I Don't Get The Air Quality Numbers. (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: live in, transport)

[Canine*Castle]

I've been doing a little research on air quality numbers in New Mexico here and there, north and south, east and west, etc. The best air quality I have found so far has been in Grants (83) and Ruidosa (54), and the rest I've checked have been much lower, 30s and worse.

Mind you, I have only searched about 35 cities/towns. What I don't understand is how Timberon and Cloudcroft have a relatively low air quality number, 33. Actually, T and CC have the same number as Alamogordo. I would think with the elevation, those two towns would be high on the list of great air. Of course, I understand places like Las Cruces having a very low number (9), but some of the other places have me puzzled. Even Red River is low.

Any knowledge from anyone about this would be appreciated.

[Six Foot Three]

That's just hard to believe that Timberon or Cloudcroft would have bad numbers for air quality. With so mamy Pine Trees everywhere and low population numbers you'd think the air would be good. Where did you read about this Canine Castle?

6/3

[TKO]

Air quality issues in NM are typically from natural particulates (outside of Abq) not man made pollution. When it gets windy there's dirt in the air.

[GregW]

Please state your sources. I would like to check the numbers. (PS I am air quality specialist and have a professional interest in this).

Speaking off the top of my head I would guess that particulate pollution in the bigger cities is either local and/or electric power plants or is transported from southern California. In some cities like Albuquerque auto traffic may be a substantial source. In the small cities it is "natural" sand, dust and pollen.

Here in New Hampshire everything outside turns yellow green when the pine trees are shedding pollen. This is why we have so many pine trees around here. IIRC Timberon is in a pine forest and likely to have a green time. Otherwise I would suggest the pollution is part of a regional transport problem.

[Devin Bent]

I am interested in hearing what GregW has to say. The only thing that I can add is that I believe some or maybe even most of the pollutants are not visible to the eye. The air can look clear, the view of the mountains can be great, but the air still polluted.

But correct me if I am wrong about this.

[rruff]

Originally Posted by GregW

IIRC Timberon is in a pine forest and likely to have a green time.

But then so is Ruidoso which isn't far away. I'm guessing that numbers for Timberon and Cloudcroft are the same as Alamogordo simply because they don't actually measure in CC or T... they just use the data from the nearest station.

I live in Ruidoso, and can often smell smog in Alamogordo... but never notice anything in the mountains.

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by rruff

But then so is Ruidoso which isn't far away. I'm guessing that numbers for Timberon and Cloudcroft are the same as Alamogordo simply because they don't actually measure in CC or T... they just use the data from the nearest station.

I live in Ruidoso, and can often smell smog in Alamogordo... but never notice anything in the mountains.

Yes, I thought that was a possibility that T and CC weren't measured so Alamogordo's AQ was used.

My source was Sperling's, the link below. I have it on the Cloudcroft health page, but one can search for any of the cities.
Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed


By the way, the water is not so good either in most of the places I checked.

[Ku Waht Zee]

Originally Posted by Canine*Castle

I've been doing a little research on air quality numbers in New Mexico here and there, north and south, east and west, etc. The best air quality I have found so far has been in Grants (83) and Ruidosa (54), and the rest I've checked have been much lower, 30s and worse.

Mind you, I have only searched about 35 cities/towns. What I don't understand is how Timberon and Cloudcroft have a relatively low air quality number, 33. Actually, T and CC have the same number as Alamogordo. I would think with the elevation, those two towns would be high on the list of great air. Of course, I understand places like Las Cruces having a very low number (9), but some of the other places have me puzzled. Even Red River is low.

Any knowledge from anyone about this would be appreciated.

Maybe it's becuase the dairies?, I too am curious....Youm should contact someone at the NM Environment Department, they are very helpful.

[sjbasin]

Farmington (zip 87401), NM Health Index

Air quality in Farmington (zip 87401), NM is 1 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is based on ozone alert days and number of pollutants in the air, as reported by the EPA.Water quality in Farmington (zip 87401), NM is 43 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). The EPA has a complex method of measuring watershed quality using 15 indicators.Superfund index is 75 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts.

"1" sounds about right considering we have the two dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the West up here. They're going to start building another one this year or next.

I wonder if air quality can fall below 0? Did you folks know that the plume of filth from our plants can be seen from the space station, and that it runs right down to the Rio Grande valley?

[Merlander]

This is a great question and one I've wondered about as well. I've often heard claims that the air up here is really good, but CNNMoney places rated didn't give us such high marks.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...PL3502000.html

Albuq. is rated 46.8 while the "best places" avg is 77.3. I can understand lower numbers during temp inversions, but that shouldn't skew the overall avg's this much.