What is the air quality in Los Angeles?

Pollution in California relates to the degree of pollution in the air, water, and land of the state of California. Pollution is defined as the addition of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy (such as heat, sound, or radioactivity) to the environment at a faster rate than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. The combination of three main factors are the cause of notable unhealthy levels of air pollution in California: the activities of over 39 million people, a mountainous terrain that traps pollution, and a warm climate that helps form ozone and other pollutants. Eight of the ten cities in the US with the highest year-round concentration of particulate matter between 2013 and 2015 were in California, and seven out of the ten cities in the US with the worst ozone pollution were also in California. Studies show that pollutants prevalent in California are linked to several health issues, including asthma, lung cancer, birth complications, and premature death. In 2016, Bakersfield, California recorded the highest level of airborne pollutants of any city in the United States.

Pollution in California

Water pollution is defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as "dredge spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water." In 2011, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study showed that water quality standards were not met on 1.6 million acres of California's 3 million acres of lakes, bays, wetlands and estuaries. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act governs the water quality regulation in California.

The history of California's pollution dates back to 1943, when people first recognized episodes of smog causing irritated eyes, burning lungs, and nausea. Beginning in 1967, a group of California politicians and leaders teamed up to unify statewide efforts to address the severe air pollution, creating The Mulford-Carrell Air Resources Act, which formed the California Air Resources Board (CARB). That same year, the Federal Air Quality Act of 1967 was enacted, which allowed California to set more stringent air quality rules due to its unique conditions of geography, weather, and growing population. Despite dramatic progress, air pollution in the United States, and California in particular, continues to harm people's health and environment. Under the Clean Air Act (United States) of 1970, the EPA works with state and local governments and federal agencies to reduce air pollution and limit the damage that is causes. The Act was amended in 1977 and 1990, establishing emission standards that require the maximum degree of reduction of hazardous air pollutants.

The CARB continues to work with local governments, the business sector, and the public to address California's air quality problems. In the past decade, California has become a global leader on climate change by entering agreements with several nations and linking cap-and-trade programs with Quebec. Many programs have been established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which is planned to clean up the transportation sector and add about 1.5 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the roads by 2025. The cap-and-trade program has allowed billions of dollars to be invested in reducing greenhouse gases in cities throughout California. While California has taken significant action to decrease pollution, the state remains behind the rest of the nation. The ever-growing population, abundance of cars, and sunny weather continue to foster a pollution friendly environment.

According to the American Lung Association's recent "State of the Air 2017" report, California is a leader in air pollution among other states, with the highest ozone levels. The top three cities in the country with the highest recorded levels of ozone (smog) levels were Los Angeles-Long Beach, Bakersfield, and Fresno-Madera. Salinas, California is the only city of California that reports no days of unhealthy air quality. While the air quality in California is significantly better in northern California, more than ninety percent of Californians live in counties with unhealthy air.

Although Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution, the state of air pollution has been improving. With a population of roughly over 10 million, the Los Angeles area is a large basin with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and several mountain ranges with 11,000-foot peaks to the east and south, Los Angeles is particularly susceptible to high ozone levels. Diesel engines, ports, motor vehicles, and industries are main sources of air pollution in Los Angeles. Frequent sunny days and low rainfall contribute to ozone formation, as well as high levels of fine particles and dust. The strong relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI) and ozone levels may be found on air pollution maps.

Air pollution in Los Angeles has caused widespread concerns. In 2011, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Survey on Californians and the Environment showed that 45% of citizens in Los Angeles consider air pollution to be a “big problem”, and 47% believe that the air quality of Los Angeles is worse than it was 10 years ago. The most recent PPIC Survey of 2018 showed that the strong majority of California adults (72%) and likely voters favor the new state law mandating reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and 56% of adults support the state's cap-and-trade program. In addition, about half of Californians believe state climate policies will lead to more jobs, while the other half expects the price of gasoline to rise. In 2013, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside area ranked as the 1st most ozone-polluted city, the 4th most polluted city by annual particle pollution, and the 4th most polluted city by 24-hour particle pollution.

Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged a panel of expert scientists, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, to help them assess the evidence. The EPA released their most recent review of the current research on health threat of ozone and particle pollution.

EPA Concludes Ozone Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:
EPA Concludes Fine Particle Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:

Helping California meet the national air quality standards and improve the health of local residents continues to be a priority for the EPA. One of EPA's highest priorities is to support the reduction of diesel emissions from ships, trucks, locomotives, and other diesel engines. In 2005, Congress authorized funding for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), a grant program, administrated by the EPA, to selectively retrofit or replace the older diesel engines most likely to impact human health. Since 2008, the DERA program has achieved impressive outcome of improving air quality. The EPA also works with state and local partners to decrease emissions from port operations and to improve the efficient transportation of goods through the region. Together with the Port of Long Beach the EPA and the Port of Los Angeles are partners of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan, a sweeping plan aimed at significantly reducing the health risks posed by air pollution from port-related ships, trains, trucks, terminal equipment and harbor craft. These two ports are the busiest container ports in the United States. For environmental justice, air pollution in low-income LA communities has received more attention. In 2011, the “Clean up Green up” campaign was launched to designate four low-income LA communities- Pacoima, Boyle Heights and Wilmington. This campaign aims to push green industries through incentives, including help obtaining permits and tax and utility rebates. Although Los Angeles air pollution level has declined for the last few decades, citizens in Los Angeles still suffer from high level air pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's interactive online map - EJSCREEN - features the low socioeconomic communities across the country that are more vulnerable to air pollution and its associated health risks. As exhibited in this map, Southeast Los Angeles County neighborhoods, primarily impoverished areas in the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire, face a higher exposure to air pollution and environmental injustices. In such areas, those in poverty stricken areas have an unequal access to environmental health and safety resources. These poverty-stricken neighborhoods are frequently located in areas that are near freeways, hazardous facilities, and/or rail yards.

In 2017, researchers found that diabetes in Latino and Latina children living in Los Angeles is linked to air quality. A study led by the University of Southern California was the first of its kind to follow the health and residential air pollution levels of the same children over a span of several years. The subjects of the study were overweight Latino children, between the ages of eight and fifteen, residing in areas with excess particulate matter. In particular, the neighborhoods of the children were located in areas of elevated nitrogen dioxide levels, an air pollutant caused nearby power plants and high-volume vehicle traffic. The results demonstrated that the children possessed significantly increased risk factors for Type 2 diabetes by the time they turned eighteen, such as diminished efficiency in the insulin-secreting cells of the pancreas. The insulin resistance that results from such a condition is a direct cause of diabetes onset.

Diabetes mellitus is a disease that is characterized by the body's inability to properly regulate blood glucose (or blood sugar) levels. Prolonged levels of high blood sugar may lead to severe health complications such as heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, or even early death. As diabetes becomes a rising epidemic, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to nearly 8 million U.S. citizens may have undiagnosed diabetes or its precursor. Conventional medical findings suggest that unhealthy or calorie-dense diets, lack of physical activity, and family history are risk factors for developing the disease; however, recent studies are beginning to trace a connection between Type 2 diabetes and the external factor of air pollution. Because socioeconomic status, race, and exposure to air pollution are frequently correlated, the CDC acknowledges certain socioeconomic conditions or races as pre-existing risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, in addition to those previously listed. Statistics suggest that Hispanic people are 50% more likely to die from diabetes than whites, and studies focusing on issues of environmental injustice are able to demonstrate possible reasons for this disparity.

The spatial arrangement of Californian communities plays a large role in determining exposure to the concentrated air pollution of the state's southern regions. In one suburb of Los Angeles, El Marino Language School sits adjacent to the ten-lane Interstate 405. Students of schools like these, often elementary-aged, are subject to dramatically increased levels of pollution from automobile emissions, including carcinogenic compounds. Health effects of traffic pollution include the onset of cardiovascular disease, asthma, impaired lung function, premature death, and a plethora of other complications. Furthermore, the incomplete development of children's sensitive respiratory systems leads to compounded effects of air pollution when compared with the health effects of the same pollution on adults.

