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Campaign ad watch: Clearing the air on dairy pollution
| Saturday, May 10 2008 1:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, May 12 2008 7:36 AM
The rump of a dairy cow is the first thing that catches your eye on Cliff Thompson’s campaign billboards.
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Wasco dairy buffer: Ray Watson took out an ad in the Wasco Tribune in October 2004 discouraging a proposed dairy buffer around the city.
He believed the size of the 10-mile buffer was arbitrary. The measure was passed by Wasco voters but had no legal standing to stop dairies. Watson has spoken in favor of county-controlled dairy buffers.
Westside funds: Thompson said “Westside” means “Taft.” Watson has said he spent his share of county community improvement money to fix immediate health and safety problems in other parts of the 4th District.
He said Taft is at the top of the list to receive future funds.
Photos:
Cliff Thompson billboard on dairy pollution
Cliff Thompson billboard on block grant money
Cliff Thompson billboard on dairy buffers
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If you read fast, or drive slow, you can catch the rhetoric that goes with it.
“1 in 5 children suffer from respiratory illness. Yet, Supervisor (Ray) Watson voted no to ban future dairies — the No. 1 polluter,” the sign reads.
Then you see Taft Councilman Thompson’s campaign logo for his race against Watson for the 4th District supervisor seat.
The billboard, and three others with different messages that are going up around the district, are the first mass-market salvos in a race that has less than a month to run its course.
The message of the sign is stark — laying childhood breathing problems at Watson’s feet.
But as with most campaign claims and slogans, there are facts about dairy bans and pollution that just don’t fit on Thompson’s signs.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District released a study in 2005 that said a cow produces 19.3 pounds of volatile organic compounds each year — one component of smog. Dairies, the air district reports, are the largest source of volatile organic compounds in the valley.
But dairies aren’t the valley’s No. 1 polluter, as the billboard claims.
“By far, far, far, motor vehicles are our biggest polluter,” said Brenda Turner of the air district’s Bakersfield office.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it is ozone — smog— that aggravates and intensifies asthma and lung disease.
Turner said cars pump out nitrous oxide and VOCs which, according to the EPA, react with sunlight in the air to produce ozone pollution.
“NOx, in our analysis of our air, has much more of an impact on the creation of smog,” Turner said.
Thompson said he culled the dairy pollution information from material supplied to him by staff in the office of state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter.
Thompson cited an Associated Press story posted on the cbsnews.com Web site Aug. 2, 2005, that stated “dairies are the No. 1 source of smog-producing pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.”
The story, as published on the CBS News site, makes mention only of VOCs and ignores the role of NOx in the creation of pollution.
Turner said many media outlets interpreted the 2005 report on VOCs incorrectly and made the same mistake.
Thompson said he stands by the billboard's message because dairies are still a major contributor to air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley.
And then there is the issue of the ban the billboard claims Watson voted for.
It is true that, on Aug. 24, 2004, Watson voted against an urgency ordinance that would have prohibited “approval of future dairies and calf feedlots.”
The ban failed on a 3-2 vote of the five-member Board of Supervisors.
Watson said there was no proof the ban was needed.
And just before the vote, Watson made a motion that passed unanimously requiring a full environmental impact report on the impacts of dairies in Kern County to be drafted before any future dairies were blessed by the board.
Four years later, that environmental report is nearing completion.
No dairies have been approved in Kern County since Watson’s motion passed.
Thompson said a de facto ban for a few years isn’t a full and permanent ban on polluting dairies.
“If they pass an EIR they can build a dairy. That’s not what I want,” Thompson said.
Thompson stands by the billboards and the message they send about his opponent’s decision-making in office.
“I think the ads are effective and they’ll open people’s eyes,” he said.
Two other billboards are located in Wasco and Taft. A fourth one is also located in Bakersfield.