The Numbers Are Clear: Smog Is on the Decline : Environment: First-stage alerts are the lowest since records were first kept in 1955. But L. A. Basin still has nation’s worst air.

In a hilly Glendora park, under drooping sycamores, mountain biker Paul Coulston squinted toward the sun to ponder a welcome stranger--the bright blue sky.

Coulston is a 23-year resident of Glendora, traditionally one of the smoggiest places in the country. In the old days, the air was so bad that the 33-year-old construction worker often had to walk his bike up hills on the rugged Angeles National Forest trails in an effort to save his breath. Now, there are fewer bad days; at South Hills Park one afternoon, Coulston did not need numbers to tell him that.

But the numbers bear him out. This year, the South Coast Air Basin, which includes the San Gabriel Valley, has posted the fewest first-stage smog alerts on record, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The district, which released the numbers last week, started tracking air quality in 1955.

“I’ve seen it a lot worse,” said Coulston, in cutoff jeans and a black T-shirt, looking north toward the clearly outlined foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. “My senses are a lot sharper when the air quality is clear.”

The basin had 24 first-stage smog alerts through Oct. 31, the end of the smog season, said AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly. That is 80% fewer than in 1977, when 121 first-stage alerts were called, the highest number since four counties were folded into the South Coast Air Basin.

A first-stage alert is called when the ozone exceeds .20 parts per million. At that very unhealthful level, the AQMD recommends that residents avoid vigorous outdoor exercise. Ozone is harmful to lung tissue and causes permanent lung damage. It may cause coughing, headaches, fatigue and respiratory problems, especially for children, senior citizens and people with heart disease.

At San Gabriel Valley monitoring stations, the number of first-stage alerts was down nearly 50% from last year. In Glendora, the number dropped from 30 to 19; in Pomona, from 10 to five; and in Pasadena, from 10 to four.

Peak ozone levels also were at a record low, with the highest reading at .28 parts per million in Glendora on Sept. 9. In 1992, the peak ozone level was .30 parts per million in Glendora.

Overall, the basin violated the federal health standard of .12 parts per million on 129 days this year, compared with 143 days in 1992.

The news is encouraging for the basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and parts of San Bernardino County, Kelly said.

“It’s good news,” he said. “It means cleaner air, healthier air for people, particularly in the San Gabriel Valley. . . . That’s the area that traditionally has had the worst pollution for ozone.”

Said Covina Mayor Henry Morgan, an AQMD board member: “Things have been going very well, as far as the actions taken in the last 20 years. You’ve got to keep in mind that had nothing been done, and had we not moved forward, this environment would be worse than Mexico City today.”

Kelly also said that Southern California’s recent wildfires--including a devastating blaze in the Angeles National Forest that charred 5,700 acres and destroyed 121 homes--had no impact on ozone levels.

“They really wouldn’t impact the traditional air pollution,” he said. “The fires just put a lot of smoke in the air and we had unhealthful levels of fine particulate matter.”

The number of first-stage alerts is dropping mainly because of the weather, recession and air-pollution controls, Kelly said. The unusually cool and windy summer--thanks to the El Nino weather effect--has meant less smog. Cloudy, foggy mornings block the sunshine, which inhibits smog formation. And the summer saw weaker inversion layers, which trap polluted air close to the ground.

Also, the recession means that industries are producing less, thus reducing emissions. Meanwhile, stricter pollution controls on businesses have helped improve air quality, Kelly said.

But the news is not all good--the basin still has the nation’s worst air. And while the number of first-stage alerts is down, the invisible ozone may still hover, even on seemingly clear days.

“It’s an improvement, but it depends on if you want to call the cup half full or half empty,” said Dr. Henry Gong, a UCLA lung expert who is studying the effects of smog on athletes in the San Gabriel Valley.

Longtime residents and workers in the valley remember the bad days, when their eyes used to burn and they could not take deep breaths without pain. In the 1960s, as a young assistant professor at Cal Poly Pomona, Allen Christensen used to wheeze his way through hot, smoggy summers while feeding the cattle, sheep and hogs on campus.

“I think there’s an improvement,” said Christensen, 58, now dean of the College of Agriculture. “If there hadn’t been a concentrated effort to improve the air quality, we’d all be drowning in our own soot.”

These days, he looks out his campus window to the mountains to gauge the air quality.

“Some days are very, very good,” Christensen said. “And some days are not so good.”

Hacienda Heights resident Wil Baca also can see the mountains more often and more clearly these days from his hilltop home. But that does not mean that the air is good, said Baca, a board member of the statewide Coalition for Clean Air environmental group.

He wants the AQMD to impose stricter regulations on businesses.

“It’s no cause for rejoicing unless we’ve done the best we can, and I don’t think we’ve done the best we can,” said Baca, 50.

Morgan recalled how bad the smog was when he first moved into his Covina home 34 years ago. At that time, he had to take frequent breaks as he worked outside on his house, digging ditches, planting a garden and installing a drainage system.

“When I first moved here, you couldn’t do a day’s work in the smog,” Morgan said. “We can really notice the difference, for those of us who have been here a long time.”

Fewer Smog Alerts

A first-stage alert means that the level of air pollution is considered very unhealthful. Through Oct. 31, the end of the smog season, the number of first-stage alerts is at a record low. Here are the numbers for San Gabriel Valley monitoring stations and selected others:

1993 1992 Glendora 19 30 Pomona 5 10 Pasadena 4 10 L.A. Basin 24 41 Downtown L.A. 0 1

Source: AQMD