Local group chides Flake over air quality concerns
Senator supports EPA plan to delay ozone standards
State Rep. Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, hosted a second press conference targeting U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake for his voting record and policy stances on environmental issues including a delay on stricter air quality standards that would affect Yuma County.
“We did have a press conference just like this a few weeks ago, asking Sen. Flake to come to our community to see what’s going on, and to talk to the leaders, and the doctors, and the nurses, and the nurse practitioners, and our teachers, so he will know what’s going on in our community. We have yet to hear back from him,” she said.
Fernandez, the minority whip in the state House of Representatives, criticized Flake for supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement June 6 that it would delay implementation of a stricter ozone pollution standard.
The new maximum standard would likely cause part of Yuma County to be classified as a “nonattainment area” by the Environmental Protection Agency and adopt new regulations affecting manufacturers. There is already a nonattainment area in the county for particulates, or dust pollution.
“We need him to make sure that he votes in the way that will protect the health of our children. The environment is something that’s important to everyone, every single one of us. We need clean air to breathe and clean water to drink,” Fernandez said.
Flake’s press office issued a statement from the senator standing by his support for EPA Director Scott Pruitt’s decision to delay the ozone standards.
“Nowhere are the flaws of previous administration’s one-size-fits-all approach to regulating ozone more evident than in Arizona, a desert state where naturally-occurring ozone makes it impossible to meet the new federal mandate. That rule ought to be scrapped in favor of a workable solution that will both guarantee regulatory certainty and protect the health of Arizonans,” said Flake.
At the press conference, four local experts also appeared at the conference to talk about different aspects of air quality and how the pollution affects lives in Yuma County.
Dr. Laura Alexander, Arizona Western College professor of environmental science, said the ozone layer high above the Earth does protect the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays, but the gas is harmful to humans when it’s produced at ground level.
“How does it form? Mainly through primary pollutants, hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides, emitted from our factories, our power plants, our vehicles. Those primary pollutants enter the air, interact with sunlight, and form ozone,” she said.
In Yuma, a majority of the ozone comes from pollutants blowing into the region from Mexico or from California, with only about 6 percent originating from sources within Arizona, according to an EPA estimate. County and state officials have argued tightening the rules would hurt Yuma economically by discouraging business growth, without improving air quality.
Alexander said ozone tends to form in Yuma due to the climate.
“Those are conditions we cannot do anything about, namely lots of sunshine and high temperatures. So unless we want exceeding unhealthy air in the desert Southwest, what do we do? And that is control our (local) emissions,” she said.
As the climate changes, it will get easier for ozone to form and harder to disperse it, she added.
Dr. Saika Somjee, a pediatrician and assistant medical director of the Regional Center for Border Health, said she has seen the effect of lower air quality in her patients.
“We see the deterioration of high air quality because we have more acute exacerbations, more respiratory admissions into the hospitals due to this,” she said. “With children we see more missed school days and that affects and impacts the quality of life of our children. It’s so important that we pay attention to our air quality standards and how it is affecting our children and our families.”
A social worker and counselor from RCBH, Alex Valenzuela, said the psychological and social effects of pollution can be equally damaging, especially to children.
“Children who suffer an asthma attack, their parents are fairly apprehensive about letting them be children, and children with asthma don’t necessarily feel they can do what other children can do, and that can be very impacting on the future and what they’re supposed to be kind of getting into and achieving,” especially sports and an active lifestyle,” he said.
Also appearing was Dr. Henry Florez, a Yuma-based internal medicine practitioner.
This is the second press conference Fernandez has organized specifically addressing Flake, who is up for re-election next year, while briefly mentioning the state’s other Republican senator, John McCain. McCain was re-elected last November, and announced last week he has been diagnosed with brain cancer.