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Her mother, Marina Bernheimer, started a Nevada County group that aims to cut ozone pollution, which can be worse in the foothills than in cities. Autumn Cruz / acruz@sacbee.com Click on photo to enlarge See additional images NEVADA CITY – The first grass-roots movement to combat Sacramento Valley's scourge of smog is sprouting on an unlikely turf: mountain hamlets that boast crystal clear, cobalt skies. Though the car-clogged Valley and Bay Area spew most of the smog-forming pollutants, residents perched downwind in the Sierra often breathe the brunt of the brew. The inequity has long chafed foothills business owners who resent paying for permits and equipment to cut smog that is largely not of their making. Now the dialogue is changing from finger-pointing to fact-finding. Those driving the debate are not the local merchants and politicians crying over-regulation but residents worried about pollution's toll on their health, and, moreover, their children's well-being. Organized in 2006 as "Save the Air Nevada County," dozens of area residents raised thousands of dollars to expand the region's network of air pollution sensors, won a grant to help local schools organize carpools to cut smog and enlisted local officials to make foothills smog an issue that flatlanders can't ignore. The foothills group is breaking ground as the first grass-roots effort to fight smog in the Sacramento region, which has ranked among the nation's 10 most ozone-polluted areas for the past 25 or more years. "I don't know of anybody else doing air-monitoring outside the air quality management districts. It sounds very innovative," said Kori Titus, spokeswoman for the Sacramento area branch of Breathe California, a nonprofit clean-air advocacy group. "Once folks upwind of us understand that they really are affecting people other than themselves, there's an education process that starts to happen," said Chauncey Poston, a Grass Valley city councilman and real estate agent who was among the first local officials to embrace the residents' call for action. Poston is counting on that collaboration taking root today at a Sierra Ozone Summit in Grass Valley. The daylong public gathering would be the first to bring together "upwinders" and "downwinders" in the foothills smog controversy, which has been stewing for the past 20 or more years, organizers said. Instigated by the residents' group, the summit also would mark the first time smog regulators across the western slope – between Lassen and Yosemite national parks – focused as a group on imported smog. The agenda calls for regulators and transportation planners from the mountains to the Valley to San Francisco Bay to offer a strategy that promises relief to foothills, sooner rather than later. Northern Sierra Air Quality Management District, the event's host, had no trouble booking all 200 seats at the local Holiday Inn Express conference complex. "I'm so happy that they are coming to little ol' Grass Valley," cheered Gretchen Bennitt, the tiny air district's executive officer, who was taking sandwich orders for the conference. Among the smoggiest The press release heralding the summit reads, "If you moved to the foothills to enjoy clean air, you could be in for a shock." That's particularly true of those living in western Nevada County, population 85,000, which the American Lung Association ranks as the smoggiest rural area in the nation – and smoggier than any city outside of California and Texas. Charming, eclectic Nevada City – home of aging hippies, artists, musicians and telecommuting executives – smoggier than New York City? Pastoral, horse-friendly Grass Valley worse than Chicago and Atlanta? The notions defy perception, because the rankings are based on air measurements for ozone, a harmful gas in smog that's invisible. Some of the worst ozone occurs on windless summer days when the Sierra sky appears so clear and clean. "If ozone was purple, we would have a lot more people lining up," said Marina Bernheimer, a Nevada City area resident who helped form STAINC. Bernheimer, who grew up in Los Angeles, is one of many urban refugees who left congestion and crime only to discover that big-city pollution followed them uphill, to paradise. Continue reading on next page About the writer: Call The Bee's Chris Bowman, (916) 321-1069. See a larger version of this graphic Skylar Selverston sniffs a flower as her mother, Marina Bernheimer, stands by. A group founded by Bernheimer, Save the Air in Nevada County, has a role at a summit today in Grass Valley on ways to cut the ozone in the Sierra foothills, where levels can remain unhealthful overnight. Autumn Cruz / acruz@sacbee.com Click on photo to enlarge Marina Bernheimer plays with her 16-month- old son, Asa Selverston. The former Los Angeles resident formed an anti-smog group after learning of the foothills' high smog risks. Had her family known that before moving to Nevada City, she said, they would have lived somewhere else. Autumn Cruz / acruz@sacbee.com Click on photo to enlarge Unique content, exceptional value. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Comments There are 8 comments posted so far. Below is a sampling of the latest comments. Add Your Comments | View All Comments jim95628 at 6:00 PM PST Wednesday, June 4, 2008 wrote: Blah blah blah. Simple fact is too many people driving cars that are too big. Don't preach to me a...more nbrowning at 1:45 PM PST Wednesday, June 4, 2008 wrote: there are hundreds of thousands of "flatlanders" DRIVING 2 miles to work, when they should be WALKIN...more sf5rings at 10:43 AM PST Wednesday, June 4, 2008 wrote: This is absolute BS!!!! If you don't want smog move to Idaho. 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