For a university of renown, a new study from Fresno State comes with questionable conclusions.

Advocacy groups have genuine concerns about industrial companies’ environmental impact. As a long-time sufferer from a respiratory disease, I know how dirty air affects people every waking moment of the day.

For decades, industrial interests have had carte blanche when it comes to land use decisions. Stories of dumping, polluting, and general neglect of the land resonate with people today. Fresno skies appear more brown than blue and shopping centers and parks throughout Fresno have been built atop dumping grounds.

Meanwhile, advocacy groups such as Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability have done laudatory work to bring to light the needs of the parts of Fresno too often swept under the rug.

But we have to give credit where credit is due. Air pollution data shows great progress from 20 years ago — at least when the forest isn’t on fire. Industrial companies have invested millions in clean equipment.

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And manufacturers provide genuinely good jobs. Talk to workers at places such as Betts Springs or Baltimore Aircoil Company. Many have been at their jobs 20-plus years. Pay rates allow them hobbies and good schools for kids.

A recent study from Fresno State and Leadership Counsel seeks to counter the narrative made by industrial companies and their brokers praising what they and their employees do for the economy.

The study — conveniently timed with a long-awaited plan to dictate land use in industrial-heavy south Fresno — cherry picks employment data from COVID year 2020 to demonstrate “decreased job growth in south Fresno despite industrial development.”

Authors of the study would have officials “prohibit new industrial development in disadvantaged communities” based on a three-page study with questionable conclusions at best.

As Fresno officials hammer out the South Central Specific Plan, I hope stakeholders won’t be fooled by weighty demands drawn from bad science.

Throw the Baby Out With the Bath Water: Ulta and Amazon Didn’t Employ Those Living Close

The study looks at two census tracts — one where beauty product company Ulta has its distribution center and the other where Amazon has its center.

Of the 209 people employed near or at Ulta in 2015, the number fell to 193 in 2020.

A little farther east, near Amazon, employment grew from 8,778 to 11,734.

But the point of consternation for analysts was a 12% drop in the number of people both living and working near Amazon. Near Ulta, local employment dropped 75% — going from four to one.

No zeroes behind those numbers, just four to just one. And the study didn’t acknowledge that of the 799 living near Amazon, 101 work in the area — that’s more than 12% of the population. But the fact that the number dropped from 115 to 101 was enough to conclude the two companies haven’t helped.

“Despite efforts to bring more jobs to local communities, bringing the logistics industry into these neighborhoods has not had that effect on those residents,” the study concluded.

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Ulta and Amazon Employ Many Times Over the Number of People Living Near Them

Some questions that need to be asked about the data.

Did anyone living in the area try to get a job at Ulta? The study doesn’t mention if anyone applied.

Of the employment in that census tract, how much comes from Ulta?

In 2017, when Ulta opened, The Fresno Bee reported they would hire 500 people, growing to as many as 1,000 with seasonal hires. The Employment Development Department reports Ulta Distribution as employing between 500 to 999 people, so where the 193 figure came from remains unknown.

A request made to Fresno State’s Dr. Emanuel Alcala went unanswered.

The study also uses 2020 as a marker — a year of layoffs and extended unemployment insurance. Was data pulled from January when unemployment was 8.2% in Fresno or was it from April when unemployment was 17.4%?

With Ulta and Amazon employing hundreds and thousands (respectively), it’s unreasonable to deny the benefit of job opportunities the two employers provided to Fresno’s population as a whole.

Near Ulta live 354 people, according to the study. Near Amazon live 799 people. Ulta employs at least that many. With more than 3,000 full-time and part-time employees, according to the company, Amazon employs that many almost four-times over.

The study’s authors would cut off Fresno’s nose to spite its face to say we should deny job centers because those two employers didn’t hire from two of Fresno’s least populated areas.

Are We Going to Forget What Air Was Like 20 Years Ago?

Some recommendations from the study are reasonable. But many are already either enacted or on their way. The city is nearly done with its truck route study outlining where drivers can go. California law already requires companies to mitigate pollutants into the air.

Coupled with employment data, analysts use tired environmental data to call for sweeping changes. It is a well-known fact that south Fresno’s environmental burdens outweigh that of north Fresno.

Yes, life expectancy in the census tract is far lower than in Woodwark Park neighborhoods, and yes, particulate matter is worse than in north Fresno, but laying the blame for those problems at industry’s door does nothing to better the situation of the people living there.

Visalia’s booming industrial park lies less than a mile from some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. And yet, companies continue to locate there.

Solving pollution is not done overnight, but efforts have been fruitful.

Diesel trucks emit a fraction of what they did in the 1990s. And clean hydrogen is already knocking on the door.

In 2002, nearly half of the year was spent exceeding health standards, according to the Valley Air District. Ten years later, that rate dropped to 25%. Last year, only 10% of days were worse than standards permitted.

Looking at the five-year average of PM 2.5 from 2000 to 2004, data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows declines compared to the 2018 to 2022 average.

Ozone and carbon monoxide have also dropped significantly. Admittedly, PM 10 — think dust and smoke — has increased on average.

Industrial advocates would do well to take a page from the book of farmers. They’re still figuring out the power of a positive narrative. But like drip irrigation for growers, industry needs to put at the forefront the concessions they’ve made without sounding whiny.

Volunteering mitigants such as more trees and not fighting things such as truck route studies could go a long way in the public’s perception.

And maybe, just maybe, the story of a good manufacturing job will clean up industry’s image.

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GV Wire encourages vigorous debate from people and organizations on local, state, and national issues. Submit your op-ed to bmcewen@gvwire.com for consideration.