Merry (cough, cough) Christmas, Mexicali
If for some reason you were one of the few Calexico residents who woke up early on Christmas, it is very likely that you got surprised with that morning’s London-ish fog. However, far from being an enjoyable gift from nature, it was in fact a proof of the most ignorant, foolish custom from our neighbors to the south.
That Monday, Imperial County’s Air Quality Index reached the highest level I have ever remember — 507. That system allows residents to receive email alerts to warn when air pollution reaches dangerous levels. At the same time the alerts tell people what to do outdoors in case the levels make it to a hazardous stage. The system gives each every level a certain color that go from green to yellow, orange, red and all the way up to maroon. Just to give you an idea of the pollution level reached Monday, the 507 AQI had no color, meaning it surpassed the 500 hazardous threshold.
The record-breaking reading was reported at Calexico’s Ethel Street monitoring station at 8 a.m. An hour earlier it was already at 381. And according to the system all other monitoring stations located in Imperial Valley were on green with good air quality conditions.
The cause of the issue came from the other side of the border. Thousands of Mexicali residents and visitors from abroad took advantage of the great windless weather to ignite bonfires and fireworks. The only company authorized by the Mexican Department of Defense to sell fireworks reported long lines of clients on Dec. 24. But as Mexicali Mayor Gustavo Sanchez said, the wood bon fires were the main cause of the problem.
The City of Mexicali and the state of Baja California, along with Imperial County authorities launched an education campaign called “Clean Air for Mexicali” that sought to stop residents from enjoying their irresponsible end-of-year custom. Parallel to the campaign, the city announced a special operation to enforce environmental ordinances. Unfortunately, authorities were unable to enter private property and were limited in enforcing residents to extinguish their bonfires. Also, city officials asked residents to report any illegal wood sale on the streets. This effort allowed the city to seize several barrels of wood. But as we see, the call was ignored by many.
The high concentrations of pollutants along with the low temperatures caused what is called inversion when cold traps substances in the air close to the ground, causing an impact in public health. The issue was so severe that smog entered Mexicali and Calexico homes for hours while residents were asleep.
On Christmas, local residents reported and criticized the issue on social media. Some even reported health issues due to the air pollution. Most of the complainants “thanked” those burning bonfires for the problems caused. Media outlets reported an increase of hospitalization rates apparently caused by the high pollution levels.
Of course, we cannot blame the government for the issue. It is in fact that insensitive “tradition” that contributed to our already bad air quality problem. It would require tens of thousands of police officers and legislative changes to provide officials the appropriate tools to address the issue.
Sadly, New Year’s Eve weather conditions are expected to be the same as last Sunday, giving our regional environmental terrorists another opportunity to break the law and the pollution record set on Christmas.