Advocates urge action to address Sacramento’s worsening air quality

A new report from the American Lung Association shows that Sacramento’s air quality is some of the worst in the nation — ranking in the top ten for worst levels of ozone and particulate matter, much of it driven by traffic exhaust and destructive wildfires. 

The 2023 “State of the Air” report, which analyzed air quality monitor data from 2019, 2020 and 2021, shows Sacramento’s annual level of fine particles in the air was the worst it’s been since the first report in 2000.

While nationwide the report found that over one third of people live in places with unhealthy air, it found more than 98 percent of Californians live in an area that received at least one “failing” grade on air pollution. Bakersfield, Visalia, and famously smoggy Los Angeles were rated worst for most unhealthy air days, annual pollution levels and most ground-level ozone in the atmosphere, respectively. 

During a teleconference Tuesday, Will Barrett, National Senior Director of Clean Air Advocacy for the lung association, said that in Sacramento specifically, ozone and particle emissions are driven by the region’s high-polluting transportation sector. In addition, catastrophic wildfires like the August Complex Fire in 2020 and the Dixie Fire in 2021, increased the number of days that registered as dangerous for all people — purple or maroon — on the Air Quality Index.

Barrett pointed to some positive moves in Sacramento to address transportation pollution, including a pilot program that deployed zero emission school buses and statewide efforts to electrify rideshare vehicles, but says the region needs to do more to address transportation emissions.

“We have seen good progress over time,” he said, “but we still have a long way to go.”

Barrett and other advocates with the lung association are calling for the California Air Resources Board to vote to approve two policies at their upcoming meeting that would clean up emissions for trucks and trains in California: the Advanced Clean Fleets Rule and the In-Use Locomotive Rule. The lung association is also urging the state to better budget for wildfire prevention and reaching broader zero emission goals.

Outsize impact on people of color 

Dr. Sonal Pate was also on Tuesday’s teleconference. She said she knows, when hot weather starts, wildfires and smoggy days will cause her phone to start ringing. Patel specializes in allergy and immunology medicine in Los Angeles, where some of the worst ozone levels are recorded. 

Patel says that, having worked in South Central and East Los Angeles, she has seen the impact that poor air quality has on people of color and those with lower incomes. 

“They cannot avoid the unhealthy air,” she said. “I have seen these effects firsthand.”

The lung association found that, across the nation, people of color are 3.7 times more likely than white people to live in communities with the worst air pollution. 

Mariela Ruacho, Clean Air Advocacy Manager with the lung association in California, says those are areas, “with nearby sources of diesel exhaust from trucks, trains and ships.”

Although the report showed that levels of ozone have decreased in some communities in California, they remain high in the Central Valley and Los Angeles.