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30 Comments to "The Most Polluted Cities in the United States"
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SenorMysterioso
May 2nd, 2008 at
12:40 pm
Cmon Cali clean up your state already. Two UT cities in the top ten was a surprise to me. Im glad Denver hasnt made the list in a while
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Carson
May 2nd, 2008 at
1:14 pm
Ah, yes, the infamous reports that Pittsburgh is the sootiest city. Quite surprising when you actually live here and see very little in the way of smog downtown.
The State of the Air report, if I recall correctly, is comprised of readings from an array of air sensors in the area, and the highest measurement dictates the city’s pollution level. One of the Pittsburgh area sensors is in a valley with the largest coke works in the nation in Clairton (~15mi SE of the city). Hardly representative of the city, but it gets lumped in with us.
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consciousj
May 2nd, 2008 at
1:25 pm
Cali being the most polluted is what lead them to starting up all their eco-friendly laws. kind of like the american mentality: don’t do anything until things get really bad.
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Matt Blank
May 2nd, 2008 at
1:28 pm
I can vouch for the SLC rating. In fact, we should be on the top of the list. Mostly its from all the cars due to the absence of any sort of public transit system. The fact that the little public transit we do have runs entirely on diesel doesn’t help. During the winter we have a cold inversion where, because SLC is in a mountain valley, the cold air settles into the bowl and warmer air passes overhead. Because of this, all the smog fills up into the valley and gets really unhealthy. It takes a natural wind storm to clear it out and break the inversion that can sometimes last 3 weeks or so. Ick.
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otterly
May 2nd, 2008 at
1:43 pm
Even in the early 80’s when I was a kid the smog was terrible. I remember some days the air in Los Angeles was so bad you couldn’t see across the street. My lungs would hurt when I took a deep breath after playing outside all afternoon. L.A. has been progressively turning into a deeper shit hole year by year. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
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sean
May 2nd, 2008 at
1:57 pm
Let’s also remember that CA has 1/8 of the US population. (Just under 38 million people in CA) That’s a lot of people’s pollution concentrated into one state. Of course there will be problems. Just imagine how much worse it would be if CA didn’t have so many commuter lanes, public transit light and heavy rail, and low or zero emission fleet vehicles.
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OddNumber
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:00 pm
I found Carson’s comment about Pittsburgh interesting. I live in the DC area, but grew up in Pittsburgh, and have noticed much worse pollution in the DC area. I’m not surprised to hear there is a bias in the Pittsburgh measurement based on geography.
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MightyCow
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:07 pm
Several of the large pollution areas in CA are in the central valley - a huge agriculture center. You have all the pollution from food production and processing, all the tractors and crop dusters, all the animal waste, all the pollen, all the pesticides, and to top it off, it’s nestled in a valley, so the mountains tend to keep the pollution trapped.
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visiting from california
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:08 pm
Little known fact: 1 in 8 Americans live in California
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anon
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:10 pm
Could we have a list of the cleanest cities too?
Or perhaps a list of the cleanest cities near these crappy cities? There is a lot to do in LA, but if the cleanest town is Podunk City, MI, I’d rather have the dirty lungs. -
Another Dave
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:20 pm
I live in Visalia (No. 5 on list two and No. 3 on list three), which is between Fresno (No. 3 on list one, No. 8 on list two and No. 5 on list three) and Bakersfield (No. 4 on list one, No. 3 on list two and No. 2 on list three), and I need to correct a misconception:
The reason the air is so bad here is because the San Joaquin Valley is bounded by the Sierra Nevada on the east and the El Diablos on the west, and they meet in the south, basically forming a very deep basin that is the world’s largest valley. When the valley floor heats up an inversion layer forms and the air that’s here is trapped. It’s not that we’re creating more pollution than the rest of you, it’s that your pollution is spread to the rest of the world while we have to live in our own filth.
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bean
May 2nd, 2008 at
2:49 pm
I’d be more inclined to accept this if number 10 wasn’t four entire states.
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Monique
May 2nd, 2008 at
3:15 pm
I took a class at CSU Fresno from a prof who’s specialty was air pollution last year. Not only is the San Joaquin Valley holding in the pollution that is generated here in the central valley, but at the northern end of the valley is…the San Fransisco Bay area. All the pollution generated by San Fransisco, Oakland, Richmond, Berkley, etc. all gets swept into the valley by southerly winds. Also, you must consider the size of the Californian economy.
1. The economy of California is a dominant force in the economy of the United States, with California paying more to the federal system than it receives in direct monetary benefits
2. California is the world’s fifth largest supplier of food and agriculture commodities.
3. California is responsible for 13% of the United States’ gross domestic product (more than any other single state).
4. California has between the 7th and 10th largest economy IN THE WORLD.
It’s no wonder California struggles with pollution and why we’re at the forefront of trying to decrease it not only in our state, but across the nation.
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jeff d
May 2nd, 2008 at
4:06 pm
i remember learning in school that the air turnover rate for the San Jouaquin Valley was something along the lines of every 300 years. meaning it takes that long for the air in the valley to be replaced so it’s a scary thought. i grew up there and although my NYC allergies are pretty effed up i can barely breathe when i visit my family there. all the factors mentioned above by others lead to a pretty lethal combo. the cities mentioned here are all also relatively small and far apart. Fresno, the largest, has a population of less than 500,000 and Visalia less than 120,000. these cities are also fairly spread out with lots of green space within city limits. it’s the agricultural production that causes the high particle and ozone counts combined with the inversion layer and low air turnover rate.
