By Linda MacKay

The Mountain Communities Town Council has written a letter to the executive director of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to request a monitor to measure the health of air along the Interstate 5 near El Tejon School. This is an excerpt:

The Mountain Communities Town Council and the other community organizations that have agreed to sign onto this letter are concerned about the air quality in our region. We are especially concerned about the air quality at one of our communities’ local schools.

This school is the El Tejon Middle School site…. The Mountain Communities Town Council and other community groups would like the air district’s assistance to get specific data on what the students and the staff at this school site are exposed to while in the classrooms and out on the playground areas.

…[T]he California Air Resources Board had a mobile air monitoring unit at a site in Lebec from February of 2006 to March of 2007. The ozone and PM 2.5 [particulate matter– Editor] measurements at that site were at unhealthy levels for several days during that time period. The number of violations exceeded many monitors’ readings in the San Joaquin Valley and the South Coast air basins.

The…community organizations are very concerned that ozone, carbon monoxide, toxic diesel soot, and other vehicular emissions could be at even higher and more dangerous levels at the middle school site. This is because the school sits at a lower elevation point, it is directly adjacent to I-5 and could potentially receive more of the pollution rising up from the San Joaquin Valley. Also there is concern that the emissions from the vehicles on the freeway have less chance to dissipate because the school is enclosed on the east and west sides by mountain hillsides.

The concern is that pollution may be contained and concentrated at the school.

Our mountain communities’ residents have only recently been educating themselves on the potential dangers of having a school so close to a major freeway. Now that we are more aware of the dangers we feel it prudent for us to find out exactly what the numbers are.

There is a potential site at the middle school available for a permanent air monitor. The school district lacks the resources to purchase or maintain an air monitor, but they have recently voted to support the town council’s efforts to place a monitor in the Lebec region. We respectfully request that the District provide and maintain a monitor to measure levels of ozone, carbon monoxide, PM2.5, and whatever parameter would best measure diesel soot.

We understand that our community does not meet your agency’s usual criteria for placing an air monitor, but due to the disproportionate amount of pollution to which our school is exposed, and the lack of a high elevation monitors south of Sequoia National Park, we feel your agency should seriously reconsider our region for a permanent air monitor. There are several planned housing developments for our area which will increase the population of our region exponentially.

As a community, how can we plan for future growth without having baseline data for air quality for one of the potential worst areas within our region? We have a responsibility to know what our children, the elderly and other vulnerable populations within our region are being exposed to before we allow more growth and potentially more pollution.

The El Tejon Middle school has a population of approximately 500 students each year. The school offers education to 4th through 8th graders. These children are vulnerable due to their developing lungs and active play outside in the playground area. The school district also allows community soccer and baseball leagues to practice and hold tournaments within the middle school’s ball fields year round.

We need data to help us understand how much we’re being impacted…[T]raffic on Interstate 5 will only increase with time and Interstate 5 is the most significant goods movement corridor in California. Our community should receive a permanent air monitor at the school site to help our school district and mountain communities understand the facts and make informed decisions…We feel confident that a monitor in our region will not only give our communities helpful information, but also provide valuable data for your agency as it strives to deliver air quality that meets state and federal health-based standards."

The letter is signed by MCTC president Eric Anderson, Boy Scout Troop 27, Pinon Pines Homeowners Association, AARP Chapter #2915, Boys & Girls Club of Frazier Mountain, Clinica Sierra Vista of Lebec, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church, Pine Mountain Club Condor Group of the Sierra Club, with copies to Jack O’Connell, California Superintendent of Instruction, Mary D. Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board and The Mountain Enterprise.

This is part of the March 07, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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