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The airsheds, or atmospheric basins, which form the boundaries for the polluted air mass generally conform to the natural watersheds. The topographic boundaries, the windflow pattern and rate of movement, together with the containing ceiling of the warm inversion layer, limit the amount of air available to most communities and the valuable land, agriculture, and recreational resource. The principal airsheds of California have been described and illustrated and are reproduced in figure 3 (13). The areas in California affected by photochemical air pollution all occur within these airsheds as shown by the overlay of affected areas upon airsheds given in figure 4. The lightly shaded zones of the airshed are the areas with an air pollution potential and may be designated as sites requiring regional air pollution control programs designed to prevent

Figure 2

Photochemical air pollution and plant damage occurs in the shaded areas distributed in 26 of California's 58 counties

the further encroachment of the pollution cloud within the atmospheric basin. Pollution now occurs in all but one of California's principal airsheds, suggesting that concerted efforts and new approaches be used to prevent or delay the soiling of the atmosphere in the Monterey airshed.

These several considerations suggest that it is necessary in planning community development to take cognizance of the relationship between the air resource and the community needs for commercial and industrial development, energy production, fuel usage and transportation, agriculture, and forest and recreation land. Adequate air conservation depends upon total community planning and, because the quality of air affects both the nation's natural resources and its economy, it is important that the protection of the air resource be placed in the hands of a team of trained minds in the several disciplines concerned. Further, because air pollution has characteristics common to many cities, counties, and States, it is important that there be a national effort to develop acceptable air quality standards, a national effort to control motor-vehicle-created air pollution, and strong Federal leadership to develop an effective national air conservation program.

Figure 3 The five principal airsheds in California are shaded and are designated as (1) South Coast, (2) Monterey, (3) Central Coast, and contiguous (4) Sacramento and (5) San Joaquin

Figure 4

The presence of photochemical air pollution (diagonal shading) within the principal California airsheds (vertical shading) is shown by crosshatched shading

REFERENCES

1. Annual Report of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Oxidant Sampling Networks, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C. (coordinated by Division of Air Pollution), 24 pp. (1962).

2. BEYER, GEORGE L., Jr., and WILLIAM A. MUNROE, "Atmospheric Oxidants in New Jersey," Report of the New Jersey State Department of Health, Trenton, N.J., 18 pp.

3. BRCIVOGEL, M., S. S. GRISWOLD, A. HASEGAWA, and J. R. TAYLOR, "Air Pollution-Potential Advisory Service for Industrial Zoning Cases," J. Air Pollution Control Assoc. 11: 327-35 (1961).

4. California Administrative Code, title 17, chapter 5, subchapter 5, article 1, "Standards for Ambient Air Quality."

5. California Legislature, Assembly Interim Committee on Public Health, Subcommittee on Air Pollution, "Motor Vehicle-Created Air Pollution-A Control Program for California," Assembly Interim Committee Reports 9(22): 1-48 (1960).

6. California State Department of Public Health, "Monitoring Reveals Severe Air Pollution Incidents in Central Valley," Clean Air Quarterly 5(4): 1-6 (1961).

7. CLARKSON, DIANA, and JOHN T. MIDDLETON, “California Control Program for Motor Vehicle-Created Air Pollution," J. Air Pollution Control Assoc. 11: 22-28 (1961).

8. GRISWOLD, S. S., R. L. CHASS, R. E. GEORGE, and R. G. HOLMES, "An Evaluation of Natural Gas as a Means of Reducing Industrial Air Pollution,” J. Air Pollution Control Assoc. 12: 155–163 (1962). 9. HAAGEN-SMIT, A. J., "Urban Air Pollution," Advances in Geophysics 6: 1-18 (1959).