Though the health consequences of vehicle pollution are widely recognized and some legislation has been enacted to reduce its impact, very little tangible action has actually been taken. In 2003, California passed Senate Bill No. 352, which banned the construction of new schools within 500 feet of freeways with certain exceptions. However, the bill remained largely ignored as 1 in 5 schools opened between 2014 and 2015 were still in direct violation of the ban. In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report titled "Best Practices for Reducing Near-Road Pollution Exposure at Schools", available both online and in-print. However, without any requirements regarding school siting from the U.S. Department of Education, state-funded schools are under no obligation to follow its guidelines. The reluctance of public schools to comply with safety regulations often stems from monetary limitations that encourage the use of cheap land, a dilemma that disproportionately impacts children of poorer areas; the report noted that minority and low-income students have a higher prevalence of attendance in public schools of urban areas, such as the big cities in which busy roads and schools share territory.

Oil fracking is a process that involves a high pressure injection of fluid into the ground to extract oil. The adverse environmental effects of this natural gas extraction are the subject of much controversy, the primary concerns of which surround the contamination of surrounding water and air sources. These risks result when underground drinking water and surface water are exposed to discharges of the chemically-infused fracking fluid due to faulty construction or operation, disposal leaks, or other unintended byproducts like the release of hazardous volatile compounds into the air. In terms of air pollution, "hydrofracking" causes detriment to both the environment and human health. Enormous quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas, escape into the ozone layer of Earth's atmosphere during the extraction process, where they accelerate the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, air contaminants like nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehydes, and hydrogen sulfide that are released during drilling have been shown to cause harmful effects ranging from cancer, organ failure, neurological issues, to birth defects.

In 2015, a study revealed that there are forty-five fracking sites within 1.5 miles of one junior high in the town of Shafter, one of California's top ten most polluted communities. The students of this community suffer from the state's decision to allow oil companies to continue hydraulic fracturing within close proximity of their schools. Parents observe severe and unexplainable health complications amongst their children, including asthma and epilepsy, that may be correlated with air toxins from the nearby wells. In all of Kern County, in which Shafter is located, a staggering ten school districts sit within one mile of fracking wells. The situation becomes even more problematic when the fact that Kern County is predominantly Latino in racial/ethnic composition is considered; in fact, 20% or more of its residents are foreign-born emigrants of Asia and Latin America. Some argue that the concentration of fracking sites around the community's population of color is a discriminatory practice in direct violation of California Code 11135, which states that no person shall be unlawfully subjected to discrimination by any state or state-funded agency on the basis of race or ethnic group identification.

In 2012, this research used the method of cumulative environmental hazard inequality Index (CEHII), which is a model developed to environmental inequality in air pollution hazards., to analyze the environmental inequality in three counties in California: Alameda, San Diego and Los Angeles (Jason et al. 2012). In addition to frequently used air pollution parameter like NO2, PM 2.5 and diesel PM, a metric of heat stress was included for the analysis because excessive heat weather comes to be an environmental problem that can threaten human health.

The result indicated that colored communities bear greater air pollution including NO2, PM 2.5, PM 10, and heat stress compared to predominantly white and more affluent communities. In San Diego County, the relative heat stress inequality was founded to be the highest. Also, significant heat stress inequality was observed in Los Angeles. The result shows that in these two counties, there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage of Non-Whites in the community and heat stress inequality. However, in Alameda county, an opposite pattern was found: he community with a higher White population experienced more extreme temperature exceedances. This might be explained by the fact that the White population and the more affluent class in Alameda County mainly lived in the eastern area further away from the coast, which resulted in the higher heat stress exposure.

Also, the research verified that poverty status is consistent with the trend of disproportion burden of the racial-ethnic status. As the analysis was conducted according to the poverty status instead of racial-ethnic status for air pollutants NO2, PM2.5, and diesel PM, the results indicated the similar result as the analysis to heat stress. Furthermore, from the data, a strong correlation was found between poverty and proportion of non-white population (Alameda: r=0.69, Los Angeles: r=0.77). Above all, this research demonstrates that air pollution is disproportionally distributed according to the socioeconomic and racial-ethnic status in the United States.

As a future direction of study, it plans to classify the inequality that exists in African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other ethnic groups. Furthermore, the technique used in this research provided a way to assess environmental inequality and the results can be used to assist decision makers in efforts to address environmental inequality issues.

In February 2016, the city of Oakland publicly announced construction plans for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, a bulk exporting facility in West Oakland. As a predominantly Latino and African-American community, the residents of West Oakland live in a community that suffers from dangerous levels of air pollution. The construction of this port and its proposed partnership with Utah's coal-mining counties would rank the city as the lead coal exporter on the West Coast. To fund such a goliath project in the face of strong resistance from city councils fighting to protect their local communities from drastically increasing pollution emissions, Utah state and county officials arranged a controversial $53 million loan. The fund, composed of taxpayer dollars intended for local projects, would allow for the annual shipping of 9 million tons of coal through Oakland and an increase in national coal exports by 19%. A movement by environmental advocates quickly grew, citing that exposure to toxic coal dust would also subject the city's residents to increased risks of bronchitis, pneumonia, heart disease, emphysema, and more.

In response, thousands of Oakland residents and environmental rights activists worked together to prevent the construction of the coal terminal at the former Oakland Army Base. In July 2016, Oakland City Council voted to ban coal from being handled and stored in the City of Oakland. The decision marked a large victory for the newly established Department of Race and Equity, an organization designed to protect Oakland's predominanty African-American community from social and racial disparities. According to the "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States" report issued by the East Bay Community Foundation, those living in West Oakland already encounter five times more toxic pollution per person than residents of the city of Oakland, and children living in West Oakland are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than the average child in California. The residents of West Oakland are more likely to face both decreased life expectancy and asthma-related emergency room visits. For a city already bearing a disproportionate amount of environmental burdens, the fight for a coal-free Oakland was a success for proponents of environmental justice.

Air pollution stems from a number of sources, and the amount of pollutant from each source differs from place to place. Particulate pollution sources are shown in the graph at right. Residential wood combustion, such as burning wood in fireplaces, is the largest source of PM 2.5 pollution.

The Clean Air Act requires the US EPA to regulate six common pollutants. These air pollutants (also known as "criteria pollutants") are found all over the United States. They are particle pollution, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. All of these pollutants have been shown to have adverse health and environmental impacts and some can cause property damage. Of the six pollutants, particle pollution and ground-level ozone are the most widespread health threats. EPA calls these pollutants "criteria" air pollutants because it regulates them by developing human health-based and/or environmentally based criteria (science-based guidelines) for setting permissible levels.

Fossil fuels are a leading source of air and water pollution in the United States. The Clean Air Act estimated the economic cost of air pollution to be $9 trillion between 1970 and 2000. These costs involve pollution-induced health effects and lost productivity. Additionally, global warming is predicted to inflict a variety of other costs, and with declining rainfalls and rising temperatures, global warming can increase the formation of ozone smog and worsen pollution.

Land pollution is principally caused by thoughtless or illegal disposal of waste waters or solids containing pollutants. Dumping garbage, and littering on the ground, although unsightly, rarely cause much lasting damage unless the material contains non degradable materials such as many plastics or is at risk of entering a watercourse and thus eventually reaching the sea.

Studies have proven there are several negative health outcomes associated with breathing polluted air. Studies have found that some pollutants have damaging effects on humans, especially during pregnancy. More specifically, results from several epidemiological studies suggest that exposure of pregnant women to air pollution results in higher risks of low birth weight in term born infants. Studies done on humans exposed to pollutants, one of them being polychlorinated biphenyls, which causes decreased birth size, increased sexual development, and altered levels of hormones related to gland regulation. Long-term exposure to particulate air pollution is associated with mortality from heart disease and stroke. Affected populations can develop a higher risk for lung cancer by breathing polluted air. Many studies examine the effect of children's health. Some of the findings show that children's lung function growth is adversely affected by air pollution, high levels of air pollution is associated with increased amount of asthma cases or asthma exacerbations in children, and school absences from acute respiratory illnesses resulted following rises in ozone levels in student communities. Additionally, numerous problems have been found by the CA Department of Health Services in classrooms at several hundred schools throughout California such as inadequate ventilation, poor thermal comfort, high formaldehyde levels, and toxic residues in floor dust.

There are also economic repercussions from the effects of pollution in California. One study suggests the health-related impacts of air pollution in San Joaquin Valley drains the regions economy of $3 billion every year. The study calculates the cost of pollution in Central Valley averages $1,000 per person per year, representing the costs of premature deaths, asthma attacks, acute bronchitis in children, school absences, lost work days, etc.

