Least Air Pollution In U.S.: 10 Cleanest Cities (PHOTOS)

Did your city make the list?

The American Lung Association (ALA) has released their annual report, State of the Air (SOTA) 2011, highlighting which cities are the cleanest for ozone pollution, short-term particle pollution, and year-long particle pollution.

This slideshow highlights the ten cities ranked in the SOTA 2011's list of "Cleanest U.S. Cities For Year-Round Particle Pollution (Annual PM_2.5)." Honolulu, HI and Santa Fe, NM are the two metropolitan areas that made it onto all three of the cleanest cities lists from 2007 to 2009.

Reports of cleaner air have been showing up repeatedly in some monitoring data, and the ALA credits these pollution reductions in part to both improved emissions from coal-fired power plants and the transition to cleaner diesel fuels. That said, over half of the U.S. still suffers from pollution levels that can be dangerous to breathe. Click here to see the 10 U.S. cities with the deadliest air pollution.

Click here for more information on the SOTA 2011 report, or visit the SOTA website to view all three lists of clean cities.

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#10. Salinas, CA

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This City

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I Still Wouldn't Go Here A Breath Of Fresh Air

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Comments

[Roger Kelvin]

04:48 AM on 06/07/2011

Nice to hear that some cities are still pollution free or with less pollution in US. The Effects Of Air Pollution will be less diverse and numerous.
http://www.greenliving9.com/effects-of-air-pollution.html

[Griz Lee Bear]

10:57 PM on 05/27/2011

Whoever put this list together must not have ever been to Amarillo, Texas. Anyone going there will gag and cough from breathing the foul air caused by the massive feedlots that virtually surround this town. Salinas? Redding? I've seen smog in both places. Where I live in NW Arkansas has better air than any of those places.

[dadw5boys]

06:46 AM on 05/17/2011

Notice they are all West of the Texas Coalfired Power Plants ??????

[Louie69]

02:00 AM on 05/14/2011

California works hard for its environment.

And the western red states? All their pollution blows east with the prevailing winds.

True, that poisons more liberal areas--I'm sure the red states see that as a plus: they're like that. In return, we send them federal welfare for their failed socioeconomic models. They definitely like that, however much it mocks their ideological fervor.

Still, what doesn't kill us ticks us off.

Viva 2012.

[CourtneyG]

10:53 PM on 05/23/2011

I wrote a paper once on welfare reform, and you know what I discovered? The federal government covers food stamps and rent for section 8 housing, and that's about it. Both have set time limits and an expectation that you will no longer require aid after the time limit but no assistance to reach the economic status where you can provide your own food and shelter. Healthcare comes out of a different pot, and the amount working citizens pay into the pot is pretty much a set percentage, regardless of how many people need it or where those who need it are located. Notice that clothing and clean drinking water are not covered at all. It's been that way since the Clinton welfare reforms, and that administration was really just updating what hadn't been touched since Johnson. States have to pay for most of their own welfare, especially where children are concerned because federal tax revenue covers next to none of their needs. So blue states really don't support red states, even if they wanted to. The law doesn't work that way. If it did, resources would have been divided evenly during the recession so that no state (i.e. California) would have declared an emergency before any other.

[guitarguy22]

01:08 AM on 05/14/2011

Way to go Great Falls! Rep MT! There's a reason why so many Californians transplant out here...

[mpraisegod2]

11:24 AM on 05/13/2011

Hawaii number 5?? Really?? Hawaii should be number 1! Who writes these things???
Hawaii your number 1

[Elizabeth Hauck]

05:44 AM on 05/13/2011

Amarillo, TX? It may be clean air, but it smells terrible in that city....

[DennisTheMenace]

05:39 AM on 05/13/2011

Amarillo - Seriously?

The air may be technically clean i.e. clear of industrial pollutants, but when I drove by Amarillo the stench of the cattle pens almost killed me and my passengers. It was enough to knock a buzzard off a honey wagon. This article only considers the air. I bet some of these farm area cities have more than adequate pollution in their soil and water from fertilizers, insecticides, animal, and other Big Agriculture wastes.

[yougg]

04:37 PM on 05/12/2011

These are all states that have no manufacturing.

[HeatherRamone]

06:41 PM on 05/17/2011

Ummmmm, California has a $h!tload of manufacturing, homie. We just take care of our air, and have the fortunate blessing of coastal winds, fog, and microclimates. Not to say we don't have some of the WORST pollution, too (I'm looking at YOU, SoCal), but for the most part, Cali rocks.

---HR
OBAMA 2012

[RightnotLeft]

02:29 PM on 05/12/2011

Wow look at all the clean RED States

[christopherflynn]

02:41 PM on 05/12/2011

that's 'cause intelligent people don't want to live there, meaning fewer cars and less oil pollution which is a good thing for those particular red cities, but maybe not so good for neocon philosophy which supports the oil industry... ;-)

[RightnotLeft]

02:45 PM on 05/12/2011

Actually we build our industry away from where we live. Specifically in Blue states to pollute your habitat. Why make our areas dirty and kill our families when we can rid the country of liberals.

[bella]

05:06 PM on 05/12/2011

NM is on the list twice and we are considered a Blue state.

[RightnotLeft]

06:33 PM on 05/12/2011

Actually its a swing state so it could go either way.

[RightnotLeft]

06:37 PM on 05/12/2011

Lots of corruption out there as well. But then thats what politicians are all about.

http://newmexico.watchdog.org/2477/changing-new-mexicos-culture-of-corruption/

[MrPragmatic]

02:22 PM on 05/12/2011

Those aren't cities by the true sense of the word! Those are towns or over grown suburbs. Kind of like when a list is put out with the best cities to live in and the list is full of small towns. Gimme a break.

[himaui]

01:51 PM on 05/12/2011

some of my favorite cities. hope to be there someday.

[rascalcat]

01:28 PM on 05/12/2011

small cities with little manufacturing.
 
who would have thought.

[DonVitoCorleone]

12:39 PM on 05/12/2011

Most of these towns have a number of similarities.
1. Not huge number of cars,
2. Not in large valleys or basins (e.g., LA).
3. No large manufacturing concerns.

I'd like to see a list of cities that are actually trying to do something about the pollution they have. As bad as LA is, over the years they have attempted to make things better. Imagine what it would be like if they hadn't tried to clean up their act.

[IPredictARiot]

10:53 PM on 05/13/2011

Actually, Salinas is in a vally, has a large number of cars, and quite a bit of industry (mostly industry/processing for agriculture).

Not sure how they scored onto the list, but bully for them.

[Charra]

09:12 AM on 05/19/2011

Lots of cars and buses in Honolulu, the Manhattan of the Pacific. Aue no ho`i!

But the trade winds usually clear the pollution out to sea. Kona weather? There's pollution.

[ExtraO]

12:15 PM on 05/12/2011

Albuquerque tied for #8?! Man they must have cleaned that place up. The last time I was through there it was just as smoggy as LA.

[c8edid]

01:13 PM on 05/12/2011

Albuquerque is in kind of a bowl. There are air inversions in the winter and too many people use wood burning stoves and fireplaces here. In the summer, it's pretty clear, but it definitely needs to have tougher automobile emission standards as the population rises.