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Subscribe to PrintBy Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
Is the Valley air district doing all it can to clean the air? Could it be more aggressive?Five years ago, when The Fresno Bee published a report exposing government neglect in the fight for clean air, officials at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said they were doing everything possible.But judges and lawmakers disagreed. Court decisions and new state laws forced the district to make tougher rules.Today, progress is obvious: The Valley now meets federal standards for PM-10 -- coarse specks of dust, soot and other debris. Bad ozone days have dropped by half. The district had its cleanest summer on record in 2007.But the Valley, which stretches from Stockton to Bakersfield, is nowhere near meeting the latest federal standard for the smallest particles, which limits specks that can have more serious health effects. And over the past five years, the Valley has violated federal ozone limits more times than anywhere else in America.The public is alarmed. For the past four years, surveys have ranked air pollution as the No. 1 concern.Yet air officials today sound much as they did five years ago. They say they need another 17 years to clean up the ozone mess. And once again they say they're doing all that is allowed under the federal Clean Air Act.Instead of pushing the boundaries of federal law and passing the toughest rules possible, such as banning use of older vehicles on the worst smoggy days, the air district's latest ozone-cleanup plan relies on voluntary efforts by businesses, helped along with taxpayer money.Seyed Sadredin, executive director since March 2006, said the air district must balance the economy and health concerns.The district has enacted developer fees to counter sprawl and periodic bans on fireplace use to cut haze in the winter. But pushing too hard would cost businesses -- which Sadredin said have invested $42.5 billion in Valley air quality since 1980 -- too much, he said."We have some of the toughest regulations in the state today," Sadredin said. "But we always work with the businesses getting them involved in the process, give them flexibility if there are three ways to get to the same result air quality-wise. We let them choose the cheapest option, and sometimes people confuse that with giving them a free pass."Critics, though, say it is time to be more assertive. Tom Franz, president of the Association of Irritated Residents, a Valley-based activist group, says the district must assault the air problem like a public health agency dealing with a crisis.Said Franz: "Our lungs should not be subsidizing polluting industries -- developers, oil companies, big agriculture."The Valley's population has grown three times faster than the state during the past five years -- adding enough people since 2002 to fill another city the size of Fresno. These people are driving millions of new miles, adding tons of new pollution into the air.Yet air quality has improved. For the most part, residents in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties now breathe air that meets federal standards.High concentrations of pollution don't develop as often any more, and violations of the federal ozone standard over the past five years dropped from 125 days to 65."A true characterization, in my opinion, would be to say that significant progress has been made, but enormous challenges remain," Sadredin said.Those challenges include the air-quality bureaucracy. The local district has little control over the biggest problems -- engines and fuels for cars, trucks, boats, trains, planes and other moving sources of air pollution.Continued on the next page >