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Alex
May 2nd, 2008 at
4:11 pm
A few readers astutely pointed out that California is big (in terms of economy and population). While that’s true, Fresno and Bakersfield aren’t exactly big cities - yet they rank in the top 10 of most polluted cities in the US.
I think MightyCow has a good point: the particular geography of these areas may contribute to their high level of pollution.
I’m not clear, however, why agriculture is a bad polluter - I thought that manufacturing would be the main culprit.
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CheeseDuck
May 2nd, 2008 at
4:14 pm
Agriculture is a bad polluter due to the waste produced by animals.
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Alannah
May 2nd, 2008 at
4:22 pm
Oddly, my city is not on here. Sure, we’ve only 250 people, and we are out numbered by cows, but when the wind blows the smell of the city lagoon into the yard, I’m sure we beat all these other cities in terms of pollution.
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Califor n i a
May 2nd, 2008 at
4:37 pm
To refute your point about California needing to clean up its act… We’re trying…
“Toyota, General Motors and seven other automakers filed suit on Tuesday to block California’s new greenhouse gas regulation, which was approved by the state in its final form in September.”
…but other interests are successful in shutting us down.
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Mizu
May 2nd, 2008 at
5:08 pm
Woohoo! We’re number 4!
And 3!
And 2!No wonder I can’t breathe well. T_T
I knew it was bad, but geez. And it gets HOT here, too. Hello sweltering heat and lack of usable oxygen! -
shecky
May 2nd, 2008 at
5:34 pm
As noted, pollution in CA is the reason for all the stringent environmental laws in the state.
Anybody who lived in L.A. 25 years ago can attest to the kind pollution it had. What’s remarkable today is that there’s less pollution, more population and automobiles than ever, and continuing high and diverse levels of industry.
The Central Valley areas (Bakersfield, Fresno, Porterville, Visalia, etc) seem to suffer from high levels of things like plain old dust from agriculture. Not to mention the more obnoxious like animal wastes, fertilizer runoff and such. In addition, there’s also significant oil pumping/drilling/refining in the area. Geography makes all those things worse.
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ty
May 2nd, 2008 at
5:49 pm
more interesting would be if it were per capita.
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LexicalConverter
May 2nd, 2008 at
5:56 pm
Since it’s missing, I’d really like to know why St. Louis gets 20% ethanol fuel all summer, pushing prices past $4 a gallon(already!) and making gas mileage drop to nothing…they say it’s because we’re one of the most polluted cities in the US…I smell political BS.
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otterly
May 2nd, 2008 at
6:48 pm
I have to tell you the truth about L.A. though. When I lived there I had this old freakin wrecked hoopty Ford Fairmont. This things would not pass smog (unless I paid the Vietnamese 50 bucks)..
So the state of California bought that piece of crap for 1000.00 from me so I wouldn’t have it on the streets anymore.. Only rule, car gots to run and can’t pass smog.
now that was pretty sweet. -
smallerdemon
May 2nd, 2008 at
10:46 pm
Congratulations to my hometown of Cullman! Finally you are famous for something! Way to go guys!
*idiots*
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Barbwire
May 3rd, 2008 at
12:46 am
Another voice from California here. When I was in high school in the late fifties, the smog was so bad that going into the pool gave us such a double whammy of smog and chlorine many of us got sick. Terrible headaches were common. We lived east of LA, and the prevailing winds blew all the smog our way, where it made its home, held by the surrounding hills. Just some more history to show why we work so hard to clean things up. After all, you can’t beat the climate, scenery, etc.
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Divine
May 3rd, 2008 at
2:16 am
Hmm, results turn up interesting and quite unexpected. I didn’t know California is so bad.
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Clean Air Lady
May 3rd, 2008 at
4:01 am
stop cutting down trees and burning wood, legalize cannabis so we can cut down and burn marijuana instead AND WE’LL ALL BE *HAPPY!*
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Registration B0rked
May 3rd, 2008 at
2:01 pm
The point about California doesn’t take into account population size and density.
It would be interesting to see the above figures overlaid with population densities in the other cities. Pittsburg doesn’t even rank in the 50 largest cities in the US, yet is #1 in pollution. Doesn’t that say something?
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WM
May 3rd, 2008 at
10:09 pm
I grew up in the Central Valley between Bakersfield and Fresno. The area I grew up in is mostly miles of orange trees, vineyards, peaches, plums, alfalfa fields and nut trees. Doesn’t sound like the sort of place that would be that bad, right? The air quality has become amazingly bad, as other local commentors have explained. The number of children with asthma is nearly the worst in the US.
My science teacher in high school mentioned to me one day that he “had been able to see the mountains on both sides of the valley” in years previous before the air quality had become bad in his opinion. This was 25 years ago. Now you’re lucky to be able to see some of the Sierra range on a good day from Visalia, which isn’t that far away. Things have gotten much worse there in a fairly short amount of time, relatively speaking.
In the housing and building frenzy of the past several years, many large production dairies have relocated to the San Joaquin Valley from pricier regions like LA, adding to the number that were already there. This isn’t helping matters, nor is the increased number of vehicles and traffic along the highways in recent years with the increase in population and housing. Burning regulations have been put into place. Several groups are pointing fingers at each other while things continue to get worse.
Most people don’t realize how much of our food and produce comes from the SJV. It really is amazing what can be grown there. I find it more than a little scary to think what the future may hold for that area if the problems there continue to grow at the rate they have been.
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DDT
May 8th, 2008 at
11:27 pm
I can’t believe after only about 5 years Cali hasn’t reversed the effects which could’ve been cumulating for over 30 years. Please.
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