A farm worker town with more pollution than LA or NY?

In past emails we've shared the conditions farm workers endure during the day--heat, abuse and pesticides. In addition, many farm workers must labor outdoors in unhealthy conditions. But the exposure does not stop there. After completing a 10 to 12 hour work day, too many San Joaquin Valley farm workers go home and live in some of the most heavily polluted areas in the country. The small farm worker town of Arvin lies in a rich agricultural area filled with vineyards and orange groves. It also has the dubious distinction of being the town with the most polluted air in America. We need you to take action today to ensure the air in this town is cleaned up.

Take action at: http://www.ufwaction.org/...

Arvin doesn't have factories or congested freeways like cities such as Los Angeles. It produces little pollution. However pollutants blow in from as far away as San Francisco and residents--most of them farm workers--are paying the price. They complain the air smells toxic. Everyone is put at risk--especially children. The situation is so bad that some parents are afraid to let their children play outside.

Doctors and public officials say asthma and other respiratory problems are common. Residents also complain of watery eyes, dry throats and inexplicable coughs, particularly in the summer, when temperatures can climb over 100 degrees and stay there for days.

Take action at: http://www.ufwaction.org/...

According to an Associated Press story that came out last weekend, Arvin's level of ozone, the primary component in smog, exceeded the amount considered acceptable by the EPA on an average of 73 days per year between 2004 and 2006. The San Francisco Bay Area averaged just 4 days over the same period.

Despite numerous health hazards, in April, the valley's air-quality board voted to extend the region's deadline to meet federal ozone standard by 11 years. They said cleaning up the air by the previous target date of 2013 was not possible.

Take Action at: http://www.ufwaction.org/...

This is just not true. The UFW has been working with The Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment to ensure an earlier compliance deadline, citing an independent report "Clearing the Air" by the International Sustainable Systems Research Center (ISSRC). The report found that with stricter regulations 95% of the Valley can reach compliance for ozone standards by 2013 and the remaining parts of the valley can be in compliance much sooner than 2024.

There is no need to extend deadlines until 2024 and put residents' health as risk for an extra decade!

Take Action at: http://www.ufwaction.org/...

California knows that extending the deadline to 2024 is the wrong decision. Gov. Schwarzenegger criticized the move when the California Air Resources Board approved the local board's extension last June. He then fired the board's chairman a few days later.

The California Air Resource Board--with its new chairman--will be meeting in September to approve the entire state plan. At this time they can over rule their previous decision and force compliance by an earlier date.

Please send your e-mail today to the CA Air Resource Board. Tell them to overrule their previous decision and do all they could to clean up the Valley’s air by 2013. There is no need to put people in danger by exposing them to a toxic environment for another decade.

Take Action at: http://www.ufwaction.org/...

•  tip jar

  by ufw on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 09:33:20 AM PDT

•  Thanks for posting this

  We've got a small but vocal contingent of Bakersfield Kossacks (I myself being an ex-pat) who know firsthand what it's like to live in small town where you can't see the mountains.

  Childhood asthma rates are off the charts in the area as are a number of other diseases related directly to air quality.

  Kern County is also where much of the sewage waste from LA is dumped and put onto the ground as fertilizer, contaminating the ground water and getting kicked up in the air by farming.

  by Webster on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:03:07 AM PDT

  •  The 21st Century is looking like the 19th

    I dread driving between Fresno and Bakersfield in a bad day.

    by Shockwave on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:37:52 AM PDT

  •  Good morning!

    I'm one of them (AnonCon). I remember when I was a child and we could see the mountains all around us - except when it was foggy of course. I was up in your area last month and on the drive up and back it was just brown, brown, brown. And I do mean the air, not the countryside. Arvin not only has the air pollution problem but also water contamination. One has to wonder what influenced the Board to extend the deadline. And don't even get me started on the sewage issue.

    by TokenLiberal on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:41:18 AM PDT

•  I do know that San Francisco/Bay Area pollution

  gets blown into the valley and settles there....I don't think that another freeway should be expanded or built until matching funds are put into expanding BART, trains, bicycle paths, cash incentives for car pooling, neighborhood bus systems, etcetc with extensive efforts and creative programs to get people out of their cars....

  by bic momma on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:08:27 AM PDT

  •  Well, there is already a lot of money

    flowing that way.  The bridge tolls themselves are about 50% dedicated to alternate forms of transit.  What we need is economic development in the East Bay to keep people from needing to make the commute.

