Clean-Air Advocates Launch TV Ad
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno Healthy Dairy Commission unveiled its new television ad Wednesday, launching the next step in the commission’s efforts to win new air-quality standards for mega-dairies expected to bring some 50,000 additional cows into Fresno County over the next five years.
The advertisement calls attention to the need for standards in light of the emissions and other pollutants that the large influx of dairy cows from Southern California and elsewhere will bring into what is already a heavily polluted region.
“This advertisement is an important step in our campaign to help clean up Fresno County’s air,” said Rev. Dave Schlicher of College Community Congregational Church. “We’re taking this message to the airwaves because of how crucial it is that people be aware of what’s at stake. It’s not that much to ask that our children are able to breathe cleaner air when they go outside to play.”
A pending county ordinance would require new dairies to take some steps toward reducing pollution, but does not include the standards necessary to significantly improve the Central Valley’s air quality.
Specifically, the ordinance fails to require covers with anaerobic digesters for manure lagoons, or enclosed barns and feedlots. These steps could cut smog-forming emissions by 80 percent and ammonia emissions, which contribute to particulate pollution, by 65 percent.
“These solutions are already in use at other dairies around the country,” said Mary Savala of the League of Women Voters. “They cost very little and they work very well. It’s time for the county to enact this measure so that our air quality won’t continue to deteriorate.”
A recent report produced for the commission by the California Institute for Rural Studies at UC Davis detailed increases in asthma, lung disease and premature death caused by dairy-related emissions.
The report also found enclosed barns and lagoon covers can reduce those pollutants and cost dairy operators less than three cents per gallon of milk produced. California’s dairy industry has annual profits exceeding $600 million.
The ad can be viewed online at http://www.fresnohealthydairy.org.
