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05-01-2008, 11:05 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2006
801 posts, read 305,139 times
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Why is Birmingham's air so Polluted?
I just read where Birmingham is in the top ten list for cities with the worst air pollution/air quality. It's on the list right along with Los Angeles and Detroit, etc. I was very surprised at this - does anyone know why that is, and are they working to try to clean it up? 
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05-01-2008, 01:27 PM
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Senior Member
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"Winter? Yuk."
(set 2 days ago)
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Two reasons.
1) Birmingham is in a large valley that's prone to temperature inversions.
2) We actually have industry. Not every city can function off agriculture and tourism.
Actually, Birmingham has had a pretty dramatic drop in pollution in the past 30 years. Today, the average particulate count is around 45-60, whereas long-time residents tell me of days when it surpassed 600.
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05-01-2008, 02:01 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Albuquerque
289 posts, read 123,644 times
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Birmingham's air quality was much, much worse in the 70's. I used to fly from Los Angeles to B'ham, and I swear the air was worse. I think it has improved a lot since then. That being said, it is a valley, there is a lot of industry, and there are a lot of cars being driving.
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05-01-2008, 02:03 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2007
763 posts, read 447,489 times
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Whenever a city is located in a valley, air pollution can be difficult to control. This is LA's central issue and the same here.
Having traveled to both LA and Detroit however, I can say with good accuracy that their issues are much worse than ours. Out of 365 days in a year, we have about 20 that are pretty rotten. It is when a deck of stagnant air is hovering over the valley, disrupting the normal West to East flow which keeps the area in pretty good shape most of the time. It is most common in summer and rarely occurs in spring and fall, when there is a lot of air movement - like today.....flags are out almost horizontally and the sky is deep blue.
It's an issue but occurs "situationally" not perpetually.
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05-02-2008, 10:42 AM
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Not a member
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Between the cracks in the sidewalk
125 posts
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Quote:
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lot of cars being driving.
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Not really. The metro is 1 million, roughly. That's about the size of San Jose, California (city only). That's not a lot of people nor a lot of vehicles, no matter how paltry (or nonexistent) B'ham's mass transportation system may be. B'ham traffic is rather average to thin in relation to comparable-sized cities.
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05-04-2008, 10:12 AM
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of the Peace
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Join Date: Jan 2007
5,482 posts, read 2,081,146 times
Reputation: 1802
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It isn't necessarily those who live in the B'ham area vehicles who cause automobile pollution. B'ham has not 1 but 2 interstates that run through it.
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