PHX air quality (Phoenix, Tucson, Maricopa: construction, agriculture, moving)

[BIG CATS]

Three consecutive days with high pollution advisory. Yummy.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

Took a pic of it this morning. Its not as pronounced as normal, but its definitely brown, and its definitely a cloud. I even screenshot my photo details to prove it was from this morning in case anyone didn't believe me. If you all don't see the brown cloud hanging over the Valley, I cant help that. Other days its far darker than this.

This is one of the drawbacks of living in an arid region, especially in a large metro area located in a valley. Industrial pollution, vehicle emissions, and dust are the main reasons for the poor air quality. Also, the summer heat has a way of making the air quality worse. The only thing I can suggest to avoid the air quality issue is to move to a small town where it's cooler in the summer and there's little industry, light traffic, and less dust. Payson might fit the need. Otherwise, hope and pray for more rain. Storm systems act as a great air sanitizer. You might have noticed that the air is much cleaner & fresher after a decent rain.

Originally Posted by DougStark

Once ranchers and farmers take more ownership for their operations' dust emissions, we'll see more improvements in our PM 10 violations.

This is one thing I've been meaning to bring up, and I even thought about starting a thread about it. The dust storms we get in the summer months I believe could be reduced significantly if better planning was done initially. You might notice that the bulk of the "haboobs" occur in the SE Valley, which is located in an area not too far away from reservation land that contains many farms & ranches. These farms & ranches are one of the primary reasons why the Phoenix area has dust storms, especially in the SE Valley suburbs. It's kind of a similar situation as to why so many dust storms occurred in the Central Plains during the 1930s.

[BIG CATS]

Man, these high pollution advisories are out of control this summer. I'm seeing at least 2-3 per week it seems.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

Man, these high pollution advisories are out of control this summer. I'm seeing at least 2-3 per week it seems.

A little research can go a long ways-

"...ADEQ admits that while the number of high pollution advisory days may have gone up, it doesn't necessarily mean the air quality in the Valley is getting worse.

"The more stringent standard is why we're seeing more health watches and high pollution advisories, said ADEQ Air Quality Director Timothy Franquist.

In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the level that ozone must reach to trigger an advisory.

Air quality officials told 12 News that they estimate more than half the pollution in Arizona air comes from Asia, so there's little they can do to combat the pollution in the air. Combine that with more cars on the road, and more sunlight in the West that interacts with compounds to form ozone, and Arizona gets more pollution advisories.

But the EPA's own numbers show the number of high ozone days has declined since 2000.

Arizona even sued the EPA, along with four other states, over the new ozone standards, saying they're unrealistic and punish the state for pollution that's out of it's control. That lawsuit, officials said, is still pending.

So, we can verify that the alerts are legitimate, even as we can verify that the Valley's air quality is not getting worse."

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by locolife

A little research can go a long ways-

"...ADEQ admits that while the number of high pollution advisory days may have gone up, it doesn't necessarily mean the air quality in the Valley is getting worse.

"The more stringent standard is why we're seeing more health watches and high pollution advisories, said ADEQ Air Quality Director Timothy Franquist.

In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the level that ozone must reach to trigger an advisory.

Air quality officials told 12 News that they estimate more than half the pollution in Arizona air comes from Asia, so there's little they can do to combat the pollution in the air. Combine that with more cars on the road, and more sunlight in the West that interacts with compounds to form ozone, and Arizona gets more pollution advisories.

But the EPA's own numbers show the number of high ozone days has declined since 2000.

Arizona even sued the EPA, along with four other states, over the new ozone standards, saying they're unrealistic and punish the state for pollution that's out of it's control. That lawsuit, officials said, is still pending.

So, we can verify that the alerts are legitimate, even as we can verify that the Valley's air quality is not getting worse."

So there is hope. Once the new EPA administration raises the number, the alerts will stop and the perception will be that the air is pristine once again.

[Valley Native]

The visual pollution is actually worse during the winter months, and you can see the brown cloud on days when it's clear & calm. During the summer, ozone is the culprit and that is the invisible pollutant. It's made worse by the constant sunny, hot days. So the bottom line is: if you want better air quality, the only way to get that naturally is through more rain & storm systems. If you like the sunny, dry climate here, then the not so good air quality is what you're going to have to contend with.

[Java Jolt]

Brushing off the air quality issue and saying we should just deal with it because of our climate is misleading and plain wrong.

There are things all of us can do to reduce carbon dioxide which is the main pollutant and it's contributing to warmer temperatures. Air Pollution Causes, Effects, and Solutions

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

Brushing off the air quality issue and saying we should just deal with it because of our climate is misleading and plain wrong.

There are things all of us can do to reduce carbon dioxide which is the main pollutant and it's contributing to warmer temperatures. Air Pollution Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Great! Another B.S. story (Nat Geo link) that says we can "curb global warming"...

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by Java Jolt

Brushing off the air quality issue and saying we should just deal with it because of our climate is misleading and plain wrong.

There are things all of us can do to reduce carbon dioxide which is the main pollutant and it's contributing to warmer temperatures. Air Pollution Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Is Phoenix's air quality getting worse? | 12NEWS.com

You should read this article. While air pollution is a problem in Phoenix, there are actually statistics showing that our air quality isn't getting worse. Vehicle exhaust is a big contributor to the air quality here. So sure, we could reduce pollution even more if you're willing to get rid of your gas powered car and go all electric ... however, electric cars are generally slower, and the batteries are enormously expensive to replace.

Otherwise, a good share of the visible pollution is dust, which is something that can possibly be controlled, but it's a natural part of living in a desert climate like this. As I've said before, our worst pollution days occur when we get long stretches of clear, sunny, calm weather. If you want better air quality, the best natural way to obtain that is to have more rain & storm systems in here. Of course, then the sun freaks would be complaining about that!

[IceBear12]

The pollution can't be any worse than Salt Lake City. On some days you can't even see the Wasatch mountains right next to us it's so bad. Thanks oil refineries!