Air quality on the Nipomo Mesa: The rest of the ‘dust rule’ story

The Tribune carried a front-page story March 17 on the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District’s Rule 1001 being upheld in court. The rule is intended to reduce the amount of dust pollution from the Oceano Dunes. Since that story ran, a multitude of people have commented about the “good news” and how the struggle for clean air on the Nipomo Mesa can now be easily resolved.

Make no mistake: The decision upholding Rule 1001 is good news, but the reality is not quite as positive as the story suggests.

Rule 1001 has been in place since 2011, yet there has been very little dust reduction since then. This is largely because the APCD has been sued six times since the rule was adopted, because State Parks has continued to delay implementing meaningful mitigation measures that are already known and, frankly, because of political agendas.

One important accomplishment has been the installation of a “control” monitor downwind of the southern nonriding area by Oso Flaco Lake, which is collecting data about the level of natural background dust from the area of the park where there are no vehicles. This data is then compared with the data gathered by other monitors that measure dust from the riding area, and the difference is the amount of particulate pollution generated by park activity. The differences are considerable, which support the results of both the APCD and State Parks scientific studies that show off-highway riding in the park (and especially the La Grande Tract) is generating high levels of particulate pollution that represents a significant threat to the health of Mesa residents.

But that has been the gist of progress under the rule. Not much to show for five years of seeking “regulatory relief,” which is why the Mesa Community Alliance (MCA) filed a lawsuit against State Parks to compel it to mitigate this health hazard within a reasonable time frame. The goal of the lawsuit is to achieve clean air for those on the Mesa while preserving Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area operations. More hay bales and wind fences are not needed. State Parks’ own studies show that restoring the vegetated foredunes near the ocean that have been destroyed by vehicle activity would cut the wind sufficiently in the riding area and significantly reduce the dust carried up to the Mesa. Additionally, the planting of a few strategically placed vegetation islands within small inland sections of the riding area to absorb errant dust would finish the job and reduce the pollution to near-background, naturally-occurring levels. Some vegetated islands already exist in the riding area, so this is not introducing an exotic departure from the norm. But State Parks has resisted embracing this simple, inexpensive solution.

Think about it: Some years, 99 days a year, Mesa residents are subjected to hazardous silica dust that truly threatens human health. Even in a relatively “good year” like 2015, state standards for particulate matter were exceeded 62 days. And that is not the whole story, because particulate matter standards are based on a 24-hour average. At night, the wind generally does not blow. What we know for sure is that on days where state standards are not violated, during the peak windy parts of the day when most people would like to be outside (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), pollution levels can be significantly above safe levels.

So while we are happy the rule is preserved, we continue to believe the legal system is the only viable avenue to resolution. Left to its own devices, State Parks’ Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division has demonstrated that it is more than willing to take an additional 20 years to embark upon an unnecessary “iterative process” rather than take simple steps that could start improving our air quality now. The Mesa Community Alliance is working its way through the courts, and it is seeking a win-win solution. Clean air can be achieved. The park can continue to operate at almost the level it does today.

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Air quality on the Nipomo Mesa: The rest of the ‘dust rule’ story."