Water quality regulations started in the 1960's and 1970's with the passage of the California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, which prevent discharges of pollution into water bodies and control the quality of water that comes out of the tap. Pollution in water systems occurs when toxic substances enter water systems such as lakes, rivers, and oceans and cause degradation.

The issue of ocean pollution does not only affect California’s Pacific coast, it is an international issue. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine debris, there is no place on Earth that has been left untouched by the debris. Marine debris is anything man-made that ends up in marine environments. Some of the most common items that end up as debris are plastics, abandoned vessels, and fishing gear. Of the marine debris, approximately 80% originates from land, the other percentage comes from sea disposal. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) commonly referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is a result of the marine debris accumulating.

While access to plastic has increased the amount of plastic in marine environments reciprocates. These plastic products in marine environments degrade slowly, remaining floating for an extended amount of time or sink to the bottom where they can remain for up to several decades. The threats posed by the plastic in the ocean and other bodies if water includes animals becoming entangled leading to drowning, ingestion which can lead to digestive and feeding issues. The issue of ocean pollution affects marine wildlife, human health and California’s tourist economy. The litter other than becoming an eyesore to California’s beaches can also negatively affect coastal communities economy.Government response:

According to the American Lung Association's recent "State of the Air 2017" report, California is a leader in air pollution among other states, with the highest ozone levels. The top three cities in the country with the highest recorded levels of ozone (smog) levels were Los Angeles-Long Beach, Bakersfield, and Fresno-Madera. Salinas, California is the only city of California that reports no days of unhealthy air quality. While the air quality in California is significantly better in northern California, more than ninety percent of Californians live in counties with unhealthy air.

Pollution in California

Water pollution is defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as "dredge spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water." In 2011, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study showed that water quality standards were not met on 1.6 million acres of California's 3 million acres of lakes, bays, wetlands and estuaries. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act governs the water quality regulation in California.

The CARB continues to work with local governments, the business sector, and the public to address California's air quality problems. In the past decade, California has become a global leader on climate change by entering agreements with several nations and linking cap-and-trade programs with Quebec. Many programs have been established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which is planned to clean up the transportation sector and add about 1.5 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the roads by 2025. The cap-and-trade program has allowed billions of dollars to be invested in reducing greenhouse gases in cities throughout California. While California has taken significant action to decrease pollution, the state remains behind the rest of the nation. The ever-growing population, abundance of cars, and sunny weather continue to foster a pollution friendly environment.

Although Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution, the state of air pollution has been improving. With a population of roughly over 10 million, the Los Angeles area is a large basin with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and several mountain ranges with 11,000-foot peaks to the east and south, Los Angeles is particularly susceptible to high ozone levels. Diesel engines, ports, motor vehicles, and industries are main sources of air pollution in Los Angeles. Frequent sunny days and low rainfall contribute to ozone formation, as well as high levels of fine particles and dust. The strong relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI) and ozone levels may be found on air pollution maps.

Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged a panel of expert scientists, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, to help them assess the evidence. The EPA released their most recent review of the current research on health threat of ozone and particle pollution.

EPA Concludes Ozone Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:
EPA Concludes Fine Particle Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's interactive online map - EJSCREEN - features the low socioeconomic communities across the country that are more vulnerable to air pollution and its associated health risks. As exhibited in this map, Southeast Los Angeles County neighborhoods, primarily impoverished areas in the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire, face a higher exposure to air pollution and environmental injustices. In such areas, those in poverty stricken areas have an unequal access to environmental health and safety resources. These poverty-stricken neighborhoods are frequently located in areas that are near freeways, hazardous facilities, and/or rail yards.

The spatial arrangement of Californian communities plays a large role in determining exposure to the concentrated air pollution of the state's southern regions. In one suburb of Los Angeles, El Marino Language School sits adjacent to the ten-lane Interstate 405. Students of schools like these, often elementary-aged, are subject to dramatically increased levels of pollution from automobile emissions, including carcinogenic compounds. Health effects of traffic pollution include the onset of cardiovascular disease, asthma, impaired lung function, premature death, and a plethora of other complications. Furthermore, the incomplete development of children's sensitive respiratory systems leads to compounded effects of air pollution when compared with the health effects of the same pollution on adults.

In 2012, this research used the method of cumulative environmental hazard inequality Index (CEHII), which is a model developed to environmental inequality in air pollution hazards., to analyze the environmental inequality in three counties in California: Alameda, San Diego and Los Angeles (Jason et al. 2012). In addition to frequently used air pollution parameter like NO2, PM 2.5 and diesel PM, a metric of heat stress was included for the analysis because excessive heat weather comes to be an environmental problem that can threaten human health.

The result indicated that colored communities bear greater air pollution including NO2, PM 2.5, PM 10, and heat stress compared to predominantly white and more affluent communities. In San Diego County, the relative heat stress inequality was founded to be the highest. Also, significant heat stress inequality was observed in Los Angeles. The result shows that in these two counties, there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage of Non-Whites in the community and heat stress inequality. However, in Alameda county, an opposite pattern was found: he community with a higher White population experienced more extreme temperature exceedances. This might be explained by the fact that the White population and the more affluent class in Alameda County mainly lived in the eastern area further away from the coast, which resulted in the higher heat stress exposure.

Also, the research verified that poverty status is consistent with the trend of disproportion burden of the racial-ethnic status. As the analysis was conducted according to the poverty status instead of racial-ethnic status for air pollutants NO2, PM2.5, and diesel PM, the results indicated the similar result as the analysis to heat stress. Furthermore, from the data, a strong correlation was found between poverty and proportion of non-white population (Alameda: r=0.69, Los Angeles: r=0.77). Above all, this research demonstrates that air pollution is disproportionally distributed according to the socioeconomic and racial-ethnic status in the United States.

As a future direction of study, it plans to classify the inequality that exists in African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other ethnic groups. Furthermore, the technique used in this research provided a way to assess environmental inequality and the results can be used to assist decision makers in efforts to address environmental inequality issues.

Air pollution stems from a number of sources, and the amount of pollutant from each source differs from place to place. Particulate pollution sources are shown in the graph at right. Residential wood combustion, such as burning wood in fireplaces, is the largest source of PM 2.5 pollution.

The Clean Air Act requires the US EPA to regulate six common pollutants. These air pollutants (also known as "criteria pollutants") are found all over the United States. They are particle pollution, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. All of these pollutants have been shown to have adverse health and environmental impacts and some can cause property damage. Of the six pollutants, particle pollution and ground-level ozone are the most widespread health threats. EPA calls these pollutants "criteria" air pollutants because it regulates them by developing human health-based and/or environmentally based criteria (science-based guidelines) for setting permissible levels.

Fossil fuels are a leading source of air and water pollution in the United States. The Clean Air Act estimated the economic cost of air pollution to be $9 trillion between 1970 and 2000. These costs involve pollution-induced health effects and lost productivity. Additionally, global warming is predicted to inflict a variety of other costs, and with declining rainfalls and rising temperatures, global warming can increase the formation of ozone smog and worsen pollution.

Land pollution is principally caused by thoughtless or illegal disposal of waste waters or solids containing pollutants. Dumping garbage, and littering on the ground, although unsightly, rarely cause much lasting damage unless the material contains non degradable materials such as many plastics or is at risk of entering a watercourse and thus eventually reaching the sea.

There are also economic repercussions from the effects of pollution in California. One study suggests the health-related impacts of air pollution in San Joaquin Valley drains the regions economy of $3 billion every year. The study calculates the cost of pollution in Central Valley averages $1,000 per person per year, representing the costs of premature deaths, asthma attacks, acute bronchitis in children, school absences, lost work days, etc.

Water quality regulations started in the 1960's and 1970's with the passage of the California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, which prevent discharges of pollution into water bodies and control the quality of water that comes out of the tap. Pollution in water systems occurs when toxic substances enter water systems such as lakes, rivers, and oceans and cause degradation.

The issue of ocean pollution does not only affect California’s Pacific coast, it is an international issue. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine debris, there is no place on Earth that has been left untouched by the debris. Marine debris is anything man-made that ends up in marine environments. Some of the most common items that end up as debris are plastics, abandoned vessels, and fishing gear. Of the marine debris, approximately 80% originates from land, the other percentage comes from sea disposal. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) commonly referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is a result of the marine debris accumulating.