    I'd also advocate for more parking and bigger roads, since we know from the example in LA that people will endure much worse traffic before they climb out of their cars.  More parking would get cars off the roads sooner and better roads would mean cars moving instead of idling on the roads.  Blasphemy, maybe, but better than LA.

    by Webster on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:16:59 AM PDT

•  I agree with your intention

  but how can you write about pollution and never mention the sources of it?

  Arvin doesn't have factories or congested freeways like cities such as Los Angeles. It produces little pollution. However pollutants blow in from as far away as San Francisco

  Arvin is only a few miles from the city of Bakersfield, which may not be LA but has congested freeways, and only a few more miles from I-5 which has heavy traffic 24/7/365. But the biggest problem isn't cars and trucks, it's cows and farm equipment, and the fact that until very recently the state govt had not regulated agricultural air pollution.

  Most of the San Joaquin valley's pollution comes from San Joaquin valley agricultural operations.

  by esquimaux on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:12:29 AM PDT

  •  I guess it depends on what you mean by congested

    There are only a few freeways and they aren't that heavily trafficked. The surface streets are packed no doubt, but not much more than any other city of that size.  When pollution from China can sometimes account for as much as 25% of the air pollution in LA, it's pretty reasonable to say that Kern County isn't solely responsible for its own air quality.

    by Webster on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 01:01:08 PM PDT

•  I sure wish people had cared

  about air quality when I was growing up in one of the smoggiest cities in CA (in the Inland Empire) and possibly the U.S.  At school the P.E. teachers made us exercise even in second stage smog alerts (which was supposed to be a no-no.)  For twenty years I inhaled that gunk, then I moved to a less smoggy area, Los Angeles.
   Why should Arvin be any more deserving of clean air than any other city in CA that has crappy air?

  There is no need to put people in danger by exposing them to a toxic environment for another decade.

   Yes, and that includes other places with major air pollution such as the Inland Empire and Richmond (in the Bay Area.)  Stop disriminating.

  by FoundingFatherDAR on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:21:56 AM PDT

  •  With all due respect...

    ...farm workers are already dealing with exposure to more pollution because of their jobs...chemical pesticides, herbicides, fumigants, dust, dirt...a shitty air quality simply means that these folks get no relief from breathing dangerous air...which I believe is one of the points of this diary...

    Why not support a better quality of air in Arvin and Bakersfield. Doesn't it end up benefiting everyone who lives there and eventually everyone in CA?

    by bic momma on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:43:44 AM PDT

    •  exactly what we meant--thanks

      That's exactly what are saying. These farm workers already work under hazardous conditions w/pesticides, heat....and now they come home to a toxic environment.  Everything should be done to cleaning up the air by 2013--like CA was supposed to instead of putting it off to 2024 and making these people live in this envoronment for an extra decade!

      by ufw on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 01:26:34 PM PDT

  •  Arvin is a farming community-

    that's why the UFW is so involved. They aren't more deserving of clean air but they also aren't more deserving of the worst.

    by TokenLiberal on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 01:36:15 PM PDT

•  I've been to

  Arvin when my high school football team (West Bakersfield) traveled there for games.  You can tell how bad things are.  I was taught in school that it is bad not only because of the agriculture pollution in the area but because of what comes down from the industrial cities up north through wind currents and all of that together gets trapped in the area by the mountains at the lower end of the valley.

  by EMKennedyLucio on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 10:49:59 AM PDT

  •  Go Vikings!

    If you're still interested in the Bako scene, you should check out the blogs at Bakersfield.com.  We have a pretty good crossover from here.

    by Webster on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 01:05:15 PM PDT

•  tag edit

  I changed your tags, changing some to more populat ones and deleting those that are not used in any other diaries.

  Original Tags:

  UFW, smog, farm workers, farmworkers, United Farm Workers, pollution, labor union, environment, arvin

  Cleaned up tags:

  smog, farms, labor, United Farm Workers, pollution, unions, environment

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  by sarahnity on Fri Aug 17, 2007 at 06:47:51 PM PDT