One of my big disappointments is the EPA's reduction in the number of air quality monitors. I live about 50 miles from Bakersfield in the Kern River Valley. The reason it is important to have many monitors is that the air quality in Bakersfield is not the same as the air quality here in the mountains. Yet the EPA does not seem to care. During fire season, for example, the air up here can be filled with smoke and absolutely deadly while the air quality in Bakersfield is not too bad.
And vice versa, the air quality in Bakersfield can be horrible at times when the air quality up here is great.
For my own survival I have come to trust the purple air dot com monitors more than what I see on the EPA website because there are many more of them and they more accurately reflect what is going on. Across the lake in Kernville is a canyon that contains the Kern River. The River flows down from Mt. Whitney from 14,000 feet to 3,000 feet. The smoke follows the river down. That may or may not make it all the way to where I live on the other side of the Lake. Depends on where the fire is.
And so I would encourage the EPA to install and maintain more monitors so that data collected can more accurately reflect reality. Making assumptions about Kern County by just monitoring the air in Bakersfield is not accurate.
