Air Quality Outlook Has Local Officials Breathing Easier

With a relatively smog-free summer behind them and a bevy of new environmental programs scheduled to debut during the course of 1997, air quality officials are optimistic that Ventura County’s polluted skies will be clean within a decade.

The county still ranks among the worst areas in the country for air pollution. During 1996, Ventura County violated federal standards for air quality 17 times and the stricter California standard 79 times.

But while the hot summer usually includes at least seven days where the air is so bad the public is discouraged from going outdoors, county officials only issued one health advisory this year.

Air quality experts say part of the improvement has to do with a completely capricious factor--the weather. But it can also be traced to local efforts to reduce emissions from industrial sources and to use of the new, cleaner-burning gasoline.

Bolstered by a series of new federal, state and local programs slated for 1997, officials say the trend should continue. But nobody says it is going to be easy.

In order to achieve federal attainment goals established by the Environmental Protection Agency, the county must go three years with an average of only one federal violation a year, and it must do so by the year 2005 or face tough penalties.

That task could get more daunting. Later this month, the EPA is expected to release a set of more stringent ozone standards, which experts say will be closer to the state standard, although levels may be averaged over a longer period.

For years, Ventura County has made regular appearances on lists of the areas with the worst ozone problems. According to EPA statistics compiled between 1993 and 1995, the county is the fifth-worst region in the nation for ozone pollution, falling behind only the Los Angeles area, the desert communities southeast of Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley and Houston.

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The county doesn’t fare any better on the California Air Resources Board list of statewide communities with pollution problems.

Taking an average of nonattainment days--those days when pollutants bake in the sunlight and produce so much ozone that levels shoot pass acceptable federal standards--the board ranked Ventura the fourth worst offender in the state for the period from 1992 to 1994.

Air Resources Board spokesman Jerry Martin doesn’t mince words.

“Next to L.A., Ventura is one of the worst areas in the state,” Martin said. “Ventura has a significant air quality problem.”

Given the county’s still largely rural nature, relatively low density of industrial facilities and lack of hard-core traffic jams, coupled with those pleasant ocean breezes, the poor air quality may seem inexplicable.

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But experts point to myriad reasons for smoggy summer days.

Topography is high on the list. Simi Valley consistently has the worst air in the county. Most of the ozone violations occur there. This year’s sole health advisory was issued for Simi Valley on Aug. 30.

Tracing his finger on a topographical map of the county, Kent Field, meteorologist for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, outlines the mountains circling Simi Valley.

“It’s kind of a bowl,” Field said. “And all the pollutants get held in that bowl.”

In the summer, the same sea breezes that blow cooling air on the Oxnard Plain carry more pollutants into Simi Valley and, to a lesser extent, the Conejo Valley. If there is a high pressure system over the area--an eastern Pacific high--air doesn’t circulate much.

Trapped by the mountains, the hot summer temperatures help cook that pollution into ozone. The Ojai Valley has a similar, although less severe, problem, as do Santa Paula and Fillmore. Last summer, the eastern Pacific highs were less frequent, giving smog relief to the region.

But air quality can’t be blamed just on variables like the weather or the placement of the mountains.

According to Dave Jesson, environmental protection specialist for the EPA’s air division, Ventura County also picks up some of its air problems from its southern neighbor.

“The air mass [from Los Angeles] goes up the coast and then comes back in,” Jesson said.

There are also plenty of sources within the county that produce pollutants. First and foremost are cars, which officials estimate produce roughly half the gunk that is dirtying Ventura’s skies. Rush-hour traffic might not be bumper to bumper the way it is in Los Angeles, but there are still a lot of commuters traveling local freeways.

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“Many people in that area commute all the way to Los Angeles,” Martin said. “Even with a clean car, that is a lot of miles and a lot of pollution.”

Car-pooling remains a rarity in the county, officials say. One measure which was designed to reduce air pollution, the county government’s four-day workweek, ended this summer. But meteorologist Field said that change is not likely to increase pollution.

“All that did was save the costs of running a building,” he said.

Many county employees still drove to run errands on the Fridays when the government center was closed, Field said. Quick trips to the supermarket or the mall can actually be worse for the environment than longer drives, because the catalytic converters on automobiles barely have a chance to warm up and start working on a five- to 10-minute jaunt, he said.

Power plants, dry-cleaners, auto body shops and other businesses contribute to the problems. Miles off the coast, tankers in the shipping channel send emissions drifting through the air toward Ventura, as do supply and crew boats making frequent runs to the four oil platforms in Ventura’s seas.

Air traffic at the county’s small airports is also a factor. And things like tractors and other farm equipment add to the problem. Even something as small as a lawn mower--experts say one aging, belching lawn mower can do as much damage to the atmosphere as 40 old cars--can create pollution.

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In fighting the battle for cleaner air, officials have focused heavily on automobiles. This June, California converted to using a reformulated kind of gasoline, designed to burn cleaner. Officials said results showed up immediately, and may well explain why the county’s health advisory days dropped from seven in 1995 to only one in 1996.

“We certainly assume that the number of violations would have been a lot higher if there had not been this reformulated gas,” the EPA’s Jesson said.

Barbara Page, spokeswoman for the pollution control district, said use of the new gasoline is considered to be the equivalent of removing 80,000 cars from Ventura County’s freeways at any given time. It is expected to reduce ozone levels by about 18% throughout Southern California.

The state has also cracked down on what it calls “gross polluters,” the 15% of vehicles that create the majority of pollution problems. Beginning last summer, smog check stations throughout the county were equipped with software that allows them to send reports on the worst offenders directly to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Soon all privately operated smog stations will begin using new equipment that also measures exhaust for oxides of nitrogen (NOCs), one of the pollutants that creates smog.

“That is a big change that Ventura County is going to see, probably by mid-1997,” said Paula David, spokeswoman for the state Department of Consumer Affairs.

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David said plans to install smog sensors on highways around the state will also kick in next year. The sensors, which have the ability to both read exhaust levels and license plates from the roadside, will allow the state to track down and regulate even more gross polluters. Because the county is considered to have a severe air quality problem, the sensors will be installed on local freeways for an unspecified period of time.

Another program scheduled for next summer is expected to yield valuable data pinpointing the origin of Ventura’s polluted air. Called SCOS, or Southern California Ozone Study, the program will cover the region from Santa Barbara to northern Mexico. Ventura County has already contributed $50,000 to the multimillion-dollar program, and may put in another $50,000.

Using planes, balloons and high-tech atmospheric equipment, scientists will put together the most comprehensive set of ozone data ever produced.

“It’s going to be a big deal,” Field said.

Other changes on the horizon include improvements in farm equipment to reduce emissions, expected to be implemented by 2002, and new restrictions on lawn mowers and garden equipment that will be effective in 1997.

The county’s Air Pollution District’s air quality management plan includes an array of measures designed to reduce pollution. They range from restrictions on petroleum production, training programs for house painters and even steps like reducing emissions from commercial deep fat fryers.

All this should add up to much cleaner skies by the next century.

“We believe that by 2005 we’ll be in attainment,” Field said.

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Ventura County Smog

The chart below shows the number of days that Ventura County violated state and federal air pollution standards over the last nine years:

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Number of Number of days Number of days health federal ozone state ozone advisories standards standards Year issued exceeded exceeded 1996 1 17 79 1995 7 22 90 1994 5 15 83 1993 3 13 57 1992 1 10 68 1991 7 33 107 1990 6 18 99 1989 12 46 116 1988 21 55 135

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Source: Ventura County Air Pollution Control District