While access to plastic has increased the amount of plastic in marine environments reciprocates. These plastic products in marine environments degrade slowly, remaining floating for an extended amount of time or sink to the bottom where they can remain for up to several decades. The threats posed by the plastic in the ocean and other bodies if water includes animals becoming entangled leading to drowning, ingestion which can lead to digestive and feeding issues. The issue of ocean pollution affects marine wildlife, human health and California’s tourist economy. The litter other than becoming an eyesore to California’s beaches can also negatively affect coastal communities economy.Government response:

Although Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution, the state of air pollution has been improving. With a population of roughly over 10 million, the Los Angeles area is a large basin with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and several mountain ranges with 11,000-foot peaks to the east and south, Los Angeles is particularly susceptible to high ozone levels. Diesel engines, ports, motor vehicles, and industries are main sources of air pollution in Los Angeles. Frequent sunny days and low rainfall contribute to ozone formation, as well as high levels of fine particles and dust. The strong relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI) and ozone levels may be found on air pollution maps.

Pollution in California

Water pollution is defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as "dredge spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water." In 2011, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study showed that water quality standards were not met on 1.6 million acres of California's 3 million acres of lakes, bays, wetlands and estuaries. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act governs the water quality regulation in California.

The CARB continues to work with local governments, the business sector, and the public to address California's air quality problems. In the past decade, California has become a global leader on climate change by entering agreements with several nations and linking cap-and-trade programs with Quebec. Many programs have been established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which is planned to clean up the transportation sector and add about 1.5 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the roads by 2025. The cap-and-trade program has allowed billions of dollars to be invested in reducing greenhouse gases in cities throughout California. While California has taken significant action to decrease pollution, the state remains behind the rest of the nation. The ever-growing population, abundance of cars, and sunny weather continue to foster a pollution friendly environment.

According to the American Lung Association's recent "State of the Air 2017" report, California is a leader in air pollution among other states, with the highest ozone levels. The top three cities in the country with the highest recorded levels of ozone (smog) levels were Los Angeles-Long Beach, Bakersfield, and Fresno-Madera. Salinas, California is the only city of California that reports no days of unhealthy air quality. While the air quality in California is significantly better in northern California, more than ninety percent of Californians live in counties with unhealthy air.

Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged a panel of expert scientists, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, to help them assess the evidence. The EPA released their most recent review of the current research on health threat of ozone and particle pollution.

EPA Concludes Ozone Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:
EPA Concludes Fine Particle Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's interactive online map - EJSCREEN - features the low socioeconomic communities across the country that are more vulnerable to air pollution and its associated health risks. As exhibited in this map, Southeast Los Angeles County neighborhoods, primarily impoverished areas in the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire, face a higher exposure to air pollution and environmental injustices. In such areas, those in poverty stricken areas have an unequal access to environmental health and safety resources. These poverty-stricken neighborhoods are frequently located in areas that are near freeways, hazardous facilities, and/or rail yards.

The spatial arrangement of Californian communities plays a large role in determining exposure to the concentrated air pollution of the state's southern regions. In one suburb of Los Angeles, El Marino Language School sits adjacent to the ten-lane Interstate 405. Students of schools like these, often elementary-aged, are subject to dramatically increased levels of pollution from automobile emissions, including carcinogenic compounds. Health effects of traffic pollution include the onset of cardiovascular disease, asthma, impaired lung function, premature death, and a plethora of other complications. Furthermore, the incomplete development of children's sensitive respiratory systems leads to compounded effects of air pollution when compared with the health effects of the same pollution on adults.

In 2012, this research used the method of cumulative environmental hazard inequality Index (CEHII), which is a model developed to environmental inequality in air pollution hazards., to analyze the environmental inequality in three counties in California: Alameda, San Diego and Los Angeles (Jason et al. 2012). In addition to frequently used air pollution parameter like NO2, PM 2.5 and diesel PM, a metric of heat stress was included for the analysis because excessive heat weather comes to be an environmental problem that can threaten human health.

The result indicated that colored communities bear greater air pollution including NO2, PM 2.5, PM 10, and heat stress compared to predominantly white and more affluent communities. In San Diego County, the relative heat stress inequality was founded to be the highest. Also, significant heat stress inequality was observed in Los Angeles. The result shows that in these two counties, there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage of Non-Whites in the community and heat stress inequality. However, in Alameda county, an opposite pattern was found: he community with a higher White population experienced more extreme temperature exceedances. This might be explained by the fact that the White population and the more affluent class in Alameda County mainly lived in the eastern area further away from the coast, which resulted in the higher heat stress exposure.

Also, the research verified that poverty status is consistent with the trend of disproportion burden of the racial-ethnic status. As the analysis was conducted according to the poverty status instead of racial-ethnic status for air pollutants NO2, PM2.5, and diesel PM, the results indicated the similar result as the analysis to heat stress. Furthermore, from the data, a strong correlation was found between poverty and proportion of non-white population (Alameda: r=0.69, Los Angeles: r=0.77). Above all, this research demonstrates that air pollution is disproportionally distributed according to the socioeconomic and racial-ethnic status in the United States.

As a future direction of study, it plans to classify the inequality that exists in African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other ethnic groups. Furthermore, the technique used in this research provided a way to assess environmental inequality and the results can be used to assist decision makers in efforts to address environmental inequality issues.

Air pollution stems from a number of sources, and the amount of pollutant from each source differs from place to place. Particulate pollution sources are shown in the graph at right. Residential wood combustion, such as burning wood in fireplaces, is the largest source of PM 2.5 pollution.

The Clean Air Act requires the US EPA to regulate six common pollutants. These air pollutants (also known as "criteria pollutants") are found all over the United States. They are particle pollution, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. All of these pollutants have been shown to have adverse health and environmental impacts and some can cause property damage. Of the six pollutants, particle pollution and ground-level ozone are the most widespread health threats. EPA calls these pollutants "criteria" air pollutants because it regulates them by developing human health-based and/or environmentally based criteria (science-based guidelines) for setting permissible levels.

Fossil fuels are a leading source of air and water pollution in the United States. The Clean Air Act estimated the economic cost of air pollution to be $9 trillion between 1970 and 2000. These costs involve pollution-induced health effects and lost productivity. Additionally, global warming is predicted to inflict a variety of other costs, and with declining rainfalls and rising temperatures, global warming can increase the formation of ozone smog and worsen pollution.

Land pollution is principally caused by thoughtless or illegal disposal of waste waters or solids containing pollutants. Dumping garbage, and littering on the ground, although unsightly, rarely cause much lasting damage unless the material contains non degradable materials such as many plastics or is at risk of entering a watercourse and thus eventually reaching the sea.

There are also economic repercussions from the effects of pollution in California. One study suggests the health-related impacts of air pollution in San Joaquin Valley drains the regions economy of $3 billion every year. The study calculates the cost of pollution in Central Valley averages $1,000 per person per year, representing the costs of premature deaths, asthma attacks, acute bronchitis in children, school absences, lost work days, etc.

Water quality regulations started in the 1960's and 1970's with the passage of the California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, which prevent discharges of pollution into water bodies and control the quality of water that comes out of the tap. Pollution in water systems occurs when toxic substances enter water systems such as lakes, rivers, and oceans and cause degradation.

The issue of ocean pollution does not only affect California’s Pacific coast, it is an international issue. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine debris, there is no place on Earth that has been left untouched by the debris. Marine debris is anything man-made that ends up in marine environments. Some of the most common items that end up as debris are plastics, abandoned vessels, and fishing gear. Of the marine debris, approximately 80% originates from land, the other percentage comes from sea disposal. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) commonly referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is a result of the marine debris accumulating.

While access to plastic has increased the amount of plastic in marine environments reciprocates. These plastic products in marine environments degrade slowly, remaining floating for an extended amount of time or sink to the bottom where they can remain for up to several decades. The threats posed by the plastic in the ocean and other bodies if water includes animals becoming entangled leading to drowning, ingestion which can lead to digestive and feeding issues. The issue of ocean pollution affects marine wildlife, human health and California’s tourist economy. The litter other than becoming an eyesore to California’s beaches can also negatively affect coastal communities economy.Government response:

Pollution in California

Water pollution is defined by the Federal Clean Water Act as "dredge spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water." In 2011, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study showed that water quality standards were not met on 1.6 million acres of California's 3 million acres of lakes, bays, wetlands and estuaries. The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act governs the water quality regulation in California.

