AIR QUALITY ISSUES

The air of the Morongo Basin has long been like a healthful elixir for the lungs. Twentynine Palms really got its start when a Pasadena physician, Dr. James Luckie, began sending World War I veterans with lung injuries here to help their recovery.

However, encroaching development and the attendant ozone blowing out from the Los Angeles Basin is harming the quality of our air. And dust, always an issue in the desert when strong winds blow, has become an increasing problem, with gratuitous grading as well as the growing popularity of off-road vehicle use inducing erosion of native plants and soils. The well-documented problems in Joshua Tree National Park extend throughout our Basin.

Air quality in the Basin is overseen by the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District, which maintains a monitoring station in Twentynine Palms and eight other locations.

To learn more about air quality issues for your particular part of the Basin, see the Community page for your area.

LINKS:

• Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District
  
• Air Quality in the Park: National Parks Conservation Association
  
• Air Quality in the Park: National Parks Service
  
• AIRNow - the cross-agency site of the Environmental Protection Agency, with regularly updated ozone and particulate maps and other resources
  
• Hourly air quality report/forecast from the Twentynine Palms monitoring station
  
• The particulate connection: Grading/clear-cutting and the erosion of native plants and soils.