The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is the regional agency responsible for protecting air quality in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. In 1991, the district created the Spare the Air program to educate residents on ways to reduce air pollution as well as alert them about days when the air quality was forecast to be unhealthy. The nearly 30-year-old Spare the Air program has accomplished a great deal over the years and continues to offer a host of information and tools to help individuals, employers, and organizations reduce air pollution in the region.

Spare the Air and other efforts have made a significant difference in Bay Area air quality, according to the district. Air pollution concentrations in the Bay Area have declined steadily over the past 50 years despite significant population and economic growth. Between 1990 and 2011, the Bay Area's economy grew by 77%, the population increased by 23%, and the total number of miles driven increased by 30%, according to a 2011 report by BAAQMD that summarized emissions levels and trends for the region. Emissions for the criteria pollutants measured by the Air District, including ozone and particulate matter, decreased by 60% during that same period.

Toward a Healthier Future

That decrease in ozone and particulate matter was important. "Poor air quality can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, cause shortness of breath, aggravate asthma and other respiratory conditions, and affect the heart and cardiovascular system," notes BAAQMD. "Breathing polluted air for long periods of time can cause more serious problems." California's statewide stay-at-home order in response to the Covid-19 pandemic brought about dramatic reductions in air pollution. "There's very little traffic compared to what there normally is, and so there's much less emissions from cars and trucks than there normally are," explained Anthony Wexler, Director of the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center, when he spoke to a news organization in April. "That gives us this blessing at this time where we need as many blessings as we can get. It gives us the blessing of wonderful air quality."

But that improved air quality will not continue if employees go back to commuting alone in vehicles as is the predominant pattern. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District wants Bay Area employers to consider a different approach. Earlier this month BAAQMD held a news conference to ask Bay Area employers to sign a Cut the Commute Pledge to extend remote work options for employees and maintain air quality progress even after shelter-in-place orders are eased.

"The pandemic has shown us that remote work is possible and productive for many while offering an alternative to traffic gridlock and mega commutes-leading to open roads, healthier air, and happier employees," said Jack Broadbent, Executive Officer of the Air District. "We are asking Bay Area employers to sign our Cut the Commute pledge and offer remote work options to their employees moving forward. Now is the time to seize this opportunity to sustain good air quality while improving our quality of life in the Bay Area."

BAAQMD reminded employers that in addition to improved air quality, teleworking benefits include reduced traffic congestion, cost savings for employers and employees, improved employee recruitment and retention, improved work-life balance, and an increased ability to continue business as a part of a disaster recovery or emergency plan. "By signing the pledge at www.sparetheair.org, employers vow to extend remote work options by at least 25 percent for employees whose work requirements allow for that flexibility," noted district staff. "Employers also commit to include a formalized remote work policy as a component of their employee benefits package to improve air quality and quality of life for all Bay Area residents."

New Group Seeks Support

Since its founding, the Spare the Air program has supported Community Resource Teams throughout the Bay Area. These teams comprise representatives from civic groups, public agencies, businesses, and environmental organizations who work together on projects that promote cleaner air. Today there are eight Community Resource Teams that have partnered with BAAQMD, including a Tri-Valley Resource Team. As commuting is one of the leading causes of air pollution in the Tri-Valley, the Tri-Valley Resource team has undertaken numerous projects to help encourage the use of alternatives to single occupant vehicle driving including a number of campaigns to highlight transit and rideshare alternatives. Additional projects include the Idle Free Tri-Valley website, which educates visitors on why it is both harmful and unnecessary to leave a vehicle's engine running for more than 30 seconds when it is parked or not in use.

The most recent Spare the Air-related development in the Tri-Valley is the creation of the Tri-Valley Air Quality Community Alliance. According to its mission statement, this new organization is "working to understand our local air quality problems, and to find local, long-term, sustainable mitigation-strategies. From our diverse population we draw local leaders and advisors for guidance and counsel, as well as scientists and engineers to develop science-based insight and solutions. We are funded through air district grants, which are intended for engagement of grassroots groups that offer on-the-ground local perspectives and local solutions." The group started working with BAAQMD just over a year ago and received a grant from it in early March 2020, according to Bruce Daggy, a Pleasanton resident and volunteer who chairs the Oversight Committee. The first meeting was held last year in the office of Livermore City Council member Trish Munro. "The focus in the first year is building this local organization of concern, of people and organizations who want to find local solutions," says Daggy, who notes that some of the contributors to local air pollution may be surprising.

The State of California, for example, estimates that the total air pollution produced by gasoline-powered motors used for landscaping services such as leaf blowing, grass mowing, and hedge trimming will soon exceed the total air pollution produced by cars in the state. That is because cars, unlike landscaping devices, have been highly regulated and include pollution-reducing components such as catalytic converters.

The Tri-Valley Air Quality Community Alliance has technical expertise thanks to volunteers who are retired experts who worked at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. But the group needs more members to help it tackle air quality issues. "We want to learn what we don't know," he says. "Where there are particular hotspots or sensitive populations or other issues we might not know about that we can consider as we are developing a list of solutions."

The air quality in the Tri-Valley is better today than it was 15 or 20 years ago, notes Daggy. But because the Tri-Valley is ringed by ridges, air pollution still gets trapped in the area on some days and creates unhealthy levels of smog. The Tri-Valley Air Quality Community Alliance is working to discover what can be done locally so that over the course of a year, Tri-Valley residents will be breathing better air.

"Nobody wanted the pandemic," notes Daggy. "But coming out of a pandemic, let us not just go back to where we were. Let us go to a better place."

For more information about the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, please visit www.baaqmd.gov.

For more information about the Spare the Air program, please visit www.sparetheair.org.

For information about the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's remote work toolkit, please visit www.baaqmd.gov/plans-and-climate/climate-protection/remote-work-policy-clearinghouse.

For information about Idle Free Tri-Valley, please visit www.idlefreetrivalley.org.

For more information about the Tri-Valley Air Quality Community Alliance, please visit www.tvaqca.org.