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Subscribe to PrintBy Mark Grossi / The Fresno Bee
Does Southern California ozone float into the San Joaquin Valley?That's one of the questions San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District officials want to explore next year.Smoke from Southern California forest fires each summer snakes its way into the Valley, moving northwest over the Pacific Ocean and then east into Central California.So ozone might be doing the same thing, officials say, and they wonder if it is nudging the Valley into health violations."How much does pollution from other basins affect our air?" asked air district Executive Director Seyed Sadredin. "We know that most of our pollution is home grown, but even small contributions from other areas could well affect us."The Valley gets some ozone from the Bay Area on bad days, according to research in the early 1990s. But no one has studied the possibility of contributions from Los Angeles or Sacramento.As the air district gets closer to achieving federal health standards, it becomes more important for officials to account for even small pollution sources. If those sources are outside the district, officials would push the state for more ozone controls in those areas.Atmospheric scientists need to study the timing and direction of the wind, said David Nunes, the air district's air quality project planner."Maybe ozone transport happens only once a year, or maybe it happens 50 times," he said. "We don't know."Such a study would look in several directions for pollution coming into the Valley, including Sacramento."We could be getting pollution from many sides," Sadredin said.The Valley might also be sending bad air to San Francisco, Sacramento and places southeast of the Sierra Nevada. A study would have to account for Valley pollution going into other areas, officials said.The idea of Southern California ozone fouling Valley air is unexplored and largely discounted by many experts, Nunes said.But on summer days, there is a huge reservoir of ozone floating in the South Coast Air Basin, he said. The pass through the Tehachapis at the southern end of the Valley is large, and it may not be the only way into this region."It is challenging to think that pollution from South Coast could make it into the Valley," Nunes said. "But we think it is worth studying."