ANTELOPE VALLEY SKIES REPORTED CLEANEST IN 20 YEARS.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Antelope Valley's air appears to be getting cleaner, meeting federal air quality standards on all but one day in 1996 compared to five days in 1995 - the best performance in 20 years. During a year that for Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, overall had the best air quality in 50 years, the valley also marked its seventh consecutive year of no first- or second-stage smog alerts, according to data released Thursday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), formed in 1976, is the air pollution agency responsible mainly for regulating stationary sources of air pollution for most of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside County, and all of Orange county. . ``It's pretty clean,'' AQMD AQMD Air Quality Management District AQMD Action Quake Map Depot spokesman Sam Atwood said of Antelope Valley's air. ``It's pretty close to compliance.'' The federal clean-air standard is .12 parts per million parts per million mg/kg or ml/l; see ppm. of ozone, which is a major component of Southern California smog - created when emissions from factories and cars mix and react with each other in the air. AQMD officials attributed the improvement in Southern California smog levels to a variety of factors, including the development of cleaner cars, fuels and consumer products. Major industries are also required to meet AQMD standards, which the agency calls the most stringent in the world. Those standards have prompted industries to turn to cleaner burning natural gas as a fuel source and to install advanced emission control systems. The Los Angeles basin The Los Angeles Basin is the coastal sediment-filled plain located between the peninsular and transverse ranges in southern California in the United States containing the central part of the city of Los Angeles as well as its southern and southeastern suburbs (both in Los Angeles has a major effect on local air quality. Most of the valley's air pollution blows in from the Los Angeles basin and the San Joaquin Valley Noun 1. San Joaquin Valley - a vast valley in central California known for its rich farmland Calif., California, Golden State, CA - a state in the western United States on the Pacific; the 3rd largest state; known for earthquakes . The Antelope Valley's ozone levels have improved markedly since the late 1970s - when Stage 1 smog alerts came every year. From 1977 through 1981 every year there were one or more days of Stage 1 smog alerts - including seven days each in 1980 and 1981, records show. The number of days the Antelope Valley failed to meet standards hit a peak in 1981 with 82. The number fluctuated through the 1980s, but has been in a steady decline since the 25 days recorded in 1992. |
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