Aaron Rendon - Final Research Blog - The Establishment of the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District

Imagine a world in which you can not go outside without tearing up due to the air stinging your eyes so much you can hardly bear it. A world in which working while wearing a heavy gas mask in the California heat is more comforting than the alternative. Imagine being unable to drive without the fear that you can crash at any second due to the fact that you can hardly see. This is the world of Los Angeles in the 1940s. Luckily, this harsh world resulted in the first ever Air Pollution Control District. The Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District was made in order to regulate how much smog was going into the air. Smog has been an issue in Los Angeles for far longer than most places. There were many factors that led to the formation of the LAAPCD. Most of those factors were discomforting for the people of Los Angeles, to say the least. Even when the people had come to the realization that something needed to be done, there were still several obstacles that got in the way. Eventually, they were finally able to begin on a solution to the problem in the LAAPCD. The establishment of the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District had an enormous effect, not just in Los Angeles, but on the history of environmental reform as a whole.

For my research, I kept it pretty simple. I used Google Scholar a little bit, however I was really only able to find one document. However, that document helped out immensely as it was a journal article that delved into analysis of data and statistics regarding smog in Los Angeles. I did the bulk of my research on UCR’s library databases. I used my two favorite databases, JSTOR and EBSCOhost where, as per usual, I was able to find a ton of different journal articles relating to my topic. In addition, I was also able to find several books via the databases. I am generally more accustomed to sticking with journal articles, but I’ve recently begun using more books, as I feel that they do a better job of diving deep and getting into specifics. This quarter I finally was able to make use of certain databases I never realized would be so beneficial to my research. For example, I made sure to use the California Digital Newspaper Collection. That database really came in handy when it came to looking for some primary sources. Not only that, I also used Associated Press Images to get some really high quality photos that were good for sources to add context to my research. It’s a bit of a cop out since it is our class textbook, but I also used the Vogel book. That was just a really good place to start, and once I found a good amount of information from that book, I found it much easier to work from there. After all, you can’t do research without knowing what it is you’re looking for.

There were several factors and causes that went into the establishment of the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District. The short answer is that there was too much smog in the air. But as with most history, it is not nearly that simple. To start, the question of why there was such a high level of smog needs to be answered. The biggest factor was that “Los Angeles’s Topography and weather patterns naturally trap air pollutants” (Gonzalez). Los Angeles is located between the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel Mountains. Like in most cities, people in Los Angeles got up every morning and drove their cars to work, putting a ton of smog in the air. Furthermore, factories and industries were polluting the air with lots of chemicals, smoke, fumes, and dust. To no surprise, this polluted the air terribly. The bigger problem in Los Angeles is that, in short, the winds from the ocean push all of the smog inland, while the mountains surrounding the area make it dreadfully difficult for smog to escape. With the rise in manufacturing and automobiles in Los Angeles’s unfortunate geographic area, it was inevitable that the air pollution would become unbearable. It became so unbearable that “employees were quitting their jobs because of the fumes,” and at the county hospital, “350 patients choked at the fumes,” (Brienes). Needless to say, the quality of life in Los Angeles throughout the 1940s was less than stellar. The air they were breathing in would at times cause them to tear up and cough as though they were in the midst of a gas attack. The public was fearful, upset and discomforted. Life was genuinely getting more dangerous in the area, especially considering that “the number of days when pollution in downtown Los Angeles reduced visibility to less than one mile actually increased from seven in 1941 to forty-seven in 1947” (Vogel). There was a rise in automobile accidents due to the bad conditions. So much of what made the Los Angeles lifestyle so great was beginning to deteriorate more quickly with every passing year. Arguably the biggest catalyst for what would become known as the LAACPD came “from a report made in 1947 by Raymond R. Tucker, who as an investigator of air pollution problems played a major role in the St. Louis smog battle” (Haagen-Smit). The report, which was posted in the newspaper, opened more people's eyes to the idea that there could be a solution to the smog problem. It also proved that the issue was only worsening. Tucker laid out several causes of air pollution which, of course, came as a result of human causes. So if there was a cause, then surely there must be a solution. Getting to a point where the people could put that solution into play was another obstacle. 

There was no precedent in the fight against air pollution in 1947 Los Angeles. This made it quite challenging for those who wanted to make change. Some of the biggest obstacles that Los Angeles faced came from the state of California itself. They ran into a handful of barriers preventing legislation from passing. One such “constitutional constraint denied the police power to special districts and authorities” (Krier). The issue with that was that the proposed Control District was essentially meant to be a law enforcement agency. While not quite the LAPD, they were nonetheless meant to enforce rules and regulations. The proposed district would not even be allowed to control the pollution. In addition, “If the legislature enacted a law, its provisions were to operate uniformly throughout the state” (Krier). Sadly, the only area in California at the time where smog was truly a pressing issue was in Los Angeles. So there was no need to spend so much on something throughout the whole state when the issue was really only specific to one area. They were eventually able to find a way around these issues. One way was by having the police power be “exercised by the state; the county districts simply adopted rules and regulations to carry out the broadly dawn legislative standards” (Krier). As a result, while the power of the Air Pollution Control Districts lied in the hands of the state, they were able to be run by an individual county in which the district presided. After a hard fought battle, in 1947 the newspapers finally read that “Los Angeles county’s antismog bill was approved,” and it permitted “counties to form an air pollution control district and [gave] them the powers to enforce air pollution ordinances” (San Bernardino Sun). The county finally had the first ever Air Pollution Control District. The time for cleaner air had come.

