Coronavirus side effect: Air quality is great now

It won’t last much longer than the stay-at-home orders, but right now, the air quality in Los Angeles County is phenomenal, experts say. And it’s not just because the freeways are nearly empty.

“It’s also due to all the rain and stormy weather we’ve been having over the past week and a half,” South Coast Air Quality Management District Deputy Executive Officer Philip Fine said in an interview on Tuesday. His organization tracks air quality for Los Angeles County, Orange County and the densely populated parts of the Inland Empire.

Although brutal on the economy, business closures only have helped the wet weather improve our air.

Shipping is down in the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, meaning fewer trucks on the road and ships in the water. There are also fewer planes in the sky and more construction projects on hold.

Emissions from that kind of heavy machinery accounts for nearly 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Los Angeles County, Fine said. Consumer cars are included in the number, but it’s hardly a dent in the big picture when compared to their industrial counterparts.

“Emissions have likely dropped a lot in the past few weeks,” Fine added, but there’s a catch. Because all of the coronavirus closures began under wet, gray skies, it’s difficult to suss out what’s a result of the weather and what’s from the new coronavirus-related closures.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District doesn’t have conclusive data just yet to show the effects of the stay-at-home orders, but Fine hopes to have more concrete numbers in the next few weeks — just as soon as the weather clears up.

Even without the data, some residents anecdotally say there’s been improvement, particularly asthmatics like Austin Frank.

Frank lives near the intersection of the 405 and 10 freeways and typically bikes into work. On hot, pollution and pollen-filled days, he said his lungs feel “heavy and gross” by the time he gets into the office.

While he’s been working from home since the orders took effect, he’s still biking around his neighborhood for exercise, and he can “definitely notice a difference” lately, he said.

Assuming the observations are indeed correct, environmental healing would be par for the coronavirus course.

NASA scientists reported drops of up to 30% in smog-forming pollutants in China over January and February, compared to the same months in recent years, based on satellite measurements.

Meanwhile, in Venice, Italy, water clarity has returned to the city’s notoriously dirty canals after officials instituted their own versions of stay-at-home orders several weeks ago, several publications have noted.

Back in Los Angeles, Fine said he wouldn’t expect the air quality to stay this clean once business returns to normal. But how quickly it resets remains to be seen.

“It really depends on how quickly the economy comes back,” Fine said. Once the heavy machines start moving again, it’s likely that the air quality will return to normal.

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