Haze Lingers as Year’s 1st Smog Wave Starts Easing

As the worst smog of the season began to ease Monday, brown haze still hovered over the Conejo Valley, children playing in Oxnard complained of stinging throats, and residents at a Camarillo retirement home were advised to stay indoors.

Pollution indexes rose to unhealthful levels Saturday and Sunday over much of Ventura County, the first prolonged smog wave to hit the county this year, said Ken Field, meteorologist for the county’s Air Pollution Control District.

Even as a high pressure system over Southern California began to break up Monday, smog levels remained elevated, particularly in the east county.

The reading on the county’s Pollutant Standard Index for Monday was 76 in the Thousand Oaks area, 73 in the Ojai Valley and 85 in Simi Valley. Air is considered unhealthful when the index reading reaches 101. When it hits 138, an advisory is issued that warns the elderly and young children to reduce activity and stay indoors.

Madge Schaefer, a former Ventura County supervisor, said driving from Ventura across the Conejo Grade to Thousand Oaks Monday was like “going into the San Fernando Valley.”

“I’ve never seen it so smoggy as it was today,” she said. “Usually with haze, it looks gray. It was brown.”

Field said pollution levels throughout Ventura County will be in the moderate range today, with slightly higher readings in the Conejo, Ojai and Simi valleys predicted. But a cold front due to arrive in Oregon today may dip down into California, bringing early morning coastal fog and low clouds by Wednesday, he said.

The cooler temperatures combined with westerly sea breezes will help disperse the smog, he said.

A high pressure system that settled over Southern California Saturday and Sunday trapped stagnant air, Field said. Combined with temperatures in the upper-80s, the conditions were perfect to produce the pollutant ozone, Field said. The pollution index reached 126 in Camarillo, El Rio and Oxnard Saturday.

Although the pollution district recorded unhealthful air in Simi Valley on April 3, this is the first time this year that smoggy conditions have persisted over several days, Field said. He said it is impossible to predict whether it is a precursor to a smoggy summer, because conditions change each year. The smog season officially begins May 1.

People in the county were finding their own ways to cope with the dirty air Monday. Arlene Bandy, administrator of the Heritage House retirement home in Camarillo, said she does not allow the 75 seniors who live there to go outside when pollutant levels rise.

“We round them up two or three times a day and tell them it’s too smoggy outside and they go back indoors. They’re really good about it,” Bandy said.

At Colonia Park in Oxnard, 7-year-old Ben Hayes took a break from a morning soccer game to rest because of the smog.

“I feel, like, a burning in my lungs,” the boy said.

Port Hueneme mail carrier David Lory, 31, pausing during a lunch break in Oxnard, said he noticed a stinging in his eyes.

“I’m not sure if it’s from the smog or if it’s from looking at numbers all day,” Lory said.