St. Louis Ranked Eighth Most Toxic City
Categories: Community, Environment
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The study by Forbes.com looked at cities based on five factors: air quality, water quality, the number of nearby Superfund sites, amount of days when the air-quality index (AQI) exceeded 100 in 2009 (the latest year available), and the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) of pollutants released from manufacturing.
As is somewhat typical with similar rankings of U.S. cities, the Forbes account gives little explanation for why metro St. Louis (which includes the city and some fifteen surrounding counties) ranked No. 8. In 2009, the region released 23 million pounds of pollutants as measured by the EPA's TRI and had just one day with dangerous AQI.
The ten most toxic cities, according to Forbes:
1. Philadelphia
2. Bakersfield, California
3. Fresno, California
4. New York
5. Baton Rouge
6. Los Angeles
7. Houston
8. St. Louis
9. Salt Lake City
10. Riverside, California
Related Content: Missouri Top 10 State for CO2 Emissions
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