Austin Air Quality - Plz Help !! (Houston, Dallas: 2015, allergies, live)

[sdsurfista]

I am considering moving to Austin from coastal San Diego and would like to hear people's experience regarding the air quality. I am concerned about dust and air pollution . I have COPD however it usually only bothers me when the air is contaminated with dust, smoke, exhaust, or the humidity is very low. Luckily i do not have any allergies.
1. How often is there visible dust or smog in the air, on average, how many days per month have a lower air quality?
2. Do you get dust storms, and generally speaking how often do you have to dust the furniture in the house?
3. Do the buses have diesel engines ?
4. Is the air very dry in the winter, and do neighbors use wood heating or have bonfires like they do in CA ?
5. Do many people wind up moving away because of lung and bronchial challenges ?
6. I see Texas generates more electricity from Coal than any other state. I am not sure if you are downwind from the plants though. Have they impacted the air quality in Austin ?
7. Is the one section of Austin that has cleaner air than others, one that is worse I should avoid. I am especially sensitive to small particle sources of pollution like diesel exhaust and wood/coal burning.

I visited once and really enjoyed it having no issues, but it was only for one day in late June. But this was obviously not enough time to see what breathing issues I might encounter if I relocate permanently.

I am a little confused because when I did a google search looked at some articles (not sure if you can post links here..) The data indicated the air in Austin is cleaner than San Diego. However when I compare the real time pm 2.5 monitoring results online each day the air in Austin is typically much worse both for particle concentration and ozone, at least for the past 5 weeks, when I started comparing.. Maybe you are having atypical phenomena right now ?

Finally I'm in my 40's and work at home. thanks !

[Kion]

Just no. Capital N, capital O.

Agricultural burns in Mexico will affect you. Screw the busses, the 400,000 diesel trucks will get you, and then... Let's talk about cedar.

Save yourself the hassle. Seriously.

[Trainwreck20]

Austin air is, overall, moderate quality. It is attainment of the ozone standard (albeit barely) and will likely be re-designated to nonattainment of the newest standard. But that is not the air getting worse, that is the standard going down and will affect many, many counties across the U.S.

Particulate
For actual data, check the TCEQ web site. Monitors are here (blue and purple are PM10 and PM2.5):
https://gisweb.tceq.texas.gov/geotam3/index.html

Zavala Elementary (48-453-0326) and Austin-Webberville (48-453-0021) are downtown and both monitor particulate.

Webberville data is here (if this link works right):
Today's Texas Air Quality Forecast

Select PM2.5 and the year you want, then generate report.

By itself, it may not mean much, but you can compare it to monitoring data in places that you are familiar with.

[sdsurfista]

Thanks for the links Trainwreck. I have to admit I am still confused though. I have been using this site to compare pm 2.5 numbers for different cities Zavala Elementary, Austin, Texas, Texas Air Pollution: Real-time PM2.5 Air Quality Index (AQI)

It has indicated pm 2.5 numbers in the 80's and 90's for Zavala Elementary several times this month which is comparable with Los Angeles on a very smoggy day (iow much worse than San Diego). However when I look at the TCEQ historical data for this month and last from the link you posted the numbers are in the 20's and 30's which indicates very clean air. So unfortunately the data is contradictory. If someone could provide first hand experience i would very much appreciate it.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by sdsurfista

I am considering moving to Austin from coastal San Diego and would like to hear people's experience regarding the air quality. I am concerned about dust and air pollution . I have COPD however it usually only bothers me when the air is contaminated with dust, smoke, exhaust, or the humidity is very low. Luckily i do not have any allergies.
1. How often is there visible dust or smog in the air, on average, how many days per month have a lower air quality?
During agricultural burning times in central america you will see some. When, in a blue moon, there are any fires around (like in Bastrop the past Fall) you will have some.
2. Do you get dust storms, and generally speaking how often do you have to dust the furniture in the house?
I dust when I need to dust. But getting dust in the house, no. No dust storms either.
3. Do the buses have diesel engines ?
No sure
4. Is the air very dry in the winter, and do neighbors use wood heating or have bonfires like they do in CA ?
IT can be at times, but for the most part it's pretty moist. Fires, sure. I don't think it's very very popular, but some people do.
5. Do many people wind up moving away because of lung and bronchial challenges ?
Not sure I have heard of anyone leaving specifically for that, but it's a plus when they leave.
6. I see Texas generates more electricity from Coal than any other state. I am not sure if you are downwind from the plants though. Have they impacted the air quality in Austin ?
7. Is the one section of Austin that has cleaner air than others, one that is worse I should avoid. I am especially sensitive to small particle sources of pollution like diesel exhaust and wood/coal burning.
No. It's all the same. All of central and into south Texas is allergy hell.

