How Bad is Los Altos Pollution? See What New State Figures Say

How at risk are Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents from pollution compared to other cities in the state? According to the state officials, most neighborhoods are on par with the average California town.

Based on new state figures released this week, both zip codes for Los Altos and Los Altos Hills are in the upper half of California zip codes in terms of being at potential for health risks stemming from pollution of all sorts. The area's 94024 zip code ranks above average in the 66 to 70 percentile of all California zip codes while 94022 fares even better in the 71 to 75 percentile.

See a map of the data for every town in the state here

The figures come from a new state report issued by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) that compiles health risks based on 11 types of pollution and factors in seven categories of population and demographic factors, including poverty and education levels.

The purpose of the report is to identify communities that are eligible for grants from the state's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, according to Sam Delson, an OEHHA spokesman. The law governing that fund mandates certain percentages be spent on disadvantaged communities, making it necessary to include economic factors in the state report.

Unfortunately for Los Altos, only cities that rank in the bottom 10 percent will qualify.

The state has a map of those communities that are eligible on the report website.

The map above shows scores from each of those categories as well as overall rankings for every zip code in California with a Patch publication. Simply click on any town to see the full report card for each zip code.

You can see a similar map showing every zip code in the state here, and see more details of the report on the state's website.

In general, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills fare poorly on traffic metrics. The towns did well in education metrics and on certain air quality metrics such as ozone pollution.

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