Strict Pollution Plans Approved by EPA (re San Joachin Valley)

[struggle4progress]

Posted: Oct 04, 2011 2:40 AM EDT Updated: Oct 04, 2011 2:40 AM EDT
By Jasmine Viel
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is approving California's strict air quality plans in the San Joaquin Valley.

These plans will reduce pollution, which consists of fine particles known as PM2.5, to the level required by the health based 1997 PM2.5 standard by 2015.

The South Coast and San Joaquin Valley suffer from some of the worst pollution in the nation, which is caused by myriad factors including adverse meteorology, ports activities and substantial pollution from trucks that carry produce and international imports to the rest of the nation ...

Today's actions will be published in the Federal Register and will become effective 60 days from the date of publication. EPA's Federal Register notices include detailed responses to all major comments on our proposed actions ...

http://www.kionrightnow.com/story/15609319/strict-pollution-plans-approved-by-epa

[tularetom]

1. We can see part of the valley from our deck

And some days the air looks brown. As the article points out there are a lot of contributing factors to the dirty air and no easy solution to the problem.

[Xithras]

2. Problem is, these regulations tend to target the wrong sources.

I live in the San Joaquin Valley, and arguments over smog are about as old as arguments over water. Actual research, however, points to these realities:

20% of all smog in the northern San Joaquin Valley is blown in from the SF Bay Area.

50% of all smog is generated from truck and thru-vehicle traffic on 99 and 5, and from transiting rail traffic.

Only 30% of San Joaquin Valley smog is generated from domestic sources, including local automobile traffic, farm pollution, and household sources.

Unfortunately, the California air boards are regional, and these plans tend to ignore the sources of the actual pollution. Even though the Bay Area contributes nearly as much pollution to the air in the northern SJ valley as its residents do, there are no calls to further regulate emissions in the Bay Area. And that heavy vehicle traffic on the freeways? Relatively few of the trucking companies operating on those freeways are actually based in the SJ valley. Most trucking companies are either based out of state, or are located in the Bay Area or southern California. Most of the trucking companies in the Central Valley are ag-related, only work seasonally, and aren't heavy freeway users.

In spite of these realities, virtually all of the measures aimed at cleaning up SJ valley air are pointed solidly at the residents of the Valley. We get the stricter smog requirements, our companies get shut down and our residents get pushed into unemployment, and our family farmers operate under ever increasing regulation, and for what? Even if the residents of the valley cut our pollution in HALF (something not actually possible with current technology), the actual pollution numbers would only decline by about 15%.

Valley residents have said this for years: You want to clean up the air in the Valley? Close the passes and tell everyone else to take the 101!

[Le Taz Hot]

3. THIS needs to be a seperate post. n/t

[Xithras]

4. I've posted it before, both here and in GD.

Doesn't matter. Most of the handwringers in SoCal and the Bay Area are all for cleaning up the Valley air...until you tell them that the cost of doing so needs to come out of THEIR wallet. Here in the Central Valley, we have to start paying a $12 annual "fine" on our car registrations, and our businesses have to start splitting a portion of a $29 million federal fine because of our poor air quality. The promise is that, if we clean up our air for three years in a row, the fine will go away.

I have a better idea. First, apply that fine to the Bay Area as well. Their air pollution may not exceed federal standards, but that's only because a substantial portion of it blows through the passes and Delta into the SJ valley. If THEY are encouraged to drive less, it cleans up OUR air. Second, every big truck on California highways goes through a scalehouse at some point. Start recording the plate numbers of those trucks. Whether they're from in-state or out, start sending them an annual bill...prove that you're running clean engines, or pay an annual $10 per truck pollution surcharge.

Those two items alone would dramatically improve the air quality here in the Valley. When 70% of the pollution is coming from sources that originate outside of the Valley, "solutions" that focus only on the Valley are doomed to fail. Unfortunately, the political forces in the Bay Area and Southern California take an "it's not our problem" attitude about it. Just look at the huge fight and deal making required to get the Bay Area to participate in Smog Check II. They fought against it for years because THEIR air was clean enough, and they didn't want to shoulder the cost of additional emissions regulations that would primarily benefit the Central Valley. It took some real arm twisting and eight years of trying, but Dennis Cardoza finally got Burton on his side and pushed it through.