on fireplace burning, glass-melting furnaces and even commercial charbroilers. But the cleanup relies on pollution reductions expected from a proposed diesel truck rule that state officials have not even passed yet. About 15 activists lined up outside the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District headquarters to demonstrate, and in the board room, some wore air masks. They said that for months, they have been suggesting other options, such as advanced pollution-control technology on farm diesel engines or filters on wine fermentation tanks. The options would speed up the cleanup by at least a year, and they would be a safety net if the state's diesel rule does not produce the reductions officials anticipate. Air officials said they have included every available measure. They said oil, farming and other industries Valley-wide are expected to pay a total of $20 billion over the next six years for new equipment and technologies. "We did not leave anything off the table," said Seyed Sadredin, the district's executive director. The Valley has one of the state's worst problems with fine particle pollution, called PM-2.5, which is at its highest levels in fall and winter. Some of the specks come from fires and vehicles, but much of the Valley's PM-2.5 problem occurs when chemicals combine in the air. Oxides of nitrogen -- NOx -- from vehicles combine with plumes of ammonia coming mostly from dairies to form a chemical speck called ammonium nitrate, which accounts for nearly half the region's PM-2.5. The Valley's biggest source of NOx is diesel trucks. The state's new diesel rule could be passed in the next year, but it has met with a lot of industry opposition. The rule's reductions are not supposed to begin until 2014, the same year the district projects completion of the PM-2.5 cleanup. That worries health activist Kevin Hamilton, a respiratory therapist. "We are buckling under the weight of visits to clinics for lung problems in this Valley," he said. PM-2.5 specks are so small that 30 or 40 of them could fit across the width of a human hair. They easily pass through the lungs into the bloodstream. They can trigger asthma attacks and heart problems, and they cause early death. The state estimates PM-2.5 causes more than 1,000 people to die prematurely each year in the Valley. Engineer Alvin Valeriano, a former air district employee, said he estimates the district could achieve the PM-2.5 standard by 2012 or 2013 -- if it pushes for new technologies. District officials said they are studying the suggestions and will use them as they become feasible. But there are problems with some of the ideas, such as switching diesel farm pumps to electric power, they said. "Many farmers have no access to the electricity for their pumps," Sadredin said. After the board meeting Wednesday, activists said they had been ignored. "Once again, our local air district is delaying clean air," said Catherine Garoupa, community organizer with Madera Coalition for Community Justice. The confrontation in the board room resembled last year's fight between activists and the district over the Valley's ozone plan, which the board also approved in a split vote. At the time, board newcomers Henry T. Perea of Fresno and Raji Brar of Arvin voted against the ozone plan. They sided with activists who said the plan would delay healthy air. This year, Perea and Brar were joined by Dr. John Telles, the newest district board member, as the dissenting votes. Gov. Schwarzenegger this month appointed the Fresno cardiologist to the board as a health expert. "Is there a possibility this plan could fail?" Telles asked. "We need more contingency measures in case that happens." But the plan was supported by seven county supervisors -- representing Fresno, Madera, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Stanislaus and San Joaquin -- and a city council member from Ceres in Stanislaus County. Board member Ronn Dominici, a Madera County supervisor, said the district must meet a federal deadline this month to approve a plan or face sanctions that include the possible loss of $2 billion in road-building funds. He said improvements will be made as they become available. "This plan has to go forward," he said.
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