Arvin, CA–The first Arvin Bucket Brigade air sample has confirmed community concerns about the dangers of a troubled recycling and composting facility. The test showed health threatening levels of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic chemical at the center of an investigation of two worker deaths at the Community Recycling and Resource Center.
“Even though the facility was fined and their permit was revoked, they continue to operate and the sample shows unnacceaptable levels of toxic gas blowing toward Arvin and on public roads,” said Sal Partida of Committee For A Better Arvin. ” We are concerned that toxic air pollution is contributing to Arvin’s problems of our children’s poor health and learning capabilities.”
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ARVIN, Calif. — There are new accusations for the operators of Community Recycling. A community group in Arvin says it has proof a deadly gas is drifting off the composting facility’s property.
Committee for a Better Arvin says it took air samples near the Community Recycling property then sent them to a lab. The organization says the results prove hydrogen sulfide is in the air near the plant.
Some people in Arvin have long suspected that Community Recycling was releasing toxic gas into the atmosphere. After two workers at the facility died in October from suspected hydrogen sulfide poisoning, the suspicions only grew.
The results of the bucket brigade’s toxic tour are in.
In December, Arvin residents concerned with air quality took their own sample near composting operator Community Recycling & Resource Recovery Inc.
They sent it off to a Simi Valley lab and tested the sample for dozens of sulfur gases and volatile organic compounds. This week, the group said it found “threatening” levels of hydrogen sulfide, the colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs and can, in very high concentrations, lead to death.
But valley air officials dismissed the tests, questioning their methods and the significance of concentrations found.
Monday was the first day back to school from winter break for kids here in Visalia, and already students aren’t being allowed to spend long periods of time outside. Every Visalia Unified School had an orange flag hanging outside, warning students and teachers that the air quality is unhealthy.
Students at Hurley Elementary School in Visalia were able to take part in their usual outdoor recess Monday, but only because their recess lasts just 20 minutes. Outside Hurley an orange flag hung to remind teachers and staff that because of unhealthy air quality for sensitive children, certain outdoor activities would be limited.
This is the time of year when residents who often live with the nation’s worst pollution often can draw a breath of fresh air. But this winter has not been kind to people who want to play outside in California’s Central Valley.
A dry December and January has stagnated air across California, but nowhere is the situation more serious than between Modesto and Bakersfield, where nearly every day dirty air has exceeded federal health standards.
If New Year’s resolutions could apply to places, perhaps no place is as worthy of concerted change as the San Joaquin Valley. Home to nearly 4 million people, the nation’s breadbasket is described as “a patchwork pattern of separate and unequal places” in a report by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.
Titled “Land of Risk/Land of Opportunity,” the report confirms what community members and advocates have long suspected – that environmental hazards tend to be clustered around low-income populations with low levels of education and English literacy. These include urban neighborhoods like West Fresno, which has borne the brunt of slaughterhouses, waste dumps and other undesirable land uses, as well as unincorporated rural communities like Earlimart, where pesticide drift prompted years of citizen activism and ultimately new legislation.
Officials of Valley AIR* are advising residents that high pollution levels the past month have already damaged lungs and hearts on the valley floor between Stockton and Bakersfield. This health crisis will not end soon as January can often be worse for the breathing public.
Heavy emissions of ammonia from dairies, plus NOx emissions from diesel trucks, offroad equipment, and massive boilers, have combined to make this past December, 2011 the worst month ever measured in terms of total days of violations of federal health standards for PM 2.5. The valley had 29 days of violations with the previous record being 27 in 2000 and the average for 2001-2010, was 17. This month also had the highest average PM 2.5 levels since 2000. Levels of fine particulates averaged 45% higher than the 2001 average and 80% higher than in 2010. Unfortunately, the trend for the past ten years does not show any real improvement in pollution levels despite Air Board claims to the contrary.
December 2011 air pollution levels in the San Joaquin Valley were the worst in over ten years. When air is unhealthy for everyone it is said to be in the RED sector of the air quality index. Many places had many days with many hours in the RED sector this year.
The number of Latinos diagnosed with asthma is now greater than any other minority group in California. Many of the 1.4 million people suffering with this chronic disease are young Latinos who live in rural, farmworking communities. Usually these families working for low pay and poor living conditions are not thinking about the quality of air.
The reality is that these families are living in smog-polluted communities often engulfed in poor air quality. Smog from particulate matter, diesel engines, cars, pesticides add to the mixture of bad air that can lead to asthma attacks, the constricting of air ways.
Someone asked me how the San Joaquin Valley’s winter air stacks up against the rest of the country. Check it out for yourself. This is definitely the worst place right now. Which brings me to another point that doesn’t get discussed a lot. Air pollution is nearly a year-round problem here — among the worst in the nation for a full three seasons plus each year. There’s very little break here compared to most places in the country. In fact, it’s easier to talk about the months when air pollution is not a big factor most years. The two months are March and April.