ACTIVISTS LEARN ABOUT SMOKE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Hoping to monitor polluters in their neighborhoods, community activists Wednesday attended the region's first ``Smoke School'' to learn when dust clouds, smoke stacks and idling diesel engines break the law.

The free, five-hour class at the South Coast Air Quality Management District headquarters in Diamond Bar taught attendees how air quality inspectors eyeball puffs of smoke, or visible emissions, and when they issue tickets to violators.

Though the class didn't give activists authority to punish polluters, graduates said they now know how to recognize when smoke is a problem and they'll be more likely to call in complaints.

``In my area, we're constantly seeing plumes and flares, and if you want to report it you need to know how to describe it,'' said Cynthia Babich, director of the Del Amo Action Committee, a local environmental group in the South Bay.

``If the refineries are having a flare-up we'll be able to report it and feel much more confident.''

Smoke School is one piece of the AQMD's Environmental Justice Program, which is aimed at empowering residents to report air pollution and improve air quality. The first class was offered to community leaders and businesses by invitation only, but the district plans to hold more workshops in the future.

``This is an opportunity for community members to become familiar with what exactly is needed for an AQMD inspector to issue a violation for visible emissions,'' said AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood. ``And potentially become our eyes and ears in the community for these violations.''

Last year, the AQMD received 6,700 complaints reporting dust and plumes of smoke - that's well over half the 10,000 complaints the district gets in a year.

Often, callers mistake water vapor from stacks for smoke. So the first lesson of the day was how to recognize condensed water vapor, which makes a pure white, fluffy plume that quickly dissipates as it moves away from the stack.

Some gases and particulate matter, on the other hand, leave a tell-tale brownish stain on the sky. These visible pollutants can drop soot and very fine particulate matter, which can lodge deep in the lungs and over time worsen respiratory and heart conditions.

Students also learned how to tell when a dust cloud or smoke plume is denser than 20 percent and violates the AQMD's visible emission rules. At 20 percent opacity, smoke or dust forms a light, whispy cloud and Smoke School students were surprised how strict the visible emission limits are.

``We see this all the time and worse,'' said Jesus Torres, a community organizer who works in the Wilmington area with Communities for a Better Environment. ``This gives me a better feel for what's allowed.''

But catching visible emission violations can be tricky, as they can dissipate quickly with a change of weather. The AQMD's 106 inspectors are all certified smoke readers and are supposed to respond immediately to complaints during working hours. But after-hours, it takes three citizen calls to trigger an inspector to go out. Residents can report visible emissions by calling (800) CUT-SMOG.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com