Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
P.O. Box 33124, Riverside, CA 92519
(909) 360-8451

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Help Our Mira Loma Environment!	Glen Avon Revitalization Committee

Good News!

As you know, today (July 24th) we had the first hearing on the first warehouse EIR (Newcastle, located on the west side of the 15, north of Bellegrave). The report has a number of technical problems in its calculations of cancer risk.

1. It states that since the average CA residents spends 87% of their time INDOORS, the EIR will only consider exposure for the OUTDOOR time (13%);
   
2. They predict that in the next few years, EVERYONE will have converted to an alternative clean fuel so therefore, they calculate exposure by decreasing levels over each year;
   
3. The lifetime 70-year exposure calculation is cut because people will have moved out of the area; and,
   
4. They only consider cancer risk, not the other health problems clearly associated with particulate pollution, i.e. lung development, heart attacks, birth defects, and respiratory disease.

Larry Elwell, Pat Puryear, Colleen Smethers, Vicki Baucom, Linda Spinney, Pat Delgado, Kathy Mitchell, Matt Henigan and myself attended, and, I must say, everyone did a great job. Thanks to all of you! The commissioners actually listened to us and noted the same concerns.

Dr. John Froines from UCLA came to testify and did a tremendous job. He heads up the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite (one of 4 around the nation that are the premiere experts on particulate pollution). It is part of the School of Public Health. They actually wrote the EIR guidelines for conducting these EIRs. He pointed out how the Newcastle EIR must have "misunderstood" what they were supposed to do and used the data incorrectly. Thereby under calculating the exposure risks to diesel. The Commissioners were very impressed with his comments and invited him to continue providing his input.

The EIR hearing has been continued to Aug. 28 in the afternoon. At this session they will discuss the CE-CERT study and see how that impacts the EIR.

The CE-CERT study is supposed to be revealed on Wed. July 31st at 6:30 at the EDA building downtown.

On Tuesday, July 30th, Jurupa Area Park District is holding a community meeting on the County's Integrated Plan. It will be at the Park District Office on Pedley Road near Jurupa and begins at 6:00 pm.

Our regular HOME meetings have been put on hold because we can't get the school during the summer. We've been having meetings at CCAEJ's office from time to time. We'll try to keep you notified.

For those in Glen Avon that might think these warehouses don't affect you, rumor has it that DAUM Industrial Realtors are looking for land across from Stater Bros. To build—you guessed it—WAREHOUSES! Join the battle and let's keep our communities places for families, schools, churches and rural lifestyle – not industrial parks!

If you can make any of these meetings - please attend. They really will decide the future of the area. If you need more information, give us a call. (909) 360-8451

Penny Newman

Air Quality

Confused about the air quality issue? Over and over again we hear about another study proclaiming our air to be bad—if not deadly. And then again, we hear others say that the air is cleaner than it was 20 years ago!?! The County's trying to put in facilities that draw more diesel trucks into the area—would they really do that if the air issue was as bad as the studies say? It gets very confusing and hard to sort through the reports. Let's try to clarify the information and put it in some perspective. (To ensure that the following data on air pollution is unbiased— and not just the ranting from CCAEJ— we have used information provided in the EIR for the Newcastle warehouse project.)

Primary and Secondary Pollutants

. . . "Air pollutants are classified as either primary or secondary, depending on how they are formed.

Primary pollutants are generated daily and are emitted directly from a source into the air. Examples of primary pollutants include: carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), nitric oxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulates (PM10 and PM 2.5) and various hydrocarbons (HC), also known as reactive organic compounds (ROC). The predominant source of air emissions generated by truck diesel emissions is CO, NOx and ROC/HC."

"Secondary pollutants are created over time and occur within the atmosphere as chemical and photochemical reactions take place. An example of a secondary pollutant is ozone (O3), which is one of the products formed when NOx react with hydrocarbons, in the presence of sunlight." (This is what we typically call SMOG.) "Other secondary pollutants include photochemical aerosols. Secondary pollutants such as oxidants, represent major air quality problems in the Basin."

According to the latest published data from AQMD, "Air Quality Monitoring summary 1991-2000", " . . . the baseline air quality conditions include occasional events of very unhealthful air. Even so, the frequency of smog alerts has dropped significantly in the last decade. The greatest recognized air quality problem is OZONE." ". . . It is encouraging to note that ozone levels have dropped significantly in the last few years with less than one-fifth of the days each year experiencing a violation of the state hourly ozone standard in 1998."

"Although the overall air quality in the area is improving, one exception is the ambient concentrations of particulate matter smaller than 10 microns in diameter (PM10 and PM 2.5). Over the last decade the State air quality standard for PM 10 has been consistently exceeded in the area. The 1997 Federal annual average standard for PM 2.5 (15 ppm) was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2001. AQMD data shows that inland areas, specifically the Mira Loma area, exceeding this annual average standard. Currently, there are no state standards established for PM2.5."

". . . The federal annual average standard of 15 ppm is exceeded throughout most of the Basin. According to the AQMD data presented in April of 2001 the Rubidoux area has a level of 41 ppm of PM 2.5." (This is nearly three times the level the federal law says is safe.) "The majority of these PM 2.5 particles are in the form of nitrates. AQMD scientists report that particles less than 2.5 microns in size are produced from the fuel combustion process in diesel engines; there are little to no natural sources of particulates in the PM 2.5 particle size category."

"According to AQMD particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5) levels in the Mira Loma vicinity are some of the highest in the basin. The sources contributing to particulate matter pollution include road dust, windblown dust, agriculture, construction, fireplaces and wood burning stoves, and vehicle exhaust. AQMD indicates the largest component of PM10 particles in our area comes from dust (unpaved roads, unpaved yards, vacant land that has been disced). PM 2.5 particles are manmade resulting from combustion sources. According to AQMD the highest component of PM 2.5 pollution in Mira Loma comes from nitrate (NO3) particulates. Nitrate produced by vehicles basin wide react with ammonium produced from diaries (sic) to form ammonium nitrate particles, adding to a unique air quality problem in Mira Loma. Although organic carbon particles generated from paints, degreasers and vehicles are slightly elevated for the area, these particles are also a basin wide issue. The last notable constituent of PM2.5 sources is elemental carbon, used as a surrogate for diesel particulates. PM2.5 particles from elemental carbon are about equal over the basin. Therefore, according to AQMD... the Mira Loma vicinity currently does not have elevated levels of diesel exhaust, compared to other areas monitored in the basin."

So, does that mean we don't have a problem and that more diesel trucks should come in??

NO! What this means is that Mira Loma (and the surrounding area) CURRENTLY has a particulate problem (PM10) that exceeds health standards. The USC study shows that pollution is impacting our children dramatically. Therefore, it makes no sense to add MORE POLLUTION to an already polluted area, ESPECIALLY pollution from diesel. Diesel exhaust is not like dust and other particulate material—it is highly toxic and contains more than 40 carcinogens. While dust is a problem and can irritate, diesel compounds are toxic and kill. All particles are not created equal.

As we have stated time and time again—It does not matter if the majority of the current pollution levels are not diesel particles. It does matter that we don't take a bad situation and make it more deadly. The focus should be NOT on how many more trucks we can draw to the area, but how do we reduce the dangerous air pollution we live with currently.

Is it really that big of a problem?

• We have the highest levels of particulate pollution in the nation.
  
• We have the fourth highest levels in the world—only after Jakarta, Indonesia; Calcutta, India; Bangkok, Thailand.
  
• Particulate Pollution has been linked to heart attacks, birth defects, lung disease, lung development.