Taylor Yard: Dust Storm This Morning

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2015.  Before 8 AM, high winds caused a dust storm from Taylor Yard.  Worth noting: that bright green fence toward the lower right corner of the tree line is dust screening material.  It's not really helping those homes on the other side.    (Click on photos to enlarge.)

It appears the dust was blowing from the soccer fields, but it may have been the construction site.  It was too hard to see through the trees in those conditions.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2015.  Earlier, the dust was everywhere, obliterating the view of new homes built on the other side of the river on the lower portions of Taylor Yard and Cypress Park.  

This is not the first time we've seen Taylor Yard dust storms.  This just adds to the serious local air quality problems in the area where we have a natural topographic and atmospheric bowl that keeps the contaminants closer to the ground in the area around Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights and Elysian Valley.  

The Taylor Yard dust storms illustrate why we emphasize extreme dust control with any environmental mitigation proposed for the former rail yard.  Highly toxic dirt still needs to be removed from Parcel G before it can be developed as a park.