San Joaquin Valley groups fight dust pollution

If the air in the San Joaquin Valley is clean, then what's that brown haze everywhere as you drive along Interstate 5?

Community groups, public health advocates and environmentalists filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to overturn an October 2007 rule that allowed valley officials to declare victory in a long battle against the airborne dust technically known as coarse particulate matter (PM-10).

According Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that filed the suit in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, air quality monitors in the valley show that federal standards are not being met. The EPA and the local air district say that the recurring violations are natural ones that do not need to be addressed through further controls.

"At the time of the finding, we said it was either a miracle or they were lying," said Kevin Hall of the Fresno Sierra Club. "As more data came in, we became convinced it was the latter."

Much of the pollution in the valley is due to agricultural activity, such as plowing fields, harvesting crops  and truck traffic along unpaved farm roads. Agribusiness, which has been chafing under air pollution rules, is the most politically influential industry in the valley.

The region includes more than a thousand giant dairy farms, many of which house more than 1,500 cows each. Recently, the Bush administration exempted factory farms nationwide from some reporting requirements for ammonia, one of the precursors to fine particle pollution.

--Margot Roosevelt

Photo: Dairy cattle line up to feed near the San Joaquin Valley town of Lamont. State bond money designated for pollution control has financed factory farms that have helped turn the valley into one of the nation's most polluted areas. Credit: David McNew / Getty Images

Comments

[alex]

i dont get it

[Steven Lam]

Just so you folks understand, PM-10 is the larger particle. Indeed, it is dust. You have a photo of a dairy, which is equated with the smaller particle PM-2.5 problem. Ammonia from the dairy combines with the exhaust from vehicles to make a winter-time speck known as ammonium nitrate.

PM-10, which after all is what we're talking about in this blog item, is mostly dust. The problem is more apparent at harvest time in the fall. You need a photo of a tractor tilling a field or an almond harvesting operation.

[Steve Lam]

Yes. That's the point. You don't understand the difference.

[Gloria K.]

I oft times drive between L.A. and Fresno up and down Highway 99...and some times I am dancing around traffic and choosing to drive that length of the valley late at night. The heaviness of the air and the smells emanating (both 'natural' --ammonia related to cattle pens--or other nondescript 'chemical-like' smells) along that route are even more pungent at nighttime than they are during the day. Whether due to air inversion layers or heavier (clandestine?) nighttime factory emissions I do not know. But anyone who makes that drive (day or night) would seriously have to question any entity who would say something the least bit positive about the air quality in that valley.

[John]

Why a picture of a dairy? Environmentalists have to twist and turn the truth. PM-10 is dust in the air. Show a picture of dust being thrown up and maybe you have some relevancy. Almonds at harvesting are something to look at and more and more acres are going in the valley.

[Ted]

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is controlled by County Supervisors. Most County Supervisors are farmers. Therefore, the SJVAPCD will not do anything that farmers object to. In fact, they mostly lavish farmers and local industry with progams like the $50M program to buy new trucks for diesel operators. This is a goal is good, to get newer trucks on the road. Sadly the SJVAPCD turns it into a welfare program for their political cronies and only takes a fraction of the large trucks off the road that they could.

We badly need a functional EPA to hold the SJVAPCD's feet to the fire.

Maybe after January 20....

[Tom]

If you have ever seen a factory dairy in the late summertime evening you would realize the dust problem belongs there just as much as in the fields. Thousands of cows scuffling along on their dried out manure and sending up a cloud of dust with each step.

[Joe]

Instead of slamming agriculture wouldn't it be nice to actually learn and appreciate where you food comes from. I am always amazed at the vast majority of people who are uterly clueless and think that food magically appears in a grocery store. Next time you're eating thank a farmer!

[Joe Arroyo]

I'll only thank a farmer who is wise enough to care about the environment. I grew up there in the 70's and the air did not look like that. I'm not jumping to conclusions on anything yet, but isn't it great that professionals are researching this?

[Tahler]

Factory farms produce millions of pounds of dust each year-this dust contains feces, mold, and bacteria, and it causes humans who live around the farms to become ill.

It's one of the reasons why this year I've turned over a new leaf and am trying vegetarianism!