NOT MUCH PROGRESS ON AIR QUALITY

The Bakersfield Californian’s “Air district credits 10year drop in particulates to regulations, incentives” is an unproductive exaggeration of agency “progress” in one of the nation’s most polluted places.

Communities in the San Joaquin Valley suffer from the worst particle pollution in the nation. We are one of the most polluted air basins for ozone and the only air basin that has failed to meet the outdated 1997 federal standard for fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

Meanwhile, the Valley Air District has used numerous tricks, like moving the air monitor with the highest ozone readings in Kern County to a more favorable location, to paper over our problems. Additionally, regional air pollution monitoring data doesn’t reflect what people living fenceline to major pollution sources like oil fields or highways breathe cumulatively; regulatory monitors used to track attainment are purposely placed farther away from these sources.

Advocates have urged the district to take more aggressive actions to address this public health crisis and for transparency and accountability in its continued failure to meet health protective standards. Instead, the air district continues to promote pay to pollute schemes while underinvesting in alerting the public when air pollution is unsafe.

The largest pollution sources need to clean up their own mess, and district efforts should prioritize public health rather than industry profits. There is much work to be done, and I’ll celebrate when chronic, unsafe levels of air pollution and epidemic sickness due to poor air quality are truly eliminated, not just on paper. — Jasmin Martinez, Delano