L.A. Basin Goes Without a Smog Alert--for Now

By MARLA CONE

Aug. 14, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER

The Los Angeles region has made it to mid-August without suffering a full-scale smog alert--the first time that has happened since air quality records have been kept.

Although Southern California remains the nation’s smog capital, its worst smog day this year ranks a mere sixth nationwide.

In the topsy-turvy weather of 1999, the Los Angeles region is basking in one of the mildest summers in memory, while east Texas has suffered the nation’s single smoggiest day of the year and the East Coast is experiencing one of its worst smog seasons on record.

So far this summer, Texas City (near Galveston) has recorded the highest one-hour concentration of urban ozone--0.206 parts per million on Aug. 6, the equivalent of a Stage 1 smog alert, according to preliminary monitoring data. Nearby Houston ranks second, followed by Westport, Conn.; Galveston; and White Plains, N.Y.

The San Bernardino Mountains town of Crestline had the sixth worst day, with a peak of 0.17 ppm, high enough to trigger a health advisory but not a smog alert.

If the region’s weather holds for a while longer, 1999 will go down as the first year in probably five decades that air pollution has not reached the smog alert level anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino or Riverside counties. A smog alert means the air is so unhealthy that everyone is warned to restrict time outdoors.

Before now, not a year has gone by--at least since the 1970s and probably much longer--without pollution hitting the smog alert stage by mid-July somewhere in the basin.

“It’s been extraordinarily clean this year,” said Joe Cassmassi, chief meteorologist for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Clean beyond clean.”

Yet make no mistake about it: The Los Angeles Basin isn’t about to relinquish its title as the smoggiest place in America. When it comes to the number of days people breathe unhealthful air--arguably a more essential factor than a single peak reading--it remains worse than anyplace else.

With six weeks of prime smog season remaining, the four-county region, predominantly in San Bernardino County, has violated federal health standards on 32 days--compared with 19 in Houston, 10 in New Jersey and nine in Virginia.

“If you look at the number of days we violate the standards, we still have the worst air pollution in the country,” said Tim Carmichael, executive director of the Los Angeles-based environmental group Coalition for Clean Air. “It’s still harmful to our health to breathe the air for many, many days this year.”

The weather gets most of the credit for this year’s smog season. But smog has been in retreat for two decades, with several recent years having produced record light seasons. Smog-forming gases have declined dramatically under state and local rules that have affected cars, businesses, paints and other pollution sources.

As the Southland’s air improves, environmental officials have been watching to see if another smoggy city, particularly Houston, will consistently top it with foul air. That hasn’t happened yet. But it could happen when the West Coast is blessed with good weather.

“Your weather has been milder this year, and your pollution control strategies are paying off,” said Bill Becker, who heads a nationwide association of state air pollution agencies in Washington, D.C. “We’ve seen dramatic progress in areas like Los Angeles that have imposed state-of-the-art technologies to control air pollution.”

Texas also was experiencing a light year for smog--until last week. On Aug. 6 stagnant air hovered over the state, and winds blew pollution in from the east, blanketing much of the state with smog.

Houston and Galveston are having an average smog year, but “we’re just moving into the peak part of the season now,” said Bryan Lambeth, a senior meteorologist for the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission.

People in the Los Angeles Basin can’t breathe a sigh of relief either. High ozone readings often strike the urban areas around Labor Day.

For much of this summer, it has been almost as if someone had flipped over the United States, exchanging east for west.

A powerful low-pressure system has hovered between Oregon and Northern California, leaving California with cooler temperatures and sea breezes, and the jet stream has been shoved north, robbing the East Coast of its usual summertime storms. Also, a La Nina condition at the equator has cooled the Pacific.

The lack of stagnant conditions in Southern California has helped keep the air cleaner.

Ozone, a colorless gas that irritates the lungs, is formed when hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides react in sunlight. When sunshine is intense and a strong inversion layer traps pollutants near the ground, ozone forms more readily. When temperatures are lower and sea breezes are blowing as they have for much of this summer, smog levels tend to remain low.

“We’ve been the garden spot of the country because it’s been so cool and pleasant,” Cassmassi said. “We’ve been benefiting from the same weather patterns that have hit the East Coast with high temperatures and drought.”

Smog records have been kept only for about 25 years, but air pollution was so severe around Los Angeles in the 1950s and ‘60s that it is likely there would have been numerous smog alerts.

In recent years, the worst smog has shifted east in the basin as ozone has taken longer in the day to build up. Fumes from cars, paints and other sources contain less of the reactive ingredients than they used to, which means that the region’s peak smog has moved from the San Gabriel Valley to the San Bernardino Mountains, where prevailing breezes blow it. That leaves fewer people breathing the unhealthiest air.

With smog seasons milder than a decade ago, environmentalists and air quality officials fear that people and businesses are getting complacent. The region still faces a daunting challenge to achieve healthful air by 2010, as required under federal law.

“Yes, we’ve made tremendous progress, but we still have a long ways to go,” Carmichael said. “There are some very serious struggles going on now to figure out how we can get better.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Smog Peaks

The Gulf Coast of Texas has had the highest ozone readings in the nation so far this summer. The San Bernardino County town of Crestline ranks sixth. With about six weeks to go, this summer has been the mildest smog year on record in the Los Angeles Basin.

Area: Texas City, Texas

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .206

Area: Houston, Texas

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .202

Area: Westport, Conn.

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .188

Area: Galveston, Texas

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .176

Area: White Plains, N.Y.

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .171

Area: Crestline, Calif.

One-hour concentration of ozone*: .170