Reported by Patric Hedlund

Air pollution visibly rolls up the Grapevine from the San Joaquin Valley in this camera phone photo by Linda MacKay on Monday, Nov. 5 at 2:45 p.m. At the far right is El Tejon School. Scott Nestor of the air pollution control district has confirmed the photo shows pollutants rising into the mountains from the valley.

Lebec residents have recently expressed surprise to learn that air quality in their area has been tumbling below air quality found in sections of the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles, because of the combined impact of unhealthful San Joaquin Valley air rising upward and emissions from Interstate (including the increasing diesel-powered big rig traffic). One in five San Joaquin Valley children are now diagnosed with asthma or lung problems. Children in Arvin, Tejon Ranch’s neighbor at the foot of the Grapevine, have a one in four chance of being diagnosed with such ailments. Arvin has been named the town with the dirtiest air in the entire United States for all three of the past three years.

Linda MacKay (president of the Mountain Communities Boys & Girls Club and a member of the Mountain Communities Town Council) has asked the El Tejon Unified School District board to seek an air monitor to be placed at El Tejon School, which has playing fields within 100 feet of the I-5. Current ETUSD board chairperson Paula Regan strenuously rejected that request in an emotional response. No vote was made on the item. Town Council members have opened a call to all community organizations to join with them in seeking such a monitor.

In a forum hosted by the Town Council on October 23, Jane Williams of the California Communities Against Toxics said that there is a good likelihood that the lovely 1939-era El Tejon school site may be an unhealthy school location. "You’ll have to move the school," she said upon hearing the proximity to the interstate, "you can’t mitigate a school that is that close to the freeway." Scott Nestor of SJVAPCD said he did not know of any way children on the playground could be protected from pollution effects.

The California Medical Association called for aggressive action to improve air quality in the San Joaquin Valley last week. The CMA’s call for urgent action was combined with a call to reduce diesel pollution. Comprised of tiny particulate matter that lodges in the lungs and heart, diesel pollution can do irreparable damage. It is especially harmful to young children and elders.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell issued an alert in 2005 saying that the evidence has become conclusive that schools close to freeways have children with more lung ailments, impeding academic performance. He advised that no further schools be built in such areas.

Read related article: Ban on Use of Wood Stoves and Fireplaces Begins

This is part of the November 09, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.