Houston Breathes Easier: L.A.’s Still Smog King
No matter how you measure it, Southern California is still the reigning king of smog.
Because of errors in data--including preliminary figures posted on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency web site--the South Coast Air Quality Management District last week said Houston had recorded the nation’s highest one-day smog concentration this year.
But it turns out that the San Bernardino Valley still beats Houston. It peaked at 0.24 parts per million of ozone, twice the amount deemed healthful under federal health standards, on May 11. Houston’s highest concentration of the year was 0.20 on a July day.
Texas officials reacted with horror (coincidentally on Halloween) when they heard media reports that air pollution in their largest city had eclipsed Southern California’s notorious smog, even for a single day. They checked their computerized data and concluded that the report was incorrect.
Houston, though, still ranks No. 2. The area endured 28 days this year when residents breathed air that exceeded the health standard for ozone, compared to 87 days in the four-county Los Angeles region.
Both Southern California and Houston, however, shared good news: 1996 broke records for improvements in smog.
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