Simi Valley Holds Title It Would Like to Lose

As boosters of Simi Valley like to point out, they are a lot better off than residents of Los Angeles when it comes to air quality. But this week they learned their fast-growing city has earned a dubious distinction--it is the smoggiest place in Ventura County.

The bad news came in a report by the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District to the Board of Supervisors, which launched a public awareness campaign Tuesday to enlist residents’ help in cleaning up the county’s air.

The air district set up monitoring stations to track ozone levels in seven locations throughout the county. The highest level recorded was 0.19 parts per million, just a fraction under the 0.20 ppm first-stage smog alert level at which the air is considered unhealthful for everyone, according to federal standards.

The 0.19 ppm reading was recorded at Simi Valley High School.

Simi Valley’s location--at the eastern end of Ventura County and just over the Santa Susana Mountains from the San Fernando Valley--is the culprit, officials said.

“Simi Valley has the worst air,” said Dick Johnson, engineering manager for the district. “They don’t have the ventilation that you do in the wide open coastal area.”

The smog report--in the form of a $15,000, narrated slide presentation--says that in ozone levels, smog’s main component, Ventura County ranks third in the state. The worst ozone area is the South Coast Air Quality Management District--consisting of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties--followed by San Diego County.

Nationally, Ventura’s ozone levels are the sixth worst, after the two other Southern California areas and New York, New Jersey and Houston, air district officials said.

“Many people have a cavalier attitude. They don’t think there is a problem here,” Johnson said.

To drum up public cooperation in its war on smog, the Board of Supervisors approved distribution of the 13-minute slide show and brochures to schools, businesses and civic groups.

The campaign will attempt to reduce pollution from automobiles by encouraging people to use car pools or public transportation.

Simi Valley officials, while acknowledging that smog is no stranger to their city, are quick to point out that Simi Valley is nonetheless better off than it used to be, and far less smoggy than Los Angeles.

“Although air quality is a problem, it is improving rather than getting worse,” Mayor Elton Gallegly said.

Simi Valley exceeded the federal ozone standards an average of 52 days a year in the 10-year period from 1976 through 1985, according to air district records. But the area averaged only 39 days a year from 1983 through 1985.

And Simi Valley’s average of 39 high-ozone days for the three years compared favorably to Reseda’s average of 90 high-ozone days, according to South Coast district figures. Thousand Oaks, nearer Ventura County’s coast, however, averaged just nine high-ozone days per year during the same period.

Urban planner Pat Richards said Simi Valley’s location is like the smoggiest parts of Los Angeles County in that its mountains trap the bad air blowing in from other communities to the west.

“It’s the same as why Los Angeles has a smog dilemma,” he said. “They have the mountains on two sides.”