|
Tuesday April 30, 2002, 10:54:00 PM
Bakersfield, for the third year in a row, is crowned second smoggiest area of the country in an annual air-pollution report being released today.
The American Lung Association "State of the Air: 2002" study also calls Kern County the second most ground level-ozone polluted county in the United States. That's up from third place last year.
Ozone is a respiratory irritant and the primary ingredient of smog.
Kern received an "F" grade overall in the report, based on how often its air quality crossed into the federal Environmental Protection Agency's "unhealthful" category for smog between 1998 and 2000.
The American Lung Association hopes its findings will encourage everyday citizens to help rid their air of pollution, which it says exacerbates asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other illnesses more than people realize.
Central Valley residents can most help by driving less, since car emissions are about 60 percent of the smog problem here, said Janice Nolen, the association's director of national policy.
They also need to tell lawmakers and the president how important clean air is to them and encourage local policy makers to build their communities in ways that reduce the need to drive.
"We have to rethink the way we live," Nolen said.
Kelly Malay, spokeswoman for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, said nothing in the report surprised her.
She, too, hopes people will use it to make air-friendly lifestyle choices.
"It's a very useful tool for telling communities just how serious a problem air pollution is," Malay said.
The valley's air quality is improving but remains unhealthy, according to district statistics.
The region failed to meet federal ozone standards an average of 60 days per year from 1985 to 1989. It exceeded the standard an average of 33 times a year between 1996 and 2000.
The Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County region retained the title of most ozone-polluted in the American Lung Association report. The study named San Bernardino the most ozone-polluted county in California.
Nolen stressed the findings are not an indictment of local air-pollution fighting efforts since the association has no means of evaluating them.
Currently, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District officials are considering asking the EPA to upgrade the valley's ozone designation from "severe" to "extreme" to avoid sanctions if it fails to meet 2005 cleanup deadlines.
They say the change would not slow their air-improvement efforts.
Nolen said the association has heard about the proposal but doesn't know enough about it to be able to comment.