Politics & Government

How Bad is Capitola Pollution? See What New State Figures Say (Map)

State officials have released figures on every zip code in the state showing which communities are most at risk from pollution. See how each Patch town ranks using the interactive map below.

How at risk are Capitola and Soquel residents from pollution compared to other cities in the state? According to the state officials, the answer is not bad at all for local residents.

Based on promising new state figures released this week, Capitola is in the top 75 percentile of California zip codes, while Soquel is in the top 85 percentile in terms of being at potential for health risks stemming from pollution of all sorts.  

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

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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.

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Only cities that rank in the bottom 10 percent will qualify. According to the data, Capitola and Soquel don't need the grants. 

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.

The numbers also show that Capitola fares poorly on traffic metrics but much better when it comes to groundwater threats and hazardous waste.


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