Clean air & water:

Essential ingredients for a healthy quality of life

Everyone knows that air and water are essential to life but not everyone realizes how endangered both are in the Central Valley. Our region’s air quality has long been among the nation’s worst, while our reliance on groundwater has dangerously diminished the supply. The result? A quality of life that is hampered, but not hopeless.

Slowly but surely, progress is being made to clean our air and preserve our water, paving the way for real improvement in the Valley’s quality of life.

Air quality clearly improving

After decades of decline, Fresno County’s air quality is on the rebound. According to the Air Quality Index, our region has recorded the fewest “unhealthy” air-quality days in recent history, and has significantly reduced the number of days in which federal and state air-pollution standards were exceeded. This is largely due to stricter regulations on stationary sources of pollutants, such as factories and refineries.

Keeping groundwater underground

Fresno County is also making strides to reduce our reliance on groundwater. Fresno and Clovis are now using surface water treatment facilities that recapture surface water and ease groundwater usage. The City of Fresno plans to add another surface water treatment facility, while the City of Clovis has plans for a sewage treatment facility that will produce water for landscape irrigation.

Additionally, the development of a San Joaquin Valley Regional Water Plan is under way — a result of recently-enacted legislation requiring state departments to give funding preference to regional water programs.

More work ahead

While regulation on stationary sources of pollution has improved the Valley’s overall air quality, the focus will next shift to regulation of mobile sources such as cars and trucks. Affordable methods of replacing old machinery with new technology are being explored and air quality agencies are beginning to work together to address the problem. One such collaboration — the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley Air Quality Work Group — is already under way.

Storing, treating and transporting water will require improved infrastructure throughout the Valley. Without it, our region will never break its dependence on ground water. Similarly, current laws and regulations make water transfer difficult and inefficient. Local, regional and state agencies must work together to change those regulations.

Perhaps the most immediate action that can be taken is conservation. This requires no infrastructure, no legislation. Just a common desire to preserve the resources that affect our quality of life. From carpooling to taking shorter showers to using sprinklers and fireplaces only on designated days, everyone can practice conservation in the daily choices we make.

For more information, visit: www.valleyair.org www.waterplan.water.ca.gov