Dairy Cares Report: April 21 deadline to apply for revised dairy
permits There’s no question that air quality regulators have a
tough job to do in the San Joaquin Valley. Surrounded by
mountains on three sides, the valley is almost perfectly
designed to block out prevailing winds and trap pollution. Long,
hot summers make the problem worse, “cooking” the basic
ingredients of smog until they can form ozone, which irritates
lung tissue and threatens our health. So even though far less
pollution is created in the valley per square mile than in the
Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, the valley has to work
as hard or even harder to meet federal air quality goals. In
this tough situation, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control District has a remarkable record of success. According
to the District’s 2010 “Report to the Community”
(www.valleyair.org), the summer and fall season of 2009 was “one
of the cleanest of recent years” for meeting federal standards
for ozone, and “the summer of 2010 was the cleane