Yuma sees mixed results in ‘State of Air’ report

County one of 4 in Arizona given ‘F’ for pollution

Yuma County got mixed results from the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report for 2018, but the report contained good news along with the bad, according to Arizona’s top air quality official.

The county was one of four in the state given an “F” for ozone pollution, along with Maricopa, Gila and Pinal, but all four had fewer high-ozone days than in the last report, said Timothy Franquist, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s air quality division.

And while state and local officials have been fighting federal standards under the Clean Air Act that penalize Yuma and other areas where most of the pollution is blown in from elsewhere, he said the report offers a good overview of air quality issues throughout the state and nation.

“It is representative of what people breathe every day, regardless of the sources or where it’s coming from,” he said. “For the Yuma area, the unfortunate part is, to the best extent we can determine from our monitor in San Luis (Rio Colorado), Mexico, that ozone is being transported from our international neighbor.”

The 2018 report found that Yuma County had a total of 19 days of high ozone

from 2014 through 2016, versus 22 during the period of 2013-2015, which was covered in last year’s report.

Ozone is a harmful substance formed when sunlight interacts with certain gases in the atmosphere, mostly from manmade sources, though in Yuma’s case organic sources are also a factor.

Studies have found it to be associated with both immediate health effects such as wheezing, coughing, asthma attacks and respiratory infections and cardiac effects, as well as longer-term risk of premature death from heart and lung disease, the report says.

Late last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared a section of Yuma County, concentrated over the western side of the city of Yuma, as an ozone “nonattainment area.”

The area is therefore subject to additional regulations which make it more difficult for factories or power plants emitting large amounts of ozone to locate or expand there.

Officials are hoping to limit the economic damage from that designation by getting an exemption from portions of the Clean Air Act, which invokes more stringent restrictions as time goes and the area stays in nonattainment mode, as determined by standards set by the EPA.

Federal and state air quality officials suspect that most of Yuma County’s ozone is caused by gases blown in from northern Mexico and southern California.

The U.S. has no way of regulating pollution that comes from outside the country, but Franquist said ADEQ efforts to prove Mexico as the source of Yuma’s ozone problems could also help Mexicans.

“Our counterparts in San Luis, Mexico have been very appreciative of having that monitor there, because they did not have that data previously, to be able to approach their federal government to ask for resources, hopefully to bring their air quality into better shape,” he said.

The State of the Air report analyzes air quality data from across the United States for two air pollutants, ozone and PM2.5. Researchers developed rankings based on hourly ozone concentration data and daily average concentration for PM-2.5.

Those statistics were used to assign grades to each county and to rank each metro area within the country based on these pollutants. The Yuma metro area includes the entire county, and was named the 58th most ozone-polluted city in the country.

The Phoenix area is No. 8 on that list; eight of the other top ten cities are in California. The Tucson area placed 54th.

The whole state fares better under the report’s analysis of particulate pollution, with every county getting a passing grade from the report.

The particulate pollution the State of the Air report concentrates on is different from the PM-10 matter for which a larger part of Yuma County is also in nonattainment for under the Clean Air Act.

This is because the particles are even smaller than the dust-sized matter Yuma is primarily dealing with. “While our lungs can begin to work out that PM10 particle, the dust-size particle, it won’t make it as far down in the lungs, and so your natural lung functions can begin to work that out,” he said.

He stressed ADEQ is still striving to have all parts of the state meet Clean Air Act regulations.

The American Lung Association says in the report that nationally, ozone pollution was significantly worse in 2014-16 due to climate change leading to higher temperatures, which promote ozone creation. On the other hand, PM-2.5 pollution improved, which it attributed to cleaner power plants, vehicles and combustion engines.

The report’s tips for people trying to reduce their exposure to ozone and particle pollution include:

• Pay attention to forecasts for high air pollution days to know when to take precautions;

• Avoid exercising near high-traffic areas;

• Avoid exercising outdoors when pollution levels are high, or substitute an activity that requires less exertion;

• Do not let anyone smoke indoors and support measures to make all places smokefree; and

• Reduce the use of fireplaces and wood-burning stoves.