Air Pollution in the San Joaquin Valley

The San Joaquin Valley, the richest agricultural region in the world, is a beautiful place to live and work. But the Valley has certain characteristics that make pollution easy to accumulate and make it hard to get rid of. For example, the Valley is shaped like a giant bowl, with the lovely Sierra Nevada mountains to the east, the Coast Range to the west, and the Tehachapi mountains to the south. To the far north, in the Sacramento Valley, are more mountains. The climate in the Valley – long, sunny summer days and cold winter nights -- is ideal for growing the lush crops that make the Valley so famous. But it’s also the perfect environment to incubate the components of ozone, or smog. And in the winter, those cozy residential fireplaces put tons of dangerous particulate pollution into the skies.