Even if it chokes them to death, right?
Move Over Bakersfield: Fairbanks may have Nation’s Highest Daily PM2.5April 8, 2015 by fbxkindling
Preliminary data from EPA shows Fairbanks, AK likely had the highest daily PM2.5 in the nation during 2012 to 2014.
On May 1, EPA will finalize sampling data for 2014. 2012 and 2013 have already been finalized. A three-year average is used to calculate nonattainment.
Fairbanks data from air pollution monitor sites, operated by the Fairbanks North Star Borough, are provided to the State of Alaska and submitted to EPA. A review of final and preliminary EPA data show that the three-year average of Fairbanks daily PM2.5 for 2012 to 2014 will be double that of Bakersfield, CA. EPA currently lists Bakersfield as having the highest daily PM2.5 for 2011 to 2013.
Table: 98th Percentile 24-hour PM2.5 2012-2014, preliminary
*EPA to finalize 2014 monitor data May 1, 2015.| Monitor Location, Site ID | 2012 | 2013 | 2014* | 3-year Average* | | Hurst Rd, FNSB, 020900035 | 158.4 | 121.6 | 138 | 139 | | Bakersfield, Kern, 060290014 | 56.4 | 71.8 | 80 | 69 |
In fact, the astonishingly high monitor concentrations recorded at the Hurst Road residential neighborhood in 2012 and 2013 make it mathematically impossible for Bakersfield to hold on to its #1 ranking as worst 24-hour PM2.5 polluted community in the US. Bakersfield, get ready to move over for Fairbanks.
Data Sources:
epa.gov
epa.gov
Fairbanks, Alaska
Via frontierscientists.com
Farther north than most of Canada, in that remote wilderness outpost virtually isolated from the metropolitan ills of the 21st century, you will find one of America’s most polluted cities. How can this be, when it’s clear global warming hasn’t had much to say in Fairbanks? Well that’s just the problem. Alaskans need copious amounts of fuel to survive, and that far north of the 49th no source makes more sense than burning wood. There’s no gas pipeline and fuel costs $4.50 a gallon. This shapes lax regulations which let residents burn just about anything to meet their energy needs, from wood to trash to animal carcasses. And so in Fairbanks, population 100,000, furnaces burn all night and keep the city suspended in a halo of smoke and particulate dust. |
