San Benito County has a clean résumé when it comes to air quality.
The county landed at No. 14 on the list of the cleanest U.S. counties for year-round particle pollution.
The list was part of a broader report on air quality put out by the American Lung Association. That same report had listed neighboring Monterey County among the cleanest counties in the nation, and Salinas among the cleanest cities, for ozone and particle pollution.
As for the methodology used in ranking counties and cities in the report, data in the report were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality System. Generally, the report conveyed a wide range of statistical analysis, such as finding that more than half of people in the U.S. live in counties where they’re exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution.
