Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Fort Worth Is Not In The Top 10 Of America's Cleanest Cities

The sun is going down in Dirty ol' Town. The smog I mentioned, in the previous blogging, seems to have lessened, somewhat, as the day got older, but my eyes still burn a bit.

I was just looking at Twitter and saw a Twitter Tweet thing that Tweeted,"Top Ten Cleanest Cities in America."

I had some sort of intuition that Fort Worth was not going to be on this list. Or Dallas. I had doubts that any Texas city was going to be on a list of America's cleanest. But who knows. I can be wrong about such things. Then again, I have long been astonished by the amount of litter I see blowing about in these parts as compared to points further west and north.

I was a little surprised to see that Miami is the cleanest city. And that Oklahoma City is the 7th cleanest. I am not too shocked that Seattle is the #2 cleanest city in America. Though I did see a candy bar wrapper floating in Elliot Bay, by the Seattle Aquarium, the last time I walked the Seattle Waterfront. I was shocked and appalled. I'm sure it's been removed by now.

Alas, my intuition proved correct. No Texas city is on the Top Ten List of America's Cleanest Cities. I'll see if I can find a Top Ten List of America's Dirtiest Cities. (found one, scroll down)

Top 10 Cleanest Cities in America
# City, State
1. Miami, Fla. Healthy ozone levels, low pollution and high-quality water boost Miami.
2. Seattle, Wash. The nearby Cascade Mountains keep pollution low. Seattle also spends more per capita on waste management than any major city.
3. Jacksonville, Fla. The only major city with a top 10 ranking in all the categories.
4. Orlando, Fla. The family-friendly land of Disney scores big on ozone and air pollution levels.
5. Portland, Ore. Portland has spent $2 billion over the last decade cleaning up the Willamette River. Adding light rail and more sidewalks has cut down on auto emissions.
6. San Francisco, Calif. The City by the Bay ranks in the top five in waste-management spending and water quality.
7. Oklahoma City, Okla. One of the few land-locked cities on the list, Oklahoma City ranks in the top 10 for both particle pollution and ozone levels.
8. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. Tampa spends more per capita on waste management than any major city other than Seattle, helping make up for lower rankings on water quality.
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. The Twin Cities rank first among major metros for healthy ozone levels, which counters so-so rankings for waste removal spending and water quality.
10. San Jose-Sunnyvale, Calif. Like San Francisco up the road, San Jose is among the nation's leaders in water quality. The area also cracks the top 10 for lowest levels of air pollution.

Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Ozone

1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside, Calif.
2. Bakersfield, Calif.
3. Visalia/Porterville, Calif.
4. Houston, Texas
5. Fresno/Madera, Calif.
6. Sacramento, Calif.
7. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (that is Fort Worth's skyline under a Level Orange Ozone Alert last summer in the picture above)
8. New York, N.Y./Newark, N.J.
9. Baltimore, Md./Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia
10. Baton Rouge, La.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The sad thing is that if regulators don't want to enforce smog laws on industry, then private citizens will have to bear with stiffer auto smog checks & more smog laws on trucks, ATV's, etc.