Air quality issues (Albuquerque, Farmington, Carlsbad: 2009, home, allergy)

[ajzjmsmom]

I was reading another post where someone asked about air quality. It got me to wondering is there any place in NM that really has air quality issues? I know you see alot of older people in NM using oxygen but I would think that is due to health issues rather than air issues. Just curiosity more than anything on my part. I have been as far west as Lordsburg, and as far east as Carlsbad, I have been up to the 4 corners and across NM from Albuquerque to the Texas border. Everything looks pretty good to me but maybe there is something I can't see that someone else knows about.

[mcol]

Well I know at least in the northern part the older
folks were on oxygen cuz of the altitude in regards
to their health. Air quality issues as in smog? I don't
know. But being such low humidity there is lots of
pollen and dust in the air which contributes to poor
air quality. It was a common misconception from
people in other states that moving to New Mexico
would clear up all allergy issues - this is simply not
true at all.

[Poncho_NM]

There are some air quality issues in various parts of New Mexico:

desert-rock-blog.com :: Four Corners air quality substandard
Part of the article:

Four Corners air quality substandard
by jsefick on Thu 26 Feb 2009 10:38 AM PST
By Susan Montoya Bryan The Associated Press
Posted: 02/20/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico air quality officials said Thursday the northwestern corner of the state — home to one of the nation's largest natural gas fields and two coal-fired power plants — isn't meeting the federal government's new standard for ozone pollution.

Neither is Sunland Park, a rural area in the southern part of the state that sits near a major international population center that includes El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

The New Mexico Air Quality Bureau is recommending that San Juan and Rio Arriba counties in the north and a portion of Doña Ana County in the south be classified as nonattainment areas because ozone levels there have surpassed the standard.

It depends on what issues you are interested in.


Rich

[catman]

How about that. I would have though Albuquerque would have the worst air, because of all the traffic. Oxides of nitrogen, etc.

[sjbasin]

The air here in San Juan County is filthy. Farmington, Aztec, Bloomfield are all in the river valley and the power plants are all to the west of us. The prevailing winds waft all of the toxic stuff and particulates our way where they seem to remain. We're probably going to get another very large plant in the next few years.