Upon reaching a large milestone in improving air quality, the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (District) prepared and recently released the 2011 Snapshot Report. The Report announces the District’s recent achievement of attaining the Federal 1-hour Ozone Standard, but also acknowledges that there is still much to be done. The District, which includes all of Sacramento County and Yolo County, along with portions of El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, and Solano counties, has yet to meet the health standards for ground-level ozone, which it claims will take additional years because the emissions causing the ozone exceedence come from mobile sources. There are, however, many incentive and collaborative programs in place for other agencies, governments and citizens to assist with reducing emissions. So far, these programs have removed nearly 11 tons of pollution per day from the region. One such program is the School Bus Program which has delivered over 500 school bus replacements and retrofits for cleaner and healthier buses. Programs also include the Bicycle Parking Program, which will install new bike racks throughout the District to encourage this cleaner form of transportation, and the Check Before You Burn program, which has provided the largest emission reductions seen in the area. With the continued effort of the District, multiple incentive programs, and the community support and compliance, the District has already seen a dramatic decrease in air pollution and hopes to continue this downward trend into the future. The 2011 Snapshot Report can be viewed at the Sacramento County homepage. A direct link to the report is found at: Snapshot Report
Written By: Tina Thomas, Michele Tong and Holly McMannes (law clerk)
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