Fayetteville & Fort Smith Recognized For Clean Air (Little Rock, Springdale: environment, relocating)

[boulder]

This "clean air" recognition may be of interest to some considering relocating to the NWA area. Fayetteville ranked #1 in the country and Fort Smith #3 in air quality.




BY CHRISTIE SWANSON Northwest Arkansas Time

Clean air helped Fayetteville gain yet another title as being the “best place to live.” This most recent recognition comes from COPD Digest, a seasonal magazine for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD describes any progressive lung disease such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory asthma and severe bronchiectasis.

April Wingfield, director of communications for the Arkansas Respiratory Health Association in Little Rock, said that after all the analysis was done, Fayetteville came out on top. “They rated all the cities in the entire country, ” she said. “ Every city that had zero unhealthy air quality days from 2000 to 2006 qualified. ” The air quality rating was based on monitoring station results from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The other main factor in rating cities was the presence of hospitals with pulmonary programs. Cities were then ranked on other criteria including available support groups, oxygen providers, assisted living facilities, cost of living, crime rate and population.

Steve Rust, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council, said the rating shows Fayetteville is headed in the right direction. “This goes right along with our effort to be the center of the universe for the sustainability initiative,” he said. As the city works toward growing the business and technology industries, having clean technology is key, he said. “It seems to be that we are really getting on the radar screen for a lot of things, ” Rust said. “ This is something that people who have lived here have always known. ”

Just last week, the Fayetteville / Springdale / Rogers metropolitan statistical area was named by Sperling’s Best Places as the top affordable place to live and work in the United States. “Success breads success. When you get one award, it attracts other awards,” Rust said. Although COPD Digest is a niche publication, Rust said the honor is still significant. “I don’t look at this as a small award. To me this is a big, big deal, ” he said. “I think this is going to be a very important recruiting tool.”

This medical-related rating is a first for Fayetteville but shouldn’t be the last, Rust said. The recent announcement that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences plans to open a satellite medical school in Fayetteville will help the area continue growing in the medical field, he said. “Bringing the medical school here is one of the biggest economic development things to happen in a long time. It is very important,” he said.

Fayetteville was not the only area city to make the list of best places to live. Fort Smith came in third in the COPD Digest rankings. “I was so excited when I saw that two Arkansas cities made this list,” Wingfield said. “There has been a lot of progress in air quality in Northwest Arkansas. There are other spots in the state where there are still a lot of air quality issues.” Others cities included in the top five were Sioux Falls, S.D.; Naples, Fla.; and Amarillo, Texas.