10. HAMMING, W. J., P. P. MADER, S. W. NICKSIC, J. C. ROMANOVSKY, and L. G. WAYNE, “Gasoline Composition and the Control of Smog," Joint Report of Western Oil and Gas Assoc. and Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District (1961). 11. HEPTING, GEORGE H. and Charles R. Berry, “Differentiating Needle Blights of White Pine in the Interpretation of Fume Damage," International J. Air and Water Pollution 4: 101-105 (1961). 12. LEIGHTON, P. A., "Photochemistry of Air Pollution," Academic Press, N.Y. (1961).

13. MIDDLETON, DIANA C., "Air Conservation in California: Evolution of Public Policy in Control of Air Pollution," Master's Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 79 pp. (January 1963).

14. MIDDLETON, JOHN T., "Photochemical Air Pollution Damage to Plants," Ann. Review of Plant Physiology 13: 431-448 (1961).

15. MIDDLETON, J. T., and A. J. HAAGEN-SMIT, "The Occurrence, Distribution, and Significance of Photochemical Air Pollution in the United States, Canada, and Mexico," J. Air Pollution Control Assoc. 11: 129-134 (1961).

16. MIDDLETON, JOHN T., and DIANA C. MIDDLETON, "Air Pollution and California's State Control Program," Proc. American Petroleum Institute 42 (III) (in press) (1962).

17. STEPHENS, E. R., E. F. DARLEY, O. C. TAYLOR, and W. E. SCOTT, "Photochemical Reaction Products in Air Pollution,” Proc. American Petroleum Institute 40 (III): 325–338 (1960).

18. STERN, ARTHUR C., "Changes in Identity and Quantity of Pollutants, Past, Present, and Future,” Proc. National Conference on Air Pollution, U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C., pp. 46-93 (1958).

19. WEXLER, HARRY, "The Role of Meteorology in Air Pollution," World Health Organization Monograph Series 46: 49-62 (1961).

Prepared Discussion: AIR CONSERVATION AND THE PROTECTION OF OUR NATURAL RESOURCES

ARIE JAN HAAGEN-SMIT Division of Biology California Institute of Technology Pasadena, Calif.

Dr. Middleton has emphasized two aspects of control of air pollution. One is the control at the source and the other is the control through proper planning in the development of the community. Living as I do in a smog-plagued city, I could not agree more with him. Source control has been exercised in Los Angeles on stationary sources so effectively that smoke and fumes are no longer a serious problem. Through this control real estate values have been increased and housing developments are now seen in formerly desolate uninhabitable areas.

Because of this improved situation, however, a new set of complaints develop from people who have moved to within a short distance from the

pollution source. Some of these people may be grateful for control, which made it possible to settle in the new development; to most, the fact stands out that there are still pollutants released and they will not rest until new and more efficient controls have been applied. This points to one of the fundamental laws of air pollution abatement, that control is always a balance between the desire to obtain as clear air as possible and the price the community is willing to pay for reaching this goal.

Theoretically any amount of control can be accomplished. In practice, this would be prohibitive because the engineering cost rises steeply with increased control efficiency and would soon exceed the value of the products made. A balance has to be found, whereby the air is reasonably inoffensive while at the same time the control cost allows normal economic development and activities to continue. In modern concepts of air pollution control, the consideration of what are acceptable levels of pollution for a community comes first. After this

has been established attempts can then be made to come as close to these levels as engineering methods and economic factors allow.

The adoption of community air quality standards by the Department of Public Health of the State of California is therefore one of the most significant steps in air pollution control in recent years. The adverse levels warn a community that when these are exceeded undesirable symptoms or discomfort may result. It is recognized that the present levels are based on insufficient evidence and that more thorough studies are needed to take into account combined actions of pollutants and the presence of particulate matter. Extrapolation from animal experiments will give some indication of the toxic effects of pollutants on humans; for more accurate information on those effects, however, actual observation of humans will be necessary. A community standard should be a level below which physiological reactions are reversible and which are within the normal variations of body functions. The program of determining the tolerance to foreign materials in the air is a difficult and long-range one and requires proper planning. For leadership in the proper coordination of efforts in this direction we look to the U.S. Public Health Service.

