Air Quality is just one of many issues SACOG has studied as it prepares the Metropolitan Transportation Plan for 2035. This is an overview of air quality in the Sacramento region, where it comes from, and what can be done to improve it. For the full issue paper or briefs on a series of issues visit www.sacog.org/mtp2035 or call (916) 321-9000.
Our region has some of the worst air quality in the nation, but it has continued to improve in spite of a substantial increase in population over the last two decades. During that time, regulators have focused on reducing ozone through new rules on business, tightening smog controls on cars, cleaner diesel engines, better fuels, and programs like Spare the Air. Ozone levels have declined by 20 percent over this period, but Sacramento is required to reduce them another 20 percent by 2013. Ozone has historically been the focus of air pollution control, but particulate matter also has serious consequences for human health. New research and health information led to a new federal standard that allows only half as much pollution.
According to the California Air Resources Board, premature deaths linked to particulate matter are now at levels comparable to the deaths from traffic accidents and second-hand smoke. Failure to improve air quality will also make it more difficult to attract or expand businesses. In order to receive state and federal funding for roads, transit and other transportation projects, SACOG must adopt a Metropolitan Transportation Plan and a Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program that meet federal air quality standards.
Due to its geography, California's Central Valley has the greatest potential to develop air quality problems of anywhere in the nation. The Coast Range on the west and the Sierra Nevada on the east, combined with the summer inversion layer that rests on top of the region, contribute to trapping the air pollution we create.
Incentive programs for re-powering, retrofitting or replacing heavy-duty diesel trucks have reduced emissions in the region by six tons per day. We should continue to clean up vehicles and equipment through state and federal regulations and local and regional incentive programs.
If the region continues its past land use patterns, at some point in the not-too-distant future, it is projected that the region 's air quality will start declining again. The Blueprint Preferred Scenario provides realistic alternatives to single occupant vehicles for more people and more trips.
It will cost our region millions of dollars in incentive programs and regulatory costs to reach current and projected air quality standards. These costs must be weighed against the health costs associated with not providing healthy air. The economic cost of air pollution to our region is estimated to be at least $1 billion.
With SACOG's assistance, the air districts in the Sacramento region have been very successful in securing local, state, and federal funding to provide incentives to replace and retrofit diesel vehicles and equipment in a cost-effective manner. Additional funding sources must be considered to clean up the heavy-duty diesel fleet, diesel school buses, construction and agricultural equipment and "gross emitter" vehicles.
Most of the "easy" emission reductions have already been secured. The air districts of the Sacramento region are using innovative strategies for reducing air pollution that have served as models for the rest of the state and nation, including: cleaning up the heavy-duty fleet; railyard clean up in Roseville, Spare the Air and Cool Communities programs, quantifying the benefits of urban forests, and encouraging land uses that rely less on the automobile.
Our economy depends heavily on burning fossil fuels to grow, manufacture, and transport the goods we depend on for our quality of life. Estimated impacts from climate change include a fourfold increase in the incidence of asthma, increasing sea levels, increases in vector-borne diseases, reduced snow pack, and increases in heat-related deaths.
Efforts are underway at local, regional, state, federal and international levels to address and reverse the human-caused impacts, including a commitment by the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 11 percent by 2010, 25 percent by 2020, and ultimately by 2050 to 80 percent below 1990 levels.
We are making slow progress toward changes that can reduce the impacts of climate change. Individual decisions and local policies and programs, like Blueprint, that result in reduced driving will provide additional benefits because all engines that burn fossil fuels produce climate change emissions and reducing their use will help. It will be important in the coming years for elected officials, various governments and responsible agencies to work together on comprehensive programs that greatly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but in a way that maintains a viable and positive quality of life for everyone in the Sacramento region.
Regional Report for April - May 2007 (text-only version)
Sacramento Area Council of Governments