The CARB continues to work with local governments, the business sector, and the public to address California's air quality problems. In the past decade, California has become a global leader on climate change by entering agreements with several nations and linking cap-and-trade programs with Quebec. Many programs have been established to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which is planned to clean up the transportation sector and add about 1.5 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the roads by 2025. The cap-and-trade program has allowed billions of dollars to be invested in reducing greenhouse gases in cities throughout California. While California has taken significant action to decrease pollution, the state remains behind the rest of the nation. The ever-growing population, abundance of cars, and sunny weather continue to foster a pollution friendly environment.

According to the American Lung Association's recent "State of the Air 2017" report, California is a leader in air pollution among other states, with the highest ozone levels. The top three cities in the country with the highest recorded levels of ozone (smog) levels were Los Angeles-Long Beach, Bakersfield, and Fresno-Madera. Salinas, California is the only city of California that reports no days of unhealthy air quality. While the air quality in California is significantly better in northern California, more than ninety percent of Californians live in counties with unhealthy air.

Although Los Angeles remains the city with the worst ozone pollution, the state of air pollution has been improving. With a population of roughly over 10 million, the Los Angeles area is a large basin with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and several mountain ranges with 11,000-foot peaks to the east and south, Los Angeles is particularly susceptible to high ozone levels. Diesel engines, ports, motor vehicles, and industries are main sources of air pollution in Los Angeles. Frequent sunny days and low rainfall contribute to ozone formation, as well as high levels of fine particles and dust. The strong relationship between Air Quality Index (AQI) and ozone levels may be found on air pollution maps.

Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engaged a panel of expert scientists, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, to help them assess the evidence. The EPA released their most recent review of the current research on health threat of ozone and particle pollution.

EPA Concludes Ozone Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:
EPA Concludes Fine Particle Pollution Poses Serious Health Threats:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's interactive online map - EJSCREEN - features the low socioeconomic communities across the country that are more vulnerable to air pollution and its associated health risks. As exhibited in this map, Southeast Los Angeles County neighborhoods, primarily impoverished areas in the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire, face a higher exposure to air pollution and environmental injustices. In such areas, those in poverty stricken areas have an unequal access to environmental health and safety resources. These poverty-stricken neighborhoods are frequently located in areas that are near freeways, hazardous facilities, and/or rail yards.

The spatial arrangement of Californian communities plays a large role in determining exposure to the concentrated air pollution of the state's southern regions. In one suburb of Los Angeles, El Marino Language School sits adjacent to the ten-lane Interstate 405. Students of schools like these, often elementary-aged, are subject to dramatically increased levels of pollution from automobile emissions, including carcinogenic compounds. Health effects of traffic pollution include the onset of cardiovascular disease, asthma, impaired lung function, premature death, and a plethora of other complications. Furthermore, the incomplete development of children's sensitive respiratory systems leads to compounded effects of air pollution when compared with the health effects of the same pollution on adults.

In 2012, this research used the method of cumulative environmental hazard inequality Index (CEHII), which is a model developed to environmental inequality in air pollution hazards., to analyze the environmental inequality in three counties in California: Alameda, San Diego and Los Angeles (Jason et al. 2012). In addition to frequently used air pollution parameter like NO2, PM 2.5 and diesel PM, a metric of heat stress was included for the analysis because excessive heat weather comes to be an environmental problem that can threaten human health.

The result indicated that colored communities bear greater air pollution including NO2, PM 2.5, PM 10, and heat stress compared to predominantly white and more affluent communities. In San Diego County, the relative heat stress inequality was founded to be the highest. Also, significant heat stress inequality was observed in Los Angeles. The result shows that in these two counties, there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage of Non-Whites in the community and heat stress inequality. However, in Alameda county, an opposite pattern was found: he community with a higher White population experienced more extreme temperature exceedances. This might be explained by the fact that the White population and the more affluent class in Alameda County mainly lived in the eastern area further away from the coast, which resulted in the higher heat stress exposure.

Also, the research verified that poverty status is consistent with the trend of disproportion burden of the racial-ethnic status. As the analysis was conducted according to the poverty status instead of racial-ethnic status for air pollutants NO2, PM2.5, and diesel PM, the results indicated the similar result as the analysis to heat stress. Furthermore, from the data, a strong correlation was found between poverty and proportion of non-white population (Alameda: r=0.69, Los Angeles: r=0.77). Above all, this research demonstrates that air pollution is disproportionally distributed according to the socioeconomic and racial-ethnic status in the United States.

As a future direction of study, it plans to classify the inequality that exists in African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other ethnic groups. Furthermore, the technique used in this research provided a way to assess environmental inequality and the results can be used to assist decision makers in efforts to address environmental inequality issues.

Air pollution stems from a number of sources, and the amount of pollutant from each source differs from place to place. Particulate pollution sources are shown in the graph at right. Residential wood combustion, such as burning wood in fireplaces, is the largest source of PM 2.5 pollution.

The Clean Air Act requires the US EPA to regulate six common pollutants. These air pollutants (also known as "criteria pollutants") are found all over the United States. They are particle pollution, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. All of these pollutants have been shown to have adverse health and environmental impacts and some can cause property damage. Of the six pollutants, particle pollution and ground-level ozone are the most widespread health threats. EPA calls these pollutants "criteria" air pollutants because it regulates them by developing human health-based and/or environmentally based criteria (science-based guidelines) for setting permissible levels.

Fossil fuels are a leading source of air and water pollution in the United States. The Clean Air Act estimated the economic cost of air pollution to be $9 trillion between 1970 and 2000. These costs involve pollution-induced health effects and lost productivity. Additionally, global warming is predicted to inflict a variety of other costs, and with declining rainfalls and rising temperatures, global warming can increase the formation of ozone smog and worsen pollution.

Land pollution is principally caused by thoughtless or illegal disposal of waste waters or solids containing pollutants. Dumping garbage, and littering on the ground, although unsightly, rarely cause much lasting damage unless the material contains non degradable materials such as many plastics or is at risk of entering a watercourse and thus eventually reaching the sea.

There are also economic repercussions from the effects of pollution in California. One study suggests the health-related impacts of air pollution in San Joaquin Valley drains the regions economy of $3 billion every year. The study calculates the cost of pollution in Central Valley averages $1,000 per person per year, representing the costs of premature deaths, asthma attacks, acute bronchitis in children, school absences, lost work days, etc.

Water quality regulations started in the 1960's and 1970's with the passage of the California’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, which prevent discharges of pollution into water bodies and control the quality of water that comes out of the tap. Pollution in water systems occurs when toxic substances enter water systems such as lakes, rivers, and oceans and cause degradation.

The issue of ocean pollution does not only affect California’s Pacific coast, it is an international issue. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine debris, there is no place on Earth that has been left untouched by the debris. Marine debris is anything man-made that ends up in marine environments. Some of the most common items that end up as debris are plastics, abandoned vessels, and fishing gear. Of the marine debris, approximately 80% originates from land, the other percentage comes from sea disposal. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) commonly referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is a result of the marine debris accumulating.

While access to plastic has increased the amount of plastic in marine environments reciprocates. These plastic products in marine environments degrade slowly, remaining floating for an extended amount of time or sink to the bottom where they can remain for up to several decades. The threats posed by the plastic in the ocean and other bodies if water includes animals becoming entangled leading to drowning, ingestion which can lead to digestive and feeding issues. The issue of ocean pollution affects marine wildlife, human health and California’s tourist economy. The litter other than becoming an eyesore to California’s beaches can also negatively affect coastal communities economy.Government response:

Air pollution, or suspended particulate matter locally generated from the increased number of automobiles in the area, from point sources such as factories, dust carried into the air by construction activity, and the contribution of similar pollutants from the Los Angeles area has regularly caused the Inland Empire to be at, or near, the bottom of many air quality ratings. In 2004, the EPA rated the San Bernardino-Riverside area as having the worst particulate air pollution in the United States (although the San Joaquin Valley in central California had the worst overall air pollution). Air pollution in the Los Angeles region is still an issue, although improvements have been made over the years. But the problem is exacerbated in the Inland Empire, which is surrounded by mountains on the north and the east. Prevailing winds move bad air eastward from Los Angeles, but once the pollution reaches the Inland Empire it cannot be carried further east as it becomes trapped by the mountains surrounding the region.

