Stage 1 and 2 Alerts Usher In Smog Season

A high-pressure weather system ushered in the 1985 smog season Saturday as the Corona-Norco area recorded the worst air quality in Southern California in 1 1/2 years and first-stage alerts were called in central and northern Orange County.

For most of Saturday, smog experts said, La Habra had the worst air quality in the region, with pollutant levels teetering close to a second-stage alert. By late afternoon, the smog in Norco and Corona reached the Stage 2 level--the first time that has happened at any Southland air monitoring station since September, 1983.

South Coast Air Quality Management District officials said that the first- and second-stage smog conditions, expected to return today, are considered unhealthful for everyone and that the young and elderly should stay indoors and curtail activity.

“This really is the start of the smog season this year,” said Jim Birakos, AQMD deputy executive officer. “It’s always about mid-April when it hits.”

Forecasters said areas of northern and central Orange County as well as parts of the Saddleback Valley will be hardest hit today with Stage 1 smog episodes.

“We recommend persons who are very young and very old and all those who feel sensitive to the problem remain indoors and avoid strenuous activity,” Birakos said. “If this were a school day, we would have recommended (that) regular activities through the high school age--the normal games and playground activity--be canceled.”

Three Categories

Smog levels are measured on a pollutant standards index, or PSI, and classified into one of three categories. Air quality is considered good when the PSI measures 100 or below. A PSI of 101 to 199 is regarded as unhealthful for people who are especially sensitive to smog.

A first-stage alert is declared when the PSI registers between 200 to 275--a level regarded as unhealthful to everyone. A second-stage alert is called when the PSI measures between 275 and 399. The district advises that children and the elderly curtail outdoor activity and remain inside during first- and second-stage alerts.

Theoretically, a third-stage alert would be called and various emergency measures taken if the PSI reaches 400 or above, but that has never occurred in Southern California, Birakos said.

When there is a second-stage alert, the AQMD advises businesses with 100 or more employees to organize car pools and urges certain industries to cut back their production. Other measures to reduce sources of air pollution also are enforced.

The highest smog levels in Orange County were recorded in La Habra, where the PSI was 270, an AQMD spokeswoman said. She said other areas with heavy smog included Anaheim and Santa Ana, with 210, and the El Toro and Saddleback Valley regions with 235. Costa Mesa, by contrast, had relatively clean air, with a reading of 83.

In Corona, in Riverside County, the PSI went higher, reaching 275 by mid-afternoon. “It must be (bad),” said Corona Police Sgt. Art Delacruz, who had just returned to the police station after three hours on patrol. “My eyes are burning.”

According to Birakos, the smog season usually begins in April. “The sun is quite strong, the rays of the sun are more direct, the day is longer and you have stagnation and a lack of strong winds,” he said. “The contaminants are sitting around being cooked by the sun.

“The problem we have today is an ozone problem. It’s the end result of a reaction that takes place in the atmosphere with hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen that is primarily from motor vehicles and industrial sources,” Birakos said. “Because of the strong sunlight and lack of winds, we will be in that kind of a weather condition through summer in this basin.”

The high-pressure system brought warm temperatures to many areas Saturday, although coastal areas remained cool. Highs for the day included 86 in El Toro, 63 in Newport Beach, 74 in San Juan Capistrano, 93 in downtown Los Angeles and 100 in Burbank. First-stage smog alerts were declared in 10 areas in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.

Today’s weather and smog conditions are expected to imitate Saturday’s, forecasters said, but the high-pressure system will wander east beginning tonight, leaving behind low clouds, fog and temperatures dropping to the mid-80s on Monday.