While we would like to have more thoroughly established health standards, the provisional standards for California had to be used to calculate the control needed in Los Angeles to reduce the smog. conditions to a lower and more acceptable frequency and severity. Apparently an 80 percent reduction of the emission of hydrocarbons is needed to reach the 1940 no-smog level. Devices for crankcase fumes are available which accomplish

this; unfortunately, this is not the case for control of the engine exhaust. At present there is no afterburner which will accomplish an average emission necessary to have an 80 percent reduction. Under test conditions they may meet about 70 percent control; however, a communitywide application of such devices will remain far from the theoretical goal. Moreover the premise upon which the control calculations were based assumes that there is no increase in other smog components such as oxides of nitrogen. The steady increase of these combustion products will offset the reduction in hydrocarbons. Also the presence of sources of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen other than motor vehicles, amounting to about one-third of the total basin emission, detracts further from the effectiveness of the control effort.

While it may be necessary to accept the limited control during the early phases of smog abatement, it is essential that strong emphasis is placed on engineering research leading to higher and higher efficiency of the control methods. This is true for motor vehicle control as well as for the more classical problems of dust and fumes. I mention the difficulties in coping with the relentless growth of the communities and their effluents to stress another point which Dr. Middleton brought up; that is the contribution which the community can make by proper planning of its expansions. This involves the development of adequate transportation and parking facilities, zoning of industry, breathing spaces in the form of recreation areas, and many other methods of control dictated by local conditions and opportunities. Many of these indirect controls of air pollution are an asset to the community and have a permanent value for better living.

Although in the State of California motor vehicle control has been brought under State control, it is still the responsibility of local communities to keep their air fit to breathe by whatever means is most suitable-be it direct or indirect control, or a combination of both.

All those engaged in air pollution problems of the magnitude created by our expanding cities have become aware that a broader view has to be taken of the air pollution complex and that smog is only one facet of this complex. Housing, transport, health, and water and air problems are all interrelated, and a diagnosis of the total situation should be made, by trained minds in the several disciplines concerned, as Dr. Middleton suggests.

Uncontrolled growth was all right when there was more room. With a few hundred thousand people migrating yearly to the city, planning has become vital if we want to retain the optimum conditions of living. Such a broad approach needs imaginative leadership in our government but it also needs the enlightened support of the citizens to overcome inertia and wishful thinking.

The idea of an all-out attack on the smog problem is not new. It was well characterized by Dr. Weidlein of the Mellon Institute in a paper presented before the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce describing how his town got started on the road to solving its air pollution problem.

For years Pittsburgh had suffered, but no matter what meetings were held or regulations adopted, its landmark, the Cathedral of Learning, became blacker and blacker. Finally the people of this unhappy town decided one day that they had breathed enough soot. All branches of community life, civic organizations of all kinds, government, labor organizations, army, and church united in a council which had but one goal, namely to see that Pittsburgh was cleaned up. It is from the leader of this organization that I quote:

The story of the smog nuisance is the old and oft told story which runs through the history of American municipalities. It is the story of rapid growth in population and industrial activity, marked by wastefulness of material resources, carelessness in regard to the future, indifference to many things of life, and a blind opposition toward anything which seems to threaten in even a remote way that which is termed prosperity.

After describing the successful completion of his monumental task he concludes with justified pride:

Air pollution control in a modern city and in a mature city is built on a fresh concept of people living together in productive enterprise rewarded in terms of work and enjoyment. The council of the people does not impose, it unites.

These are words of wisdom from a great statesman. They apply to the soot problem in Pittsburgh and to smog control in Los Angeles, but more than that, they are an inspiration to all who are concerned with community problems. We need a willingness on the part of people to forgo some short-term profits in order to gain the far greater benefits of better living conditions for all. To reach this goal we need a united approach by civic groups and government at all levels to give the leadership necessary to carry out a well-designed plan of action which will give us the clean air that we all want.

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