Inland Empire

The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region of the Greater Los Angeles area in Southern California. The term may be used to refer to the cities of western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino County. Sometimes including the desert communities of Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley; a much larger definition includes all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The U.S. Census Bureau-defined Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area, which comprises Riverside County and San Bernardino County, California, covers more than and has a population of approximately 4 million. Most of the area's population is located in southwestern San Bernardino County and northwestern Riverside County. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Inland Empire was a major center of agriculture, including citrus, dairy, and winemaking. However, agriculture declined through the twentieth century, and since the 1970s a rapidly growing population, fed by families migrating in search of affordable housing, has led to more residential, industrial, and commercial development.

The term "Inland Empire" is documented to have been used by the "Riverside Enterprise" newspaper (now "The Press-Enterprise") as early as April 1914. Developers in the area likely introduced the term to promote the region and to highlight the area's unique features. The "Inland" part of the name is derived from the region's location, about inland from Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. Originally, this area was called the Orange Empire due to the acres of citrus groves that once extended from Pasadena to Redlands during the first half of the twentieth century. The Inland Empire is a nebulous region, but is defined as the cities of western Riverside County and the cities of southwestern San Bernardino County; adjacent to the Los Angeles metropolitan area. A generally broader definition will include the desert community of Palm Springs and its surrounding area, and a much larger definition will include all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

What is now known as the Inland Empire was inhabited for thousands of years, prior to the late eighteenth century, by the Tongva, Serrano, and Cahuilla Native Americans. With Spanish colonization and the subsequent Mexican era the area was sparsely populated at the land grant Ranchos, considering it unsuitable for missions. The first American settlers, a group of Mormon pioneers, arrived over the Cajon Pass in 1851. Although the Mormons left a scant six years later, recalled to Salt Lake City by Brigham Young during the church's Utah War with the US government, other settlers soon followed.

The entire landmass of Southern California was subdivided according to the San Bernardino Meridian, which was first plotted as part of the Public Land Survey System in November 1852, by Col. Henry Washington. Base Line road, a major thoroughfare, today runs from Highland to San Dimas, intermittently along the absolute baseline coordinates plotted by Col. Washington. San Bernardino County was first formed out of parts of Los Angeles County on April 26, 1853. While the partition once included what is today most of Riverside County, the region is not as monolithic as it may sound. Rivalries between Colton, Redlands, Riverside and San Bernardino over the location of the county seat in the 1890s caused each of them to form their own civic communities, each with their own newspapers. On August 14, 1893, the state Senate allowed Riverside County to form out of land previously in San Bernardino and San Diego counties, after rejecting a bill for Pomona to split from L.A. County and become the seat of what would have been called San Antonio County.
The arrival of rail and the importation of navel and Valencia orange trees in the 1870s touched off explosive growth, with the area quickly becoming a major center for citrus production. This agricultural boom continued with the arrival of water from the Colorado River and the rapid growth of Los Angeles in the early twentieth century, with dairy farming becoming another staple industry. In 1926, Route 66 (now known as Foothill Boulevard and Interstate 215) came through the northern parts of the area, bringing a stream of tourists and migrants to the region. Still, the region endured as the key part of the Southern California "citrus belt" until the end of World War II, when a new generation of real-estate developers bulldozed acres of agricultural land to build suburbs. The precursor to the San Bernardino Freeway, the Ramona Expressway, was built in 1944, and further development of the freeway system in the area facilitated the expansion of suburbs and human migration throughout the Inland Empire and Southern California.

The region experienced significant economic and population growth through most of the latter half of the twentieth century. In the early 1990s, the loss of the region's military bases and reduction of nearby defense industries due to the end of the Cold War led to a local economic downturn. The region as a whole had partially recovered from this downturn by the start of the twenty-first century through the development of warehousing, shipping, logistics and retail industries, primarily centered around Ontario. However, these industries have been heavily affected by the Great Recession.

Physical boundaries between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire from west to east are the San Jose Hills splitting the San Gabriel Valley from the Pomona Valley, leading to the urban populations centered in the San Bernardino Valley. From the south to north, the Santa Ana Mountains physically divide Orange County from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The Santa Rosa Mountains, as well as the Southern California portion of the Sonoran Desert, physically divide Riverside County from San Diego County. Some definitions for the IE consist of the Chino Valley, Coachella Valley, Cucamonga Valley, Menifee Valley, Murrieta Valley, Perris Valley, San Jacinto Valley, Temecula Valley, and Victor Valley.

Elevations range from at the top of the San Gorgonio Mountain to at the Salton Sea. The San Bernardino mountains are home to the San Bernardino National Forest and the resort communities of Big Bear Lake, Lake Arrowhead, and Running Springs. The Santa Ana River extends from Mt. San Gorgonio for nearly through San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties before it eventually spills into the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. While temperatures are generally cool to cold in the mountains, it can get hot in the valleys. In the desert resort of Palm Springs, near Joshua Tree National Park, summer temperatures can reach well over.

Unlike most metropolitan areas that have grown up around a central city, the Inland Empire has no one main focus city. Major cities in the region include Riverside, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, and Ontario. Suburban sprawl spreads out to form a unified/built up connection with the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Further development is steadily, if not heavily, encroaching past the mountains into the outlying desert areas. The Inland Empire borders both Los Angeles and Orange counties. Freeways in Southern California are heavily used, but this comprehensive freeway system has made travel between the Inland Empire and these two counties generally easy; especially to and from Los Angeles County.

The Inland Empire has also been referred to as "the 909", after one of the region's most used area codes. In 2004, because of growing demand for telephone numbers, most of Western Riverside County was granted a new area code, 951.

The Coachella Valley region of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio are located much further east in Riverside County (the distance between the city of San Bernardino and Palm Springs is approximately 45 miles) and is part of the much larger 760 area code. This area is sometimes considered a sub-region of the Inland Empire or its own separate region. This is to help differentiate them from the urbanized area of San Bernardino-Riverside.

There is no universally accepted definition for the boundaries of the Inland Empire region. Some sources such as the "Los Angeles Times" have referred to Riverside County and San Bernardino County as the Inland Empire, mirroring the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area.

Some residents of certain areas within the three counties, such as Twentynine Palms, the Coachella and Temecula valleys, may consider themselves separate from the IE. The California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC), a not-for-profit, nongovernmental entity that promotes tourism in California, divides the state into several regions for its own purposes. The CTTC defines the Inland Empire as being bounded by Los Angeles County and Orange County on the west, San Diego County on the south, as far north as the Victor Valley area, and as far east as Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains. The state of California's official website links to the CTTC's map with the description "Map of the Inland Empire region".

Other sources, including Kevin Starr, former state librarian of California, include the eastern Los Angeles County cities of the Pomona Valley which are not actually part of the Inland Empire but border it from the west. The cities of Claremont, Pomona, La Verne, San Dimas, and Diamond Bar were considered by Kevin Starr to fall within the definition of the Inland Empire, but since its publication in 1950, this definition has since been corrected, as these neighboring cities all pay higher Los Angeles County tax rates. Other sources also include cities in Los Angeles County within the boundaries.

Inexpensive land prices (compared with Los Angeles and Orange Counties), a large supply of vacant land, and a transport network where many highways and railroads intersect have made the Inland Empire a major shipping hub. Some of the nation's largest manufacturing companies have chosen the Inland Empire for their distribution facilities including Toyota Motor Corporation's North American Parts and Logistics Distribution (NAPLD) center in Ontario and APL Logistics in Rancho Cucamonga. Whirlpool Corporation recently leased a distribution center in Perris that is larger than 31 football fields and one of the biggest warehouses in the country. These centers operate as part of the system that transports finished goods and materials from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to destinations to the north and east such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. More than 80 percent of the state's imported cargo is shipped through the Los Angeles/Inland Empire Corridor. However, with the global economic downturn, industrial vacancies have doubled from 6.2 percent in 2007 to 12.4 percent to 2008. In San Bernardino and Redlands, vacancies are as high as 22 percent.

