Newhall Pass image courtesy of Flickr
So the Signal is really proud of the work that’s being done on the Newhall Pass that will lead (ultimately) to a faster commute for individuals and trucks heading south and north through our local mountain range. I am too.
But, as usual, they ignore anything that isn’t pro-business, namely, air quality and the cost all this transportation on the 5 through the Newhall pass imposes on us SCVers. Sure, when I say cost, you think of $$$, and the truth is we as California taxpayers are paying for this expansion with our wallets and income, but we as SCVers are paying for this expansion in another special way.
Let me explain.
We as a society want to encourage commerce, trade, and transportation as much as possible. But when those activities pollute our air, water, or soil, economists have a term they like to use: negative externalities. Basically it means that these activities are imposing an unmet cost on us, the regular citizens affected by the commerce, trade, and transportation.
Such is the case with the expansion of truck and car lanes in the Newhall Pass. The trucks and commerce the I-5 Gateway Coalition wants to traverse our valley impose an unmet cost on us as Santa Clarita Valley residents. It’s a cost the Signal is apparently completely oblivious to in its joyful praise for more lanes, more trucks, and a “damn the lazy government workers” editorial. Increased truck traffic will have a negative effect on us, namely increased ozone, particulate and noise pollution.
It may sound like I’m making much ado about nothing. After all, most days, Santa Clarita’s skies are clear and blue. Our skies look nothing like the purple and orange skies that kept me from playing outside when I was a boy in LA in the 1980s. But the threat is real and is there nonetheless as ozone and particulate matter are largely invisible, and with increased freeway traffic, the cost on our community will only go up.
Ozone pollution is the most worrisome. At high altitudes, ozone gases block much of the sun’s harmful rays. But closer to the surface of the earth, the effect on human lungs is consistent with a sunburn on our skin. Studies have found even low levels of ozone decrease lifespan. Ozone gases are definitely not good to breathe in. Here I quote from an environmental engineer at the City I talked with in 2008:
It’s good when ozone is in our upper atmosphere shielding us from UV radiation, but at the ground its harmful. It essentially sunburns your lungs. It gets worse on hot summer afternoons, and we also have a weekend effect where the ozone tends to get worse on the weekend afternoons.
It’s a matter of numbers. A lot of cars, trucks and equipment burning fossil fuel in those areas creating emissions. The prevailing winds of the area blow the pollution this way. Ozone needs Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and both are created mostly from cars
and trucks.These two pollutants react faster and faster with more sunlight and heat. So the NOx and VOC migrate up the 5 freeway mostly, and somewhat less along the 126 from Ventura and Santa Barbara. During the long, hot days of summer, we get a lot more ozone.
So as our lanes are expanded, more trucks and commerce come to depend on our valley and the Newhall Pass to deliver their goods. Thanks to the expanded 5 and the unique topography of our valley, pollution inevitably increases. The question is, who pays for that pollution? All day long these trucks traverse our valley, depositing ozone gases and particulate matter in our air, and then they leave, essentially polluting our air for free.
That’s a cost on you and on me. It may be hidden now, it may not impact your wallet today or on tax day, and it may not manifest itself for a few (or many years), but it will nonetheless cost us in the future. To put it another way, what dollar amount do you place on your healthy lungs?
When the Signal refuses to acknowledge such cost and only looks at the decreased commute times to individual motorists, it does us all a disservice.
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