American Dream

NYTimes.com

August 3, 2005
California Air Is Cleaner, but Troubles Remain
By FELICITY BARRINGER

Quotes:

TOPANGA STATE PARK, Calif. - On many days, a hiker on the Temescal Ridge trail above the Pacific Ocean, 30 to 50 miles west of the San Gabriel Mountains, can trace the snowy ridges and the thin, brown lines of canyons with the naked eye. Three decades ago, an entire summer could pass before homeowners just five miles from the mountains could see the peaks.

Kyle Eden, a varsity tennis player in Glendora High School below the San Gabriels, has never had a match called for smog, as his father, Rudy, did in the 1970's.

Bob Wyman, a lawyer, no longer pants for air after running as he did in his childhood.

Visitors like Leon Billings, who shaped the Clean Air Act as a senior Senate staff member, do not have to pull off the freeways and wait for their eyes to stop tearing.

"Smog had a palpable impact on our daily lives," Mr. Wyman said. "I'm 51. I'm not sure how conscious most people are of this."

In the last half-century, the urgent need to scrub clean the filthiest air in the country has reshaped the region's politics, turned obscure agencies into regulatory behemoths and made Los Angeles an international leader in its hard-won expertise.

But for all this achievement, success - consistently healthy air for all 16 million Southern Californians - remains out of reach.