I visited once and really enjoyed it having no issues, but it was only for one day in late June. But this was obviously not enough time to see what breathing issues I might encounter if I relocate permanently.

I am a little confused because when I did a google search looked at some articles (not sure if you can post links here..) The data indicated the air in Austin is cleaner than San Diego. However when I compare the real time pm 2.5 monitoring results online each day the air in Austin is typically much worse both for particle concentration and ozone, at least for the past 5 weeks, when I started comparing.. Maybe you are having atypical phenomena right now ?

If you are comparing today's reading to SD you may get a worse reading. It is prime ag burning season, as mentioned above. We may also have some ozone action days on steamy humid smmer days. I haven't lived through a full summer in Austin, so I can't tell you everything, but I'm sure there are some days.

Finally I'm in my 40's and work at home. thanks !

Good luck. Answers are in bold.

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by sdsurfista

Thanks for the links Trainwreck. I have to admit I am still confused though. I have been using this site to compare pm 2.5 numbers for different cities Zavala Elementary, Austin, Texas, Texas Air Pollution: Real-time PM2.5 Air Quality Index (AQI)

It has indicated pm 2.5 numbers in the 80's and 90's for Zavala Elementary several times this month which is comparable with Los Angeles on a very smoggy day (iow much worse than San Diego). However when I look at the TCEQ historical data for this month and last from the link you posted the numbers are in the 20's and 30's which indicates very clean air. So unfortunately the data is contradictory. If someone could provide first hand experience i would very much appreciate it.

You have to make sure that you are comparing the same averaging periods - the monitors take hourly readings, but the national standards are based on 24-hour averages. Finally, the link you have says that the ug/m3 has been converted to an Air Quality Index (AQI). Honestly, I have never used that, I am a microgram sort of guy. The maximum ug/m3 for PM2.5 is 75.7 for the year with an average of 8.5 ug/m3.

[PRND321]

You don't know you have allergies until you move here

[Eastcoasting]

2015 State of the Air report: More info on polluted cities but there it is...

Nation’s Most Polluted Cities

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-term Particle Pollution (24-hour PM 2.5)

1. Fresno-Madera, Calif.

2. Bakersfield, Calif.

3. Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, Calif.

4. Modesto-Merced, Calif.

5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.

6. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.

7. Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, Utah

8. Logan, UT-ID

9. Fairbanks, Alaska

10. Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Penn.-Ohio-West Va.

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution (Annual PM 2.5)

1. Fresno-Madera, Calif.

2. Bakersfield, Calif.

3. Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, Calif.

4. Modesto-Merced, Calif.

5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.

6. El Centro, Calif.

7. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA

8. Cincinnati-Wilmington-Maysville, OH-KY-IN

9. Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Penn.-Ohio-W.Va.

10. Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH

Top 10 Most Ozone-Polluted Cities

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.

2. Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, Calif.

3. Bakersfield, Calif.

4. Fresno-Madera, Calif.

5. Sacramento-Roseville, Calif.

6. Houston-The Woodlands, Texas

7. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas-Okla.

8. Modesto-Merced, Calif.

9. Las Vegas-Henderson, Nev.-Ariz.

10. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.

Nation’s Cleanest Cities

Top 10 Cleanest U.S. Cities for Year-round Particle Pollution

1. Prescott, AZ

2. Farmington, NM

3. Cheyenne, WY

3. Casper, WY

5. Flagstaff, AZ

6. Duluth, MN-WI

6. Salinas, CA

6. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL

6. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI

10. Rapid City-Spearfish, SD

10. Anchorage, AK

10. Bismarck, ND

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Kion

Just no. Capital N, capital O.

Agricultural burns in Mexico will affect you. Screw the busses, the 400,000 diesel trucks will get you, and then... Let's talk about cedar.

Save yourself the hassle. Seriously.

Full truth here.

[sdsurfista]

I saw an article today that said the city is replacing the buses with new low emission ones, but still diesel. Also I still see very bad pm2.5 numbers again this week. Not sure if it is dust or smoke but if someone could comment I would appreciate it.

prnd321 as I mentioned in my post, I have asthma not allergies.