California still has a lot of work to do before its national parks are free of pollutants: The four U.S. national parks with the highest ozone levels are all in California, according to a report from the National Park Conservancy Association.
The most affected areas are also some of California’s most popular and accessible: Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks had the most air pollution of any park measured in the study, followed by Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and Yosemite National Park.
The report looked at National Park Service data from 2021, measuring the level of manmade ozone pollution, hazy skies, and chemicals harmful to wildlife. Overall, 42 parks — about 10 percent of all NPS-managed areas where data was available — were found to have a “significant concern” of unhealthy air, the highest level of pollution as measured by the study.
California parks do a little better when it comes to the NPCA’s measurement of haze and visibility. Sequoia is still the haziest park in the United States, but it’s also the only park in California where the NPCA found a significant concern of visible pollution. Death Valley, Channel Islands and Pinnacles were the other national parks in the top 10 for visible pollution.
Why California parks are so polluted
According to the NPS, most of the pollution in these parks comes from elsewhere: pollution in Sequoia and Yosemite can originate from as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area, while westerly winds pushing pollution from the Los Angeles Basin are responsible for most of Joshua Tree’s pollution. Motor vehicles, industrial emissions and consumer products are the most…
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