Letters to the editor for Monday, Sept.
13, 2004
County supervisors at fault
The Sept. 9 article “Study: Bad air has dire effect”
ought to be an eye opener for all Riverside County residents. While it
is true a certain amount of air pollution flows to the valley from Los
Angeles, our supervisors get credit for degrading our air and quality
of life by importing pollution from L.A.
Supervisor Roy Wilson, who sits on the South Coast Air Quality
Management District Board, fought for the development of the world’s
largest garbage dump at Eagle Mountain next to Joshua Tree National
Park that boasts of a Class I air designation. The dump’s opposition
has prevented more than 84,000 tons of air pollution to desert
communities and the park by halting the dump’s development for over 17
years.
Supervisor John Tavaglione pushed for warehouses in the Mira Loma
community. The community, part of the USC study, was once a rural
farming/dairy community with wide open spaces that is now full of
warehouses and diesel spewing trucks that have resulted in degrading
the health of the residents and the air quality. Mira Loma is now the
fourth most polluted area in the world, just after Jakarta, India.
L.A. doesn’t want polluting trucks and industries in their area, so our
supervisors accommodate them by importing the pollution here.