Although the region's large industries have been affected by the Great Recession, the Inland Empire is projected to remain California's fastest-growing region for some time to come. The area is also projected to remain one of the least educated areas of the state with the lowest average in annual wages in the country. A 2006 study of salaries in 51 metropolitan areas of the country ranked the Inland Empire second to last, with an average annual wage of $36,924. However, inexpensive land prices and innovative institutional support networks have attracted some small businesses and technology startups into the area.

While urbanization continues to cut into agricultural lands, the Inland Empire still produces substantial crops. Although of irrigated land was lost between 2002 and 2004, agriculture still brought in more than $1.6 billion in revenues to the two-county region in 2006.

Being a MSA, aggregate GDP figures are reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis annually. The Inland Empire ranks 25th in the nation with a 2011 GDP of $109.8 billion, roughly a third of San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA despite their close population numbers. Per capita GDP was $25,993.34 in 2011, nearly half among the nation's top 50 Gross Metropolitan Product. Due to housing crisis, the GDP fell from $114.8 billion in 2007, despite a heavy influx of residents.

The unemployment rate in the Inland Empire has been consistently over the national average since 2007. 10.4 percent of Inland residents were unemployed as of August 2013, compared with the national rate of 7.3 percent. Due to the high unemployment and housing foreclosure rates, a higher percentage of Inland residents rely on public assistance. According to the Press-Enterprise, "twelve percent of Riverside County and 17 percent of San Bernardino County residents used food stamps in January 2012," as compared with "11 percent of those living in Los Angeles County, 8 percent of San Diego County residents and 7 percent of Orange County residents."

Since the 1950s, the area has changed from a rural to a suburban environment. The region now comprises numerous cities known as bedroom communities that are suburban cities to Los Angeles. Affordable home ownership is the primary motivation behind the growth in these Inland Empire cities as homes in the region are generally less expensive than comparable homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The steady rise in population and the demand for housing has led to a dramatic increase in the building of single-family homes on parcels of or more, as opposed to the construction of high-density development such as multi-story apartment or condominium buildings. This low-density development has caused sprawl in the Inland Empire; a commute between Beaumont and Ontario is approximately 43 miles. Much of the vacant land is being developed. Land that was used for agriculture is now being sold by owners for conversion to shopping centers, industrial warehouses, etc. Due to the lack of the Inland Empire having just one central city, and the smaller geographical footprint that suburban cities tend to have, this continuous development has become seemingly unplanned suburban sprawl as local interest and zoning laws may quickly change from one city to the next city. The Inland Empire was declared the nation's worst example of sprawl according to a study by Smart Growth America in 2002.

During the housing bubble collapse of the late 2000s, foreclosures rose by 3,500 percent. In 2010, the area ranked fourth in the nation in the number of foreclosures, with one filing for every 133 households. The problem of abandoned homes became so great that the city of Perris initiated a program to paint the brown lawns of abandoned homes green as a way to cut down on the appearance of blight.

Retailing in the area has increased to try to keep abreast with the growing suburban population. The region is home to several large shopping malls, including the Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos and the Crossings in Corona; Ontario Mills in Ontario; Promenade Mall in Temecula; Galleria at Tyler, Riverside Plaza, and Canyon Crossings in Riverside; The Shoppes at Chino Hills in Chino Hills; Moreno Valley Mall in Moreno Valley; Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and the Inland Center mall in San Bernardino. In fiscal year 2006, retail sales in San Bernardino County grew by 11.9 percent to $31.2 billion, while sales in Riverside County were up 11.3 percent to $29.6 billion.

The result of this ongoing development has resulted in greater homeownership for the region. Although the region saw an uptick in jobs over the past decade, it is not a heavy employment center, and many residents commute to Los Angeles and Orange counties for their work. With a lack of substantial public transportation in the Greater Los Angeles Area, this has led to traffic congestion and degradation in air quality for the Inland Empire. The solution to these problems is not simple. The presence of so many city governments within the Inland Empire, which often have different 'visions' for their own municipalities, means that two cities in the region rarely agree on a solution; just as common, they may have unequal means for implementing one even if they were to agree. Having no regional-wide governmental planning organization may undermine any solution that could be proposed. Lastly, the pace at which development occurs (fast) versus the ability of government to respond to changes (slow) means that it could easily take years, if not decades, for a viable solution (such as new roads, pollution controls, etc.) to go into effect.

Water pollution has also been found in the Santa Ana River and Cajon wash, and pollutants from the March Air Reserve Base and Stringfellow Acid Pits have contaminated groundwater in parts of Riverside County. In 1997, perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives, was discovered to be seeping into the groundwater under Rialto in a plume that continues to grow. In 2007, the Rialto City council petitioned the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for Superfund status to clean up the origin site. The sites comprising March Air Reserve Base, Norton Air Force Base and the Stringfellow Acid Pits have already been classified as EPA Superfund toxic waste sites.

Traffic congestion problems on the roadways, as with elsewhere in Southern California, is the result of the demand for driving exceeding the available capacity, especially on area freeways. Many of the existing freeways were completed in the late 1970s, with the exception of the segment of the Foothill Freeway, State Route 210 (SR 210) between San Dimas and San Bernardino completed in July 2007. New freeways or highways "fix-ups" are being planned, such as the expansion of the length of the 215 freeway around Inland Center Mall. However, other problems exist, one being the jobs vs. housing imbalance. The Inland Empire population grew as a result of affordable housing, at least relative to the rest of Southern California. But most of the higher paying jobs are located in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange counties. Thus, many workers must drive daily from the Inland Empire to their jobs in these counties -sometimes up to two hours each direction, and even longer if by public transportation. As the population increases, the problem is most certainly going to get worse. "Forbes" magazine recently ranked the area first in its list of most unhealthy commutes in the United States, beating out every other metropolitan area in the country, as Inland area drivers breathe the unhealthiest air and have the highest rate of fatal auto accidents per capita.

According to a 1999 report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the Inland Empire leads in fatal crashes caused by road rage. The theft of copper, brass and other metals from highway and road fixtures has also led to decreased public safety on IE roads and freeways. Gas siphoning has also been noted as a problem for vehicles left unattended in the region.

Unlike many major metropolitan areas, the Inland Empire has minimal public transportation. When combined with the large physical size of the region, more people use automobiles for convenient travel. Less than five percent of the IE's 1,249,224 working-age residents use public transportation to get to work.

Omnitrans is the largest bus agency in San Bernardino County, while the Riverside Transit Agency is the largest in Riverside County. Currently, some of Omnitrans' bus routes run 1–2 hours apart, and some routes stop service in the early evening or may not run on weekends.
The metropolitan area's first rapid transit line, a new bus rapid transit system, launched in April 2014. The new line, dubbed San Bernardino Express (sbX), offers rapid transit service that functions just like light-rail with center running stations, designated sbX lanes and passengers purchasing tickets prior to boarding. Stations are approximately one mile apart with its northern terminus in Verdemont and southern terminus in Loma Linda's VA hospital, passing through downtown San Bernardino and the city's Hospitality Lane Business District.

Metrolink is a commuter rail system serving Southern California; it consists of seven lines and 55 stations operating on of rail network. It travels up to and up to on sections of the Orange County line.

The Metrolink commuter rail system provides train daily service from San Bernardino to Downtown Los Angeles (Busiest route of the system)

91/Perris Valley Line From Perris to Los Angeles

Riverside Line providing weekday commuter service to Los Angeles.

Inland Empire-Orange County Line from San Bernardino to Oceanside in San Diego County

Several airports are located in the Inland Empire. Ontario International Airport and Palm Springs International Airport are commercial airports in their respective cities. A local joint powers agency is attempting to redevelop the decommissioned Norton Air Force Base into San Bernardino International Airport. The airport currently serves as a general aviation airport. Over 20 years after decommissioning, discount airline Volaris announced in April 2017 that it would begin commercial service at San Bernardino in June 2017. There are also several general aviation airports in the region.

The region is making some progress in developing dedicated bicycle commuter and recreation trails. The largest of these, the Santa Ana River bicycle path, currently connects Corona to Huntington Beach, and is eventually projected to stretch for 84 miles all the way to Redlands when completed in 20 years. A shorter trail exists along the former path of the Pacific Electric Railway from Claremont to Fontana.

