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Senator sees air ruling as good step, much too late

By: Bill Curtis
9:24 PM Thursday, November 20th, 2008
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BAKERSFIELD – Senator Dean Florez, D-Shafter, applauded today’s ruling requiring the Valley air district to disclose the amount of pollution created by large confirmed animal facilities – including dairies, chicken and hog facilities – and the health threat such pollution poses to residents in the Valley, where one in six children already carries an inhaler to battle the effects of respiratory illness.

Florez, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality, passed Senate Bill 700 in 2003, requiring the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to adopt a rule to reduce pollution from large animal facilities. When, after years of delay, the district instead passed a rule favored by the agriculture industry, the San Joaquin Valley-based Association of Irritated Residents (AIR) filed suit to require public disclosure of pollution threats. Today the Fresno Court of Appeals sided with AIR.

“Today is a victory for Valley residents who have fought for clean air with dogged determination,” Florez said. “It is unfortunate that the young lungs of kids in my district have had to endure these added years of strain under the effects of harmful pollutants since the passage of our legislation, and that it takes protracted legal battles to get industry to do the right thing for our citizens.”

Confined animal facilities are the largest source of ammonia in the Valley, and contributes greatly to fine particulate matter pollution, which exacerbates respiratory illness. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from dairies, cars and power plants also react with volatile organic compounds (VOC) to create ozone, which damages lung tissue and increases hospital admissions, as well as work and school absenteeism.

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