EDITOR: I was already fuming about the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District Board’s current campaign to gauge public reaction to the concept of compulsory compliance with their “Please Don’t Light Tonight” program. Then, while driving through the valley the other day, I couldn’t help observing and being repulsed by the sight of the air – pause for thought – hanging over the hills, hovering over the valley, and making Mt. Diablo barely discernable in the distance.
Voluntary compliance is not only a good idea, I believe it a social responsibility to help do our part to protect the environment. The 'sight of the air’ made me wonder whether voluntary compliance is enough, given the worsening situation. It was then that I approached and drove by an orchard with open fires going, one on each end, burning waste and spewing black gook into the air unabated. This, on a designated “Please Don’t Light Tonight’ day. Then, I observed the crud pouring out each of the two diesel stacks on both the 18-wheeler in front of me and the one behind me.
At that moment it occurred to me that I had every right to be angry about such attempts to encroach upon my freedom to do as I wish in my own home, given the lack of a similar crackdown on business and industry – specifically energy, agriculture and trucking. Especially when the Air District board spreads misinformation by touting a misleading statistic of 30% of Particulate Matter (PM) during winter months being emitted from residential fireplaces. The truth is that 3% of the pollution in the San Joaquin Valley comes from home fireplaces and wood stoves. Motor vehicles contribute 57% of the total pollution – with a large part coming from the trucking industry. Another 20% comes from industry and agricultural open burning, and another 20% coming from off-road vehicles and lawn or garden equipment (mostly tractors and farm equipment.)
Then there is Tracy's beloved Biomass plant. One of the mitigation offers from GWF to offset the additional pollution from the Peaker Plant was $40,000 to retrofit the diesel engines at the Biomass plant and therefore reduce the annual pollution emissions from the plant by 75 tons annually. I don’t believe the retrofitting has yet been done. For what, in in the world are they waiting? Is it for another 75 tons of avoidable pollution to be released into our air and ultimately into our lungs?
The Air District Board is also attempting to lead the public to believe they actually have authority to mandate compliance in their program. The members of this board are not elected by the voters, but rather are comprised of applicants who are selected and appointed by the County Board of Supervisors, thus they are not a legislative body and cannot make laws.
We’ve got to do something, I agree. However impinging on residents rights without cracking down with equal or greater intensity on the real polluters, and misleading the public is not the answer. Perhaps instead of threatening fines, if tax incentives and education were offered for the complying residents as they are for industry, a better compliance rate would result.
Either way, since public reaction is being sought, here is mine. Until similar approaches are made to regulate industrial and other much larger pollution sources, while I will be happy to voluntarily comply with requests to not use my fireplace, the day the air board threatens my freedom is the day I will suggest to its members that they can climb onto my roof, place their lips around my chimney stack, and suck my smoke!
Dan Wells
Tracy