The May 1 Santa Rosa Press Democrat had a story in which, according to the American Lung Association, Lake County is “no. 9 for air quality in the US.” I couldn”t believe what I was reading.
I live here in Middletown where our organization, CLEAN AIR-PLEASE, has been campaigning for a year to improve local understanding and alleviation of our air quality issues, namely, wood burning smoke and vehicle emissions and resulting stagnating toxic air coming from both homes and heavily-used Highway 29 in the middle of our town.
Do you know that there are no air quality measurements taken in Lake County”s major communities ? one exception being south Lakeport? Metering is done at locations which are higher elevations. No air quality data by our Air Quality Management District is collected from heavily populated areas such as Middletown, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Upper Lake, Kelseyville, Lucerne, and most of Lakeport. Therefore, I question the accuracy of ALA”s press release to the Press Democrat.
Any early morning ride over the mountain from Middletown to Lakeport often reveals a dark pall of smoke and exhaust fumes covering Clear Lake from one end to the other.
I have asked of both the American Lung Association and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that in the future they check with their sources where their data was obtained. It is important from a health standpoint that people know the true facts about air quality in Lake County.
We involved in the group CLEAN AIR, PLEASE have been working somewhat successfully to obtain recognition of and assistance for our local air pollution concerns from our Board of Supervisors and County AQMD. We hope our efforts will not be pushed aside because of any misleading news releases.
What really matters is the air quality at the residential and street level in our town.
Clare Brady,
CLEAN AIR, PLEASE
Middletown