Now that Los Angeles had their Air Pollution Control District, they needed to figure out how to go about making rules and regulations in order to prevent pollution, as well as heal the damage that had been done. To start, enforcement was originally “limited to visual standards for smoke, however, and did not address other pollutants such as dust, fumes, or sulfur dioxide” (Andrews). This is not too surprising. The LAAPCD was the first APCD ever made, so it’s natural that they would start slow. Again, this had been unprecedented, so the district understandably needed to take time in order to get the ball rolling. Fortunately, it did not take too long before they strengthened their regulations. Soon enough, the district became more strict on industries by setting “emission standards, by limiting sulfur content of fuels, and by specifying the kinds of equipment that must be used in various industrial and agricultural operations” (Boffey). This was a huge win for the district because it meant they were getting somewhere. Industries that had power plants and refineries were hugely damaging to the environment, and by regulating how many emissions they were allowed to give off, it was a big help. On top of that, the district “terminated the use of a million home incinerators and forbade the widespread practice of burning in public dumps” which helped to reduce dustfall “by two-thirds, bringing it back to about the level that existed in 1940 before smog became a serious problem in the community”  (Haagen-Smit). This was important, even on a grander scale than that of Los Angeles. The district was resulting in improvement, and there was now evidence to back it up, because of this, Los Angeles and California as a whole became hugely influential when it came to environmental reform. An example of this is when congress enacted “the Federal Air Pollution Control Act of 1955,” which “was strongly influenced by California’s experience” (Vogel). Another prime example of California’s influence was during the “debate and passage of the 1970 Amendments to the Clean Air Act,” which took place at a time in which “California, a key electoral state, was the grass roots of the environmental movement” (Downing). While it is unfortunate that the people of Los Angeles had to go through such a rough time throughout the 1940s, it ended up being hugely important for the progression of environmental policy. That is because Los Angeles was forced to enact change significantly earlier than most others deemed it necessary.

This first set of images, or graphics does a good job of representing the problem with Los Angeles’s topography, and how it has an effect on the smog problem in the area. In the morning, people use their cars, putting smog in the air. This releases tons of air pollution in the air from the cars moving out and about. As the day goes on, the sun goes higher in the sky, which heats up the smog in the area. The sea breeze grows stronger, spreading the smog throughout, and pushing it against the mountains. This traps the pollution from escaping, which is the cause of Los Angeles’s notoriously dreadful air pollution.

This next photo was taken by Ira Guldner and is from the Associated Press. In it, you can see a man wiping his face with a rag. The significance of this photo lies in the reason for which he is wiping his face. The man is wiping away tears due to the fact that the smog had become so unbearable that it caused citizens to tear up due to the sting.

This last photo comes from the Los Angeles Times. The photo includes a man wearing a gas mask for the same reason as the man in the previous photo. Unfortunately, he still had to go to work while the area was surrounded by smog. As a result, he opted to wear a gas mask to work rather than quit due to the conditions, as many workers chose to do. 

To this day, Los Angeles is notorious for its smog. Despite what people say about the sunny LA lifestyle, you can not look at the Downtown area from afar without seeing a large cloud of smog above it. However, it was this very problem that sparked reform for air pollution. Their hand was forced by the horrible conditions that made it more unbearable than the average smog ridden city of the time. Even still, it took time for the district to really get going. They had several obstacles in their way, and even when the Los Air Pollution Control District had finally been established, it was still a slow marathon of reform rather than a sprint towards clean air. The formation of the LAAPCD in 1947 was only the beginning. The problem was not by any means gone by 1948. Today, the problem as a whole has arguably grown even worse. Smog levels may be down in Los Angeles today compared to the 40s, but while in the 40s the issue was smog, today it is so much more. Climate change is an issue that came as a result of so many other environmental problems. The world is far from being done with the issue of climate change. However, the solution had to start somewhere. Had it not been for the unfortunate way Los Angeles’s topography had an effect on the pollution in the air, causing them to get moving on the issue so much sooner than others, who’s to say how much more far behind America would be today?

Bibliography

Andrews, Richard N. L. "The Rise of Modern Environmentalism." In Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy, 190-210. NEW HAVEN; LONDON: Yale University Press, 2020. Accessed March 12, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvwrm3ww.14.

Boffey, Philip M. "Smog: Los Angeles Running Hard, Standing Still." Science 161, no. 3845 (1968): 990-92. Accessed February 22, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1725646.

Brienes, Marvin. "Smog Comes to Los Angeles." Southern California Quarterly 58, no. 4 (1976): 515-32. Accessed February 22, 2021. doi:10.2307/41170674.

Gonzalez, George A. “Urban Growth and the Politics of Air Pollution: The Establishment of California's Automobile Emission Standards.” Polity, vol. 35, no. 2, 2002, pp. 213–236. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3235498. Accessed 4 Feb. 2021.

 

Haagen-Smit, A. J. "The Control of Air Pollution." Scientific American 210, no. 1 (1964): 24-31. Accessed February 22, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24935982.

 

Krier, James E., and Edmund Ursin. Pollution and Policy: A Case Essay On California and Federal Experience With Motor Vehicle Air Pollution, 1940-1975. University of California Press, 1977.

 

“L.A. Antismog Bill Gets Group Approval.” San Bernardino Sun, 28 May 1947, p. 23.

 

Vogel, David. “Chapter 6: Protecting Air Quality.” California Greenin' How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader, Princeton University Press, 2018.