Valley air is being negatively impacted by wildfires in other counties.The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District is blaming the bad air around Bakersfield on a pair of wildfires more than a hundred miles away. The Mineral Fire in Fresno County and the Soberanes Fire in Monterey County have been sending smoke down through the Valley to our area. Spokeswoman Jaime Holt says the Erskine Fire or the one near Bear Valley Springs don’t contribute as much to pollution because smoke on the east side tends to get blown further east. A fire along the coastal mountains get blown into the Valley and has no place to go. Trees burning produce ozone as well as particulate matter pollution because it’s combustion, the same as from a car. The fire season in California usually starts in mid-August but has been underway for over a month and that could make for a long, smoggy summer.

Sean Michael Lisle