How Bad is Menlo Park Pollution? See What New State Figures Say

How burdened are Menlo Park residents by pollution compared to other cities in the state? According to the state officials, the city is about average for a California town.

New data released this week shows Menlo Park in the 41 to 45 percentile of California zip codes in terms of being vulnerable to health risks stemming from pollution of all sorts. Atherton wasn't rated.

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, which led them to factor in poverty levels, economic factors, and education levels. You can find information about the methodology here.

Unfortunately for Menlo Park, 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, Menlo Park fares poorly on traffic metrics as well as ground water, hazardous waste, solid waste and cleanup categories. The town did well in education metrics and on certain air quality metrics such as ozone pollution.

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