Central Valley wood-burning residents face
restrictions ahead. Residents of Fresno, Bakersfield and Modesto will need
to check whether they can burn wood or other solid fuelNovember
through February. Each day, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control
District, which spans eight counties, issues a forecast either advising
residents that "wood burning is prohibited" or asking them to "please burn
cleanly."
When the forcast prohibits wood burning, there are only
two exceptions: if the residence does not have access to a natural gas
service or if burning solid fuel is the sole source of heat for the
residence.
Clean-burning
Tips
Ensure firewood is clean, seasoned and dry
before burning it. Unseasoned wood smolders and creates additional
emissions.
Never burn trash, magazines, newspapers,
plastics or other materials not designed to burn in fireplaces or
stoves. Doing so is illegal and hazardous.
Replace old solid fuel-burning equipment
with cleaner EPA Phase II-certified or pellet-fueled devices. Or install
natural gas or propane devices, which are not subject to Air District
wood-burning rules.
For an ambience fire in an open fireplace,
a manufactured firelog may be a cleaner alternative to wood.
Too Many Counties Have Dangerously High Air
Pollution Levels The State of the Air: 2008 report
shows that an estimated 42.5 million Americans – nearly 15% of the
U.S. population – live in 34 counties with unhealthful levels of
both ozone and particle pollution. Cities ranking among the worst
in the nation for both pollutants include (in the west): Los
Angeles, CA; Bakersfield, CA; Fresno, CA;
Hanford, CA; Visalia, CA MOST POLLUTED BY SHORT-TERM PARTICLE
POLLUTION (24-HOUR PM2.5) Fresno-Madera ranks 3rd.
MOST POLLUTED BY YEAR-ROUND PARTICLE
POLLUTION (ANNUAL PM2.5) Fresno-Madera ranks 5th.
25 MOST OZONE-POLLUTED
CITIES Fresno-Madera ranks 4th. 25 COUNTIES MOST POLLUTED BY SHORT-TERM PARTICLE
POLLUTION (24-HOUR PM 2.5) Fresno ranks 3rd. 25 COUNTIES MOST POLLUTED BY LONG-TERM
PARTICLE POLLUTION (ANNUAL PM 2.5) Fresno ranks 7th.
25 MOST OZONE-POLLUTED
COUNTIES Fresno ranks
6th.
At CBS News Video, type
Valley of Pollution in the Search Videos box to go to the video.
Outside of Los Angeles, this
stretch of farm land and small cities has the worst air pollution
in the United States.
One child in six has
asthma--more than 3 times the national average. Air quality
flags go up each morning at schools telling kids how safe it is to
breathe. Efforts to clean up the
air are underway, but they'll take years--not soon enough to let
this generation breathe easy.
On days like
this, the air is so dirty here you can almost see the thick air
you're breathing. The hot gases are trapped in the Valley and baked
in the sun, creating a dangerous mixture. Sprawling suburbs, busy
roads and intense agriculture all foul the air.
Healthy Air Living Chats coming to a city near
you!
Free events give residents
meet-and-greet opportunity, tools for lifestyle changes. This
summer, the Valley Air District is holding a series of casual, free,
evening receiptions to give the general public the opportunity to
interact one-on-one with Air District staff and learn about ways they
can live a Healthy Air life.
(Dates on San Joaquin Valley
Air Pollution Control District web site)
San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District. Includes information about air
issues in the District, and links to press
releases and recent news. The District provides webcasts
of Governing Board meetings and
Citizens Advisory Committee Meetings on the days these meetings are
held. To view a webcast, click on the webcast link for that
meeting.
Under the category of Programs, information for students
is provided, including "Welcome to Blue Sky, Brown Sky...," the San
Joaquin Valley's first air quality curriculum designed to inform
educators and teach student about air pollution and the effects it has
on Valley residents. The curriculum is free. Teachers can also request a
speaker to come to their classes.
News Release -
Sixth wood-burning season ends (pdf)
Valley Clean Air Now. San
Joaquin Valley Fact Sheet, Ozone Fact Sheet, Particulate Matter Fact
Sheet, Air Pollution Q&A, Valley Air Quality Forecast, Grants,
Applications, Grant Recipients, News & Photos, Photo Gallery,
Business Recognition Program, Recognized Businesses, Tune In & Tune
Up, Energy & Clean Air Business Expo.
Earth
Justice. Court Orders Clean Air Backstop Measures for San
Joaquin Valley EPA ordered to end delays on San Joaquin Valley air
pollution contingency measures
OAKLAND, California - July
6, 2006 - Earthjustice and clients Medical Advocates for Healthy Air,
Sierra Club, and Latino Issues Forum earned a victory for clean air
protection Wednesday afternoon when a US District Court judge ordered
EPA to promulgate long-overdue pollution control measures.
These
measures, called contingency measures, are required under the federal
Clean Air Act as a backstop to protect public health should the Valley
fail to meet major milestones in cleaning up air pollution.
"This
was an open and shut case. We went in with EPA admitting it had failed
to do its job. But EPA wanted the Court to say it was okay to keep
dragging its feet on the development of these measures. The Court
rejected EPA's arguments out of hand," says Paul Cort, attorney for
Earthjustice who argued the case last week. More.
Fresno,
CA: Where Breathing is Like Smoking Without Filters (Sierra
Club).EPA Gives Polluters More Time to Clean Up, While Asthma
Victims Continue to Suffer. Being Hispanic and living in the San Joaquin
Valley in California can be dangerous to your health.
In fact,
simply breathing in this area, one of the country's richest agricultural
regions, is as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and for
Hispanics, who live in the midst of some of the worst pollution, those
cigarettes have no filters.
Jetstream, the
National Weather Service Online Weather School in conjunction with NOAA,
introduces students to meteorology in easily understood
terms.
Project
A.I.R.E. offers K-12 resource materials, grants, and teacher air
quality training opportunities.
For
Kids Ages 7-10 What should you do when the Air Quality
Index is orange? Let the chameleons K.C., Koko, and Kool, show you
how EPA measures pollution in the air. What is the AQI? Air Pollution and Health. Clean and
Dirty Air. Games. What Can I Do?
For
Kindergarten and First Grade When is the best day to go
outside and play? Buster Butterfly shows you when the air is clean
and it's good to play outside and when you should stay inside to
play.
Smog City is an
interactive air pollution simulator that shows how your choices,
environmental factors, and land use contribute to air pollution.
In Smog City you're in control so your visit can be a healthy or
unhealthy experience depending on the decisions you make. You'll
see how ground-level ozone, the biggest part of summertime smog,
increases or decreases when you spend a day in Smog City. And
since ozone can irritate respiratory systems, cause breathing
difficulty, coughing, and chest pain, knowing how and why ozone
forms and what you can do about it is important to the residents
of Smog City and everyone else on the planet.
Planet
Polluto suffers from the ravages of air pollution. The
Pollutonians do not realize the decisions they make every day have
an effect on their environment. They drive polluting cars
everywhere, build huge cities with no public transportation or
bike lanes, and use emission-forming consumer products like
hairspray and spray paint in huge amounts. All these things
contribute to the horrible air pollution problem engulfing the
planet. This Web site will
allow you to meet some of the residents of Planet Polluto. You can
also take a few of the classes offered at the Air Academy, learn
about the Air Quality Index (AQI) and explore the
planet.
MOST POLLUTED BY SHORT-TERM PARTICLE
POLLUTION (24-HOUR PM2.5)
