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SMOG POTENTIALITIF,S AT NEWHALL
Smog in Southern California is caused by a combination or
organic pollutants and adverse weather conditions. Weather conditions in
the Newhall area are not so bad in this respect as in the Los Angeles area,
and much can be done to eliminate or control organic emissions to the at
mosphere. This means that Smog can be controlled by talcing preventative
measureso
In our planned community, only industry that contributes a
negligible amount of contaminants to the air will be allowed, and the gener
al public will burn little or no refuseo On this basis, the Los Angeles
figures for total organic contaminants to the air would have looked some
what as follows:
General Public Emissions
Tons/Day Pergentage
Fuel gas and oil 22 2
Gasoline 1,016 ~
1,038 98
Ip:lustry Emissions
Fuel gas and oil_ 25 ....&
1,063 100
If we can· follow a pattern such as this at Newhall Ranch, 98%
of the pollutants will come from the general public, with 96% from the
operation of automobiles.
Even without any corrective dev~ces on the automobile e:xbaust
pipes, the automobile picture will not be so bad at Newhall, as it might
appear. The present population of Los Angeles County is about 5 000 000
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people, and the exhaust from their 2,000,000 automobiles spreads over about
l,Eoc square miles, which means that the automobile "loading" is about 1,250
per square mileo When the population of Newhall Ranch reaches 75,000, there
will be about 75 square miles for the 30,000 automobile exhausts to spread
over {even though the town itself will occupy only about 15 square miles),
a loading of approximately 400 automobiles per square niile9 The car exhaust
problem will therefore only be about 30% as bad as in Los Angeles, and this
situation is further improved to an unknown degree by the greater degree
of air turbulence in the Santa Clara V,1lleyo
As soon as a useful catalytic device is developed, Los Angeles
County will urxloubtedly require such a device on the exhaust system of all
automobiles, for the purpose of eliminating or minimizing the organic ef
fluents. When this is achieved, almost complete elinrlnation of any smog
potential at Newhall Ranch would seem a distinct possibilityo