‘Severe’ Smog Rating Gloomy News for S.D.

The most recent word from the federal Environmental Protection Agency probably had more emotional kick than news value, but there it was, a new label for San Diego:

The region has a “severe” smog problem, one of nine areas in the United States so labeled for its high levels of ozone, which is one of the two key ingredients to smog, the EPA announced.

It’s the first time that the EPA has attached smog labels to describe the quality of air basins around the country.

Ironically, the new smog semantics come at a time when San Diego’s air quality is improving somewhat, local officials point out.

Only one region in the country has an “extreme” smog problem: Los Angeles and its surrounding counties of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino.

The labeling of San Diego as a “severe” smog city comes in the wake of amendments to the federal 1990 Clean Air Act in which Congress told the EPA to label the cities based on air quality monitoring and the number of days--and to what degree--a particular region’s air quality exceeded federal standards.

Depending on how the cities were categorized, they have to implement certain actions to improve their air quality.

San Diego’s air hasn’t necessarily gotten worse in recent years to deserve its label, acknowledged EPA spokesman Al Zemsky in San Francisco. “But the cities are now being put into cubbyholes,” he said, for clarification purposes, and San Diego found itself in the Top 10 for smog, a title it just as soon would not have.

“We’ve always known how we stood in the smog rankings,” said Andrea Korogi, vice president of government affairs for the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. “We don’t like to see the label, though.”

Despite the label, San Diego’s air quality has in fact improved somewhat over the past two years, thanks mostly to favorable weather, noted Bob Goggin, spokesman for the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District.

The number of smoggy days in San Diego this past year that have triggered unhealthy air quality alerts is down about 25% from the previous year, Goggin noted, reflecting a three-year trend of better air.

This past year, for instance, “we had an overcast summer--so there were fewer days when smog could be made--and we had fewer Santa Ana conditions to bring down the (smog) influence from Los Angeles,” Goggin said.

Indeed, about 40% of San Diego’s smog is blamed on Los Angeles air heading south into San Diego, he said.

So far this year, San Diego has had 25 days when its air quality exceeded federal air standards, down from 39 days at the same time last year. It’s a factor of weather more than anything else, he said.

Based on tougher state air quality standards, the San Diego region so far this year has had 100 unacceptably smoggy days, against 139 at the same time last year, Goggin said.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of the year will be good. The weather is the kicker,” he said.

The other regions of the country that share the “severe” label because of excessive ozone are Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, New York-New Jersey-Long Island, Los Angeles-Riverside-San Bernardino (a separately identified air basin without including Orange County), Baltimore, Philadelphia and Ventura.

Beneath the “extreme” and “severe” levels of bad air quality are “serious,” “moderate” and “marginal.”

Other California regions with “serious” air quality problems are Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley.

When looking only at levels of unacceptable levels of carbon monoxide--the chief partner with ozone in creating smog--the worst category is “severe,” and it is claimed only by the Los Angeles South Coast Air Basin.

For carbon monoxide, San Diego is one of 41 cities with a “moderate” problem.

Goggin said there was “no surprise” in San Diego’s ranking for ozone. “The state already had identified us as ‘severe.’ Our (ozone) numbers have been out before. The EPA announcement isn’t really new, from that point of view. We’ve been saying it ourselves for some time, that the EPA considers us one of the cities with the worst pollution in the country.”