Ode to a fading landscape

Dinosaur Fields, Kern

The Central Valley is experiencing its worst air quality and pollution in years. Between Bakersfield and Modesto, the air has been rated unhealthy every day this winter. Particulates have exceeded federal standards throughout December and January.

I drive through the Valley a lot. My dad lives up there. I see the grossly polluting oil rig zones, dirty feedlots and the giant corporate farms. The fields that are seemingly always burning. I smell the pesticide and look at the food growing in such toxic conditions and have to wonder about its effect on our bodies.

I spin my radio dial and the inner landscape isn't much better. I find myself having to choose between fire and brimstone preachers and Buck Owens wannabees. Much Fresno Bulldog football as I care to stand. But the landscape is pretty bleak and looks grossly polluted.

I imagine that this is what the whole country will one day look like when the republicans manage to get those awful regulators off the backs of american business so that they can do what they do best, unimpeded.

Asthma in the Central Valley is now three times the national average. I have asthma, it's no fun. I have written before about what has happened to the wells up there, whole towns with only toxic water left to drink from.  Read a pretty dark article about the situation today on ABC.

Regulators have targeted people's fireplaces in their homes but have not been willing to go after the industrial polluters, the feed lots, oil rigs and dairies. The 99 and Interstate 5 aren't helping matters with their truck exhaust and La Nina is keeping the air stagnant in the Pacific. A low rainfall this winter isn't helping either.

This week district officials lowered by nearly half the level of pollution they say is safe for outdoor activities.
The air district helped fund a study of 1 million residents in 2011 that found that emergency room visits for asthma and heart attacks went up when particulate pollution went up. That convinced officials that the federal government's standard, which relied on a 24-hour average of air quality, was too high. Small particulates in the bloodstream can break off plaque in the coronary artery, creating a logjam and a heart attack.
"The old level may work for Beijing, China, but we need to bring it down to where it really belongs," said David Lighthall, the district's health science adviser. "We are recognizing that the air quality is different from one time of day to another and we're trying to give people the information they need to make decisions about outdoor exercise."
The district sends advisories to schools and those signed up for email alerts, called "Real Time Outdoor Activity Risk" warnings, whenever the air reaches the "unhealthy" level so that teachers know whether to call off recess and residents can decide to postpone a jog or a bike ride. On Friday morning, for instance, some Fresno residents received an email alert at 10 a.m. working that the air was "Level 5 Very Unhealthy" for everyone, indicating the highest levels of pollution.
Just before Christmas, the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment sued the U.S. EPA on behalf of Central Valley residents alleging it has not pressed California for a viable, enforceable plan to improve air quality.
"We are going to need far tighter rules coming out of the air district if we are really going to make progress in meeting federal standards," said Tom Franz of the Bakersfield-based Association of Irritated Residents, one of the groups suing.

What a great name, the Association of Irritated Residents. Count me in. Is this what happens when you put the engineers and number crunchers in charge, the people with the debit sheets, slide rules and pocket protectors? They watch the people get sick in their real life terrarium like they are studying lab rats. Maybe we should mix in a few liberal arts majors before the place gets completely unlivable. Somebody who can compose a sonnet or two before we finally disappear.