Fresno, CA

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is made up of three Valley city representatives, plus eleven governing board with representatives from Board of Supervisors of all eight Valley counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern. The purpose of the District is to “improve the health and quality of life for all Valley residents.” Funding for the District comes from three sources: permit fees by paid by businesses within the Valley, a $7 surcharge for every vehicle registered in the District, and federal and state grants.

Although studies have shown the main causes of the Valley’s pollution to be agriculture, diesel trucks, and diesel buses, the District has put regulations on wood burning. The Valley has only three months of cold weather. On winter days when pollution levels are high the District announces restrictions on wood burning, called Spare the Air days.

The District has adopted what it calls the “Fast Track to clean air.” Launched in June 2007, Fast Track is “designed to clean up the valley’s air sooner than the 2024 federal attainment deadline.” Fast Track is composed of three aspects:

• Expedited regulations by the state Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency;
• Significant increases in incentive funding to be used in the Valley;
• Innovative emission-reduction measures.

Fast Track includes strategies and initiatives to cut Valley pollution. Among the strategies is green contracting, where the District would “compel cities and counties…to select contractors/vendors that use low-emission fleets and processes.”

Short-sea shipping goods between northern and southern California to reduce the trucks and trains passing through the Valley is another Fast Track initiative. The District admits short-sea shipping will “take a long time to implement.”

“Valley smog has been reduced by 80 percent since the 1980s, and the District is continuing to take a leadership role to reach attainment as soon as possible,” Seyed Sadredin, the Air District’s Executive Director/Air Pollution Control Officer, said. “Those who champion clean air are invited to join us in developing this ‘Fast Track’ plan to clean the valley’s air.”

Despite Sadredin’s optimism regarding the Valley’s air quality, the American Lung Association ranked Fresno number four in their 2007 list of the 26 most polluted cities. Four other Valley cities made the list: Bakersfield (2nd), Visalia (3rd), Modesto (13th), and Hanford (14th).

The environmental magazine Grist released a list of the world’s greenest cities. No, Fresno did not make the list. However, it is possible that Fresno could become one of the greenest cities in the world. Several solar projects are planned for the Fresno area, including an 80-megawatt solar plant in west Fresno County. The Fresno Yosemite International Airport will install a two-megawatt system, the largest of any airport in the U.S. California State University, Fresno is constructing a parking structure topped with solar panels, which will supply 20 percent of the university’s electricity.

Using solar energy is smart in an area where it is sunny and warm nine months of the year. Yet the cost of installing solar panels on your home will cost you anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000, according to Solar Developments, an online solar energy equipment supplier. The high cost makes it unaffordable for many Fresno homeowners and businesses. However, the possibility of Fresno becoming the “solar belt” might cause momentum to make solar panels affordable.

The planned solar projects stand in contrast to Fresno’s public transportation, which consists of bus system Fresno Area Express. Riders complain that buses do not run in the evening. A light rail system similar to the Bay Area’s BART is needed in Fresno. The Center for Air Quality and Transit Technology of Central California (CATTCC) conducted a ten-year study titled, “Study for a Fresno Transit System.” The study found that a CyberTran (an electric, lightweight rail passenger system) would be “most suitable for Central California’s transit needs.”

Fresno is the largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, a region considered to be one of the most polluted in the U.S. For Fresno to become green residents must unite and demand more from their local and state governments. As Abraham Lincoln famously declared, the government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

The World’s Greenest Cities

1. Rekyjavik, Iceland
2. Portland, Oregon, U.S.
3. Curitiba, Brazil
4. Malmö, Sweden
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Copenhagen, Denmark
7. London, England
8. San Francisco, California
9. Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
10. Sydney, Australia
11. Barcelona, Spain
12. Bogotá, Colombia
13. Bangkok, Thailand
14. Kampala, Uganda
15. Austin, Texas

Runners up:

Chicago, IL, U.S.
Freiburg, Germany
Seattle, WA, U.S.
Quebec City, Canada

The San Joaquin River is the second largest river in California. Spanish Army Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga named the river in 1808. He is considered to be the first non-native to explore the river. In 1850 the county that bordered the river was named “San Joaquin County.” The entire Central Valley eventually became known as the San Joaquin Valley.

The Central Valley Project (CVP) began in 1933 as a long term plan to use water in the San Joaquin Valley, and construction of the Friant Dam began in 1940. Water from the San Joaquin River was diverted to place the dam’s concrete. Completed in the early 1950s, the dam by the 1980s had “long, wide cracks,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. The cracks were caused by the alkali “carried by the San Joaquin River.”

The water diverted from the river caused the salmon runs to cease. Stretches of what used to be the San Joaquin River are dry, barren places. As a result, the California state legislature created the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust in 1992. The goals of the Trust are namely to implement a 22-mile “greenspace and wildlife corridor” along the river (called the San Joaquin River Master Plan), and buy 5,200 acres from “willing sellers” at fair market value.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation reached an agreement in October 2006 with the Department of Commerce, the Friant Water Users Authority, and environmental organizations concerning the San Joaquin River restoration. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, “The settlement focuses on achieving two equally important goals: first, a restored San Joaquin River with continuous flows to sustain naturally reproducing salmon between Friant Dam and the Merced River; and secondly, a water management program to minimize water supply impacts and provide water supply certainty for the farmers in the Friant service area who have built a million acre agricultural region based on water supplies from the river.”

The San Joaquin River Restoration Act was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2007. Subcommittee hearings were held in March. The Act would require the Secretary of the Interior to implement the agreement reached in October 2006.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, opposes the settlement. He said in June, “There are major problems with this settlement.” Fellow Republican, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, supports the settlement, as does Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.