Smoggy Days Are Here Again for Valley, L.A.

The good news is the sky still isn’t falling. But the bad news is that for the first time in months, you could have seen it if it did.

Friday, after all, marked the official start of smog season, fittingly ending a week that brought in some of the dirtiest local air since El Nino’s rains started cleansing the Los Angeles basin.

The downtown skyline was in silhouette. Mountains hid behind haze. Ozone levels inched toward the level considered “unhealthful” in local valleys at midweek, after months of being in the “good air” range. From Tuesday to Thursday, the San Fernando Valley’s ozone level hovered about .08 particles per million, just under the state government’s “unhealthful” standard of .09 ppm.

Those who study air quality say it’s just the start of another normal smog season.

“We will likely return to a more typical weather pattern for the summer,” said Joe Cassmassi, senior meteorologist for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “That translates into more opportunities for smog formation.”

How sweet it was, though, while it lasted--many months of cleaner air. It was all thanks to El Nino--even the clean air last summer, a scientist says.

Last year there was only one Stage I episode, a smog alert issued when ozone levels threaten the health of those with respiratory problems and could endanger people engaged in rigorous outdoor activity.

That continued a pattern of cleaner and cleaner air. The year before there were seven such episodes. Ten years ago, there were 66; 20 years ago, there were 116.

Air in Los Angeles was so clean in the 1997 smog season, in fact, it thwarted scientists studying pollution in what is stereotypically the smoggiest of American cities. The Southern California Ozone Study, which was planning on at least 15 high-ozone days for its research, had to make do with six.

That may have given local residents a sample of what life would be with cleaner air. “You get a taste of what it can be like,” said Cassmassi. “I think that after a clean year, people become more conscious of the air not being so nice.”

In the mornings, when Bill Baker drives into the San Fernando Valley from his home in Thousand Oaks, he can literally see what kind of a day it is going to be.

“If the air is brown, I know it’s going to be tough on me,” said Baker, a Xerox engineer who suffers from severe allergies. “If it’s gray, I figure it’ll be OK.”

This past year, Baker came upon many blue skies--days when the mountain ranges that rim the Valley could be seen in crisp focus. Baker nearly--but never quite--forgot what living in Southern California has often been like.

El Nino poured more than 27 inches of rain on Southern California and caused more than $34 million in damage in Los Angeles alone, but it also cleared the air. The fresh air was a relief for many--an almost-guilty pleasure for longtime Angelenos.

But those who study air quality and weather patterns say the smog that normally blankets the region was only temporarily thrown off. Last summer’s ozone levels were lower because of the first effects of El Nino’s global weather pattern, Cassmassi said. Long before the storms arrived this winter, changes associated with the phenomenon brought tropical moisture, cooler temperatures and more-disturbed air currents to Southern California, he said.

But late this week, even the foothills faded from view. For longtime residents the opaque air brought back memories.

“When I first moved here 15 years ago, there were places in the Valley--Burbank, Glendale--that I couldn’t go without my eyes burning up,” said Baker, who was watching his 2-year-old son play on a jungle gym in Canoga Park. “This is just a normal spring day.”

Experts say this smog season should be back in line with a pattern of steady improvement in air quality since emissions controls on cars, fuels and other sources of pollution began to be instituted 20 years ago. The increase in smog levels expected this summer, said Cassmassi, is a return to normal, not a step backward.

“If not the outline of mountains, we should be able to see the tops of the mountain,” said Cassmassi. “Hopefully, somewhere down the line we’ll be able to see all of the mountain all of the time.”

Air pollution started plaguing the Los Angeles region long before industry and automobiles arrived. The Los Angeles Basin, much of it desert before being irrigated, is a natural dust trap for everything from plant-generated hydrocarbons to carbon monoxide from cars. Without rain or wind, the polluted air can hover over the city for days.

Shirley Finley of Northridge said those are the days she considers quintessential Southern California. Watching her grandchildren play across from Dearborn Street Elementary School in Northridge, Finley said she could not recall the last time she saw the inversion layer hanging overhead.

“It’s been nice,” she said. But she knew it wouldn’t last forever. Smog has been a fact of life ever since she moved to Los Angeles 22 years ago.

“I guess I’ve gotten used to to the smog,” Finley said. But every once in a while she is reminded that there are places where the air doesn’t hang like a gauze curtain.

“We spent two weeks in Colorado recently,” she said. “It was so amazing to see the sky. It was so clear. You could see the puffy white clouds. And at night the stars were so bright.”

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El Nino’s Cleansing Effect

The El Nino weather pattern resulted in the cleanest air quality year in recent memory, with only one Stage 1 alert in 1997. Friday marked the start of 1998’s smog season and meteorologists say a repeat of last year’s clear skies is unlikely. Without weather systems acting on the air, the Los Angeles Basin, particularly the valleys, act as on oven, cooking pollutants on hot, sunny days.

Composition of Smog

* Carbon monoxide: Emitted by idling vehicles. More of a problem in winter, when drivers warm up their cars in cool weather.

* Ozone: Smog’s main ingredient, a potent invisible gas formed from hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides from petroleum products such as emissions from vehicles and industrial plants, and solvents in paints.

* Particulates: Microscopic grains of diesel exhaust, smoke from aircraft, soot, dust and sea salt.

Days Over Federal Standard

In the last decade, the Valley has experienced a decline in the number of days over the federal ozone standard of .12 parts per million

178 days: 60

Source: South Coast Air Quality Management District