Air Pollution Has County Breathing Uneasily

Ventura County’s air, deceptively clear and often brilliantly blue, is the county’s top environmental problem 20 years after the nation’s first Earth Day.

County officials cite air pollution in the county, which exceeds federal and state ozone standards by about 50%, as a primary concern because of its potentially ruinous repercussions for people, business and industry.

“Air is something we all need,” said Thomas Berg, director of the county’s Resource Management Agency, which oversees the county’s air pollution control and environmental health departments. “It is something that affects each and every one of us personally.”

Smog, mostly caused by exhaust from cars, trucks and generators, not only causes health problems, but also hurts Ventura County agriculture, the county’s largest industry. Harmful gases in the air, primarily ozone, reduce crop yields, studies have shown.

The picture has improved in the past 20 years, partly because of creation of a local Air Pollution Control District and passage of the California Clean Air Act, officials said.

“We have reduced the number of days we exceed the standards by around half,” said Richard Baldwin, county air pollution control officer. “But we still exceed the standard about 50 days a year, and that’s still severe.”

Officials expect the air to continue to improve, at least until 1995. At that time, the county’s Air Quality Management Plan predicts, improvements in air quality will be counteracted by the increasing population of the county.

But Baldwin puts his faith in regulations from his district that will require reductions in cars on the roads and emissions from industry, as well as new alternative fuels and other technology to keep the county’s air improving and breathable in the ‘90s.

In addition to air pollution, contamination of the county’s surface- and ground-water supplies is another major environmental concern for county and federal officials on the 20th anniversary of Earth Day.

Four of the county’s waterways as well as Mugu Lagoon at the ocean’s edge are contaminated at levels considered high enough to impair animal habitats, according to a State Water Resources Control Board report.

The same report showed that the Calleguas Creek and Revolon Slough as well as Mugu Lagoon, one of the county’s largest wetlands areas, were contaminated with pesticides from agricultural field runoff. Those levels of contaminants, including the now-banned DDT, are considered unsafe for wildlife and in drinking water.

Seawater also has seeped into the county’s freshwater pools deep beneath the ground. That intrusion, which was discovered only last year, could jeopardize a major long-term drinking water source for the county.

The seawater intrusion is the result of decades of growers and cities pumping more water from the ground than was replenished through rain and runoff each year.

In addition, the level of nitrates in eight wells in the unincorporated El Rio area now exceed health standards, said Donald Koepp, director of the county Environmental Health Division. The nitrates come predominantly from fertilizers on agricultural fields, Koepp said, but some contamination also comes from leaky septic tanks.

The state is considering for the first time setting limits on the kind and amount of runoff that growers and municipalities can allow to flow into storm drains and down flood control channels such as the Revolon Slough and the Calleguas Creek, Koepp said.

On land, according to officials, the county faces problems of vanishing wetlands and the subsequent effect on endangered and threatened species.

“Wetlands and riparian habitats along stream beds are the most productive habitats in the world with the greatest diversity of species,” said John Hanlon, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist who monitors the Ventura County area. “Those are two critical habitats we’re losing now in Ventura County.”

Development along river banks, operations to remove rock and gravel, and channeling creeks and rivers to straighten them or reduce the possibility of flooding during storms are the major causes for destruction of the habitats, Hanlon said.

Destruction of those habitats and other wildlife areas in Ventura County has endangered seven species, including the California condor, the peregrine falcon, the brown pelican and the California least tern. The island night lizard also is threatened, Hanlon said.

Another concern is that the county’s landfills are filling up. Once they were set up anywhere, such as the old Fillmore city dump where residents could burn their trash in the bed of the Santa Clara River in Fillmore.

The county must have a new landfill and is now in the process of finding a suitable site, Berg said. But the real answer lies in reducing the amount of waste produced by county residents, he said.

“We are a county of 650,000 people who produce a million tons of garbage each year,” Berg said. “That is as many as 10 times the waste produced by some developing countries.”

New legislation that mandates a 50% reduction in waste by the year 2000 may save the county from disaster, Berg said. The city of Ventura, for instance, is well on its way to that goal with a curbside recycling program and plans for a new building in which waste will be separated for recycling.

The people who pour into Ventura County and Southern California may prove to be the ultimate environmental problem, officials said.

The population of Southern California, excluding San Diego County, will increase from 13 million to 18 million by the year 2000, projections say.

Ventura County’s population is expected to reach 900,000 by that year. County plans to control development and cities’ agreements to leave open space are designed to hold the area’s population to that level, Berg said.

Despite the environmental problems Ventura County faces, Berg, Baldwin and Koepp said the county has the means to control and possibly reverse its problems.

“We have been thinking and working on these issues since the first Earth Day in the ‘70s,” Berg said.