M3.4 Air Pollution

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I live in San Leandro, California which is part of Alameda County. After researching the air quality and pollution my area, I found that the top polluters are as follows:
The city of Fremont has the most environmental releases compared to the city of San Leandro. It seems that most of the pollution comes from the motor and manufacturing industries. Generally, however, Alameda County ranks among the dirtiest 20% of counties in the US. In terms of lead, I was surprised to find out that only 3% of homes have high risk for lead hazards, which was reassuring since I thought it would be a lot more. 

In looking up Superfund sites, I found that Alameda County was ranked among the cleaner 30% of counties in the US. Superfund sites are sites that produce the most toxic waste or the most contaminated in the area and are part of the government's efforts to clean up. I found that there were 2 main Superfund sites that have caused water contamination:
In all of Alameda County, there are only four superfund sites:
My research on air quality using my zipcode didn't really produce results for San Leandro specifically. The closest zipcodes I could find with information were for the city of Oakland and Fremont. Generally speaking, they both have good air quality throughout the year. I was very pleased to see the results, I usually feel that things are worse than they are. Water quality, however, could be better. There seems to be a lot of water contamination/pollution going on in Alameda County which was very sad to see. 
In terms of environmental social justice, low income communities are more likely to experience environmental hazards compared to wealthier communities. This was very distressing to read but I agree with it as this is a definite reality. In reflecting on my visits to lower income communities, there are definitely more sites of pollutions such as manufacturing companies and poorer waste management in these neighborhoods than any other areas.



Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2018 at 4:05 PM

    Super interesting to see the Lawrence Labs listed as superfund sites, and the Alameda Naval Station as county’s leading polluter. Chemical manufacturing facilities are so insidious. Their names are often hidden from public view (understandably), but there are so many more of them than we realize.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sintia ShahbazNovember 5, 2018 at 6:59 PM

    WOW that is interesting with the amount of pollution. I wonder if traffic is contributing to this too. It is interesting to see this because these cities do not have many factories when compared to cities like LA, so I wonder what their air pollution is like?

    ReplyDelete

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