When the Smoke Clears
Monica Vaughan, KVPR; California Air Resources Board; San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District
Twenty years ago, California legislators passed a law to ban agricultural burning in the San Joaquin Valley to reduce pollution and improve public health. But the practice never ended. Now, air regulators are implementing a new plan to end most burning in the next few years. Will it work?
In this series, reporters Kerry Klein and Monica Vaughan explore why farmers are reluctant to switch to alternatives to burning despite massive amounts of incentive funding, and why clean air advocates and residents are skeptical the smoke will actually clear.
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The San Joaquin Valley air district committed to ending open agricultural burning by 2025, but nearly two decades of postponing the ban have left clean air advocates dubious that local air regulators will follow through. -
Long-term exposure to the particulate matter released by open agricultural burning has been associated with a suite of health problems, and the communities most affected are majority-Latino. -
In their new plan to ban agricultural burning, air regulators are using outreach and financial incentives to convince growers to adopt an alternative known as whole orchard recycling. -
Even with $220 million in financial incentives, growers are wondering how they’ll afford whole orchard recycling in the long term–especially small farmers, who have fewer resources to begin with. -
A California senator set out to ban agricultural burning in the San Joaquin Valley nearly 20 years ago. A messy political fight left a legal loophole that allowed air regulators to postpone the deadline. -
After a federal judge ruled that the EPA wrongly approved of a flawed plan to reduce San Joaquin Valley air pollution, clean air advocates hope the federal agency will step in to strengthen regulations of polluting industries.
