Air Pollution
Zip Code: 92064 Community: San Diego County
Here are the top polluters in my zip code:

As you can see many of them are from the armed forces. San Diego has a very big military population. Other polluters are steel corporations and Sony electronics.
Good news though because only 1% of homes have a high risk of lead-based paint!
Superfund sites are areas of land that are identified by the EPA as having hazardous waste that can pose a risk to human health and the environment. There is only one is San Diego County and that is at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. A lot of the contaminates are related to fuel oils used for training purposes. However, it has been participating in a an Installation Restoration Program since 1978.
Unfortunately San Diego county is among the 10% for direst/worst air in the United States. The air quality index is terrible and only 44% of days have good air quality.

San Diego also ranks among the bottom for water quality. I know the taste of water is not necessarily an indicator of the quality but the sink water in San Diego is undrinkable because it tastes terrible and has a sulfur after taste.

In terms of environmental justice, San Diego county has less incidents of environmental injustice compared to the state of California. However, that does not mean that environmental injustice does not occur. People in poverty are still more likely to exposed to toxic chemicals and air pollutants.
Here are the top polluters in my zip code:

As you can see many of them are from the armed forces. San Diego has a very big military population. Other polluters are steel corporations and Sony electronics.
Good news though because only 1% of homes have a high risk of lead-based paint!
Superfund sites are areas of land that are identified by the EPA as having hazardous waste that can pose a risk to human health and the environment. There is only one is San Diego County and that is at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. A lot of the contaminates are related to fuel oils used for training purposes. However, it has been participating in a an Installation Restoration Program since 1978.
Unfortunately San Diego county is among the 10% for direst/worst air in the United States. The air quality index is terrible and only 44% of days have good air quality.

San Diego also ranks among the bottom for water quality. I know the taste of water is not necessarily an indicator of the quality but the sink water in San Diego is undrinkable because it tastes terrible and has a sulfur after taste.

In terms of environmental justice, San Diego county has less incidents of environmental injustice compared to the state of California. However, that does not mean that environmental injustice does not occur. People in poverty are still more likely to exposed to toxic chemicals and air pollutants.
Hey Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteYour list of top polluters is crazy! Most of them are military institutions, but it does make sense when you point out how military based San Diego is. San Diego is much like SF in terms of quality of air and water. Both cities score in the lowest 10% in overall quality. I wonder what is contributing to the terrible air and water quality in California? Because SF, Sacramento, Richmond and now San Diego all score in the bottom 10%. Im sure the list is much longer, but out of the places us 4 live, they all scored the same.
Caitlin,
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of polluters in the San Diego area. In Sacramento, the top polluter is also a related to military and is an airforce base. I would have never thought that these are the biggest contributors to pollution. I wonder if it's because they have less stringent regulations? Like Jordan, said all of our cities rank in the bottom 10% in the nation and it is strange because I thought we had pretty good air in CA, since we have some of the strictest air regulation laws.
Although we want 100% free lead-based paint, it is good that only 1% of the home has lead-based paints in your district. I am surprised SD ranged very low on the air quality ranking. When I visited San Diego last year in July, it was so nice. The air quality and the temperature was one of the best I have experienced in United States.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego also had high carbon monoxide emission and dirty water - all of which are all very shocking for a beautiful coastal city