The population of the Greater Los Angeles area (which includes the Inland Empire) is about 18 million people according to the 2010 United States Census, and is the second largest metropolitan region in the country. The Metropolitan Statistical Area population of the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area) onto itself is over 4.2 million people and is the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, it is the fastest growing area in the state. Between 1990 and 2000, Riverside and San Bernardino counties added 700,000 to their population totals, an increase of 26 percent. Between 2000 and 2010 Inland Empire's population expanded by 970,000 or 30 percent. According to census bureau's 2005–2007 estimates 61.8 percent of the population was White (40.4 percent White Non-Hispanic), 7.5 percent Black, 5.7 percent Asian and 25.0 percent of other or mixed race. 43.9 percent were Hispanic of any race. 21.9 percent of the population was foreign born.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2006, 33.1 percent of people in the Greater San Bernardino Area were overweight, and 30.8 percent were obese. "Forbes" magazine ranks the area as the fourth fattest in the country.

A substantial majority of residents (76.6 percent), last comparatively surveyed in 2001, rated their respective counties as good places to live. Over 81 percent of Riverside County residents indicated that their county is a very good or fairly good place to live, while about 72 percent of residents in San Bernardino County felt the same way. Survey respondents cited "nice living area," "good climate," and "affordable housing" as the top positive factors in assessing their respective communities. Smog was by far the most important negative factor affecting respondents’ ratings in both counties, while traffic was the second highest concern in Riverside County and crime the second highest concern among San Bernardino County residents.

Since the 1970s and onwards, large numbers of African-American, Latino and some Asian-American residents from the Los Angeles-Orange County and San Diego metro areas moved to the Inland Empire region. Large Black communities can be found around San Bernardino (Fontana and Rialto) and Riverside (Moreno Valley and Perris), where Blacks and Latinos became majorities in and around those cities. This is also true in the Mojave Desert and Coachella Valley portions.

While the region as a whole had traditionally leaned more Republican than the rest of California, newer residents are less likely to identify with the Republican party than longer-term residents (36 percent to 42 percent), and the total number of residents identifying with the Democrats (34 percent) slightly edged over the number identifying with the Republican party (33 percent). Suburban communities outside Riverside and San Bernardino are more likely to be majority Republican, while the two mentioned cities are majority Democratic.

In the 2008 presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama carried both Riverside and San Bernardino counties, becoming only the second Democrat to carry both counties since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. In 2012, Obama repeated this feat and again carried both counties, and in 2016, Hillary Clinton did the same.

Non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks have the highest participation rates for nearly every type of political activity, while Latinos and Asian Americans lag significantly behind those groups in terms of volunteerism and organizational membership. However, the 2006 immigration protests have significantly boosted political participation among Latinos.

Many faiths and denominations are found and represented in the area. The Roman Catholic parishes in the region belong to the church's Diocese of San Bernardino.

Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists have communities in the towns of Loma Linda and Redlands near San Bernardino. Mormons also have congregations in the High Desert region. Seventh-day Adventists operate Loma Linda University.

The Inland Empire has a Jewish community, and additionally a Jewish American community is in and around Sun City which was later incorporated as the City of Menifee. According to the United Jewish Citizens of the Desert, the Coachella Valley has an estimated 20,000 American Jews, one of California's largest Jewish communities, as a result of being a major retirement destination.

While the crime index in Riverside and Ontario trends slightly over the state average, San Bernardino has a crime index consistently near or over twice that of the national average. Reflecting nationwide trends, violent crime in the region overall declined or remained consistent in 2009, despite the recession. In the city of Riverside, 10 homicides occurred in 2005, down from 24 in 2003, its highest total since 2003. All but three cases resulted in arrests. In San Bernardino, by contrast, 58 killings occurred in 2005, but only a third of cases in San Bernardino led to arrests, due to a lack of witness cooperation in that city.

Latino gangs have been active in the region since the area's citrus days while a continual migration of numerous African American gangs from the inner city of South LA have flowed into the region since the Watts Riots and 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The increased diversity in the region between 1990 and 2000 is also associated with a 20 percent increase in hate crime in the same period, mostly ascribed to increased gang activity. According to data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, taken together, Riverside and San Bernardino counties showed a total of 51,237 crimes reported to county police/sheriffs (but not to city or other agencies) in 2006; this combined total exceeded the totals for all other California counties – considered individually – except for Sacramento.

The region has also been noted as a center of methamphetamine drug production. The Riverside and San Bernardino county sheriffs' departments busted 635 meth labs in 2000; law enforcement has driven most of the meth production industry to Mexico since 2007, but many of the homes discovered to have been used as meth labs before 2006 have since been sold on the market before California law required rigorous decontamination, leading to a legacy of health hazards for unsuspecting renters and home-buyers in the area.
In 2016 federal crime statistics stated that San Bernardino was ranked the most dangerous city in California.

There is a trend of lower educational attainment in the IE, which starts early. Only 37 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in the region are enrolled in pre-school, with only one school in the region for every 343 children, as compared with 48 percent enrollment in San Diego County. Thirty-five percent of the IE's ninth graders do not graduate from high school, and only 37 percent of its college age residents enroll in a post-secondary education program of some sort. Only 24 percent of the IE's adult residents have attained a college degree or better. Twenty-five percent do not possess a high school diploma. According to past CSUSB President Al Karnig, "We have a very low college attendance rate that is scantly above half of what the average is in other states. We have only have about 20 percent college graduates in the Inland Empire while the average in other states is 38 percent." 21 inland area high schools rank in the top 100 in California for producing dropouts.

Of Inland Empire residents 25 years and over in 2004, 44.4 percent of Asians had bachelor's or higher degrees, and nearly 70 percent had at least attended college. 21.3 percent of Blacks had a bachelor's degree or higher, and 65.2 percent had either a community degree or had attended college. 22.8 percent of Whites had a bachelor's degree or higher, and 60.8 percent had attended college. Of Hispanics, 6.9 percent had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 30.2 percent attended college.

Among students transferring from Inland community colleges to private schools in 2004–05, the most frequent choice was the University of Phoenix.

While the Inland Empire led the state in job-growth with 275,000 new jobs between 1990 and 2000, most are in comparatively low-tech fields. San Bernardino and Riverside counties are primarily host to service and manufacturing- or warehousing-oriented industries. Food and administrative services employ the most people in the Inland Empire, while for the state of California, the top industries are in administrative services and professional, scientific and hi-tech-oriented fields. 79.8% of the IE's job growth from 1990 to 2003 was in service-sector jobs. Low-wage industries are abundant in the IE, and the area's high-tech and professional industries pay less than in other regions of California. As many as one-third of working adults commute out of the region to find work, the highest proportion of any area in the country. Adding to gridlock, fewer than 5% of the IE's 1,249,224 working-age residents use public transportation to get to work each day. 14.5% carpool, while 79.7% typically drive alone to work in their cars.

In 2007, the region had an unemployment rate of 6.1%, while overall jobless claims in California were at 5.4% and 4.4% nationally. In 2008, unemployment in the area increased to 9.5%, at a time when the state average was 8.2% and the national average approximately 6.5%. Unemployment reached an all-time high of 15% in 2010, second in the nation only to Detroit among metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million.
The Inland Empire sits adjacent to the San Bernardino Mountains. Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear are just some of the lakes located in the mountains. Lake Arrowhead becomes very popular in the summertime, while Big Bear becomes popular in the winter for skiing and snowboarding activities. Various locations in the Inland Empire provide venues for cultural performances and entertainment. The Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, which is owned and operated by the City of Rancho Cucamonga, opened in the Fall of 2006 providing theatre, concerts and family entertainment to the region. The San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino's Devore neighborhood is the nation's largest outdoor amphitheater. San Bernardino's "Route 66 Rendezvous (the largest classical carshow in the US)," an annual street fair and classic car show, draws a half-million people from around the world. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs is a popular attraction, rising to more than 8500 feet.

Established bands from the IE include Alien Ant Farm, The Bellrays, and the Voodoo Glow Skulls, from Riverside, and Cracker from Redlands, and The Mountain Goats From Chino. House music artist DJ Lynnwood got his start at the age of ten spinning records at KUOR-FM in Redlands. girafa is another local electronic artist from Corona, CA. Local hip-hop artists such as Miah Lanski, Suga Free, Saint Dog, 40 Glocc, Young Noble from the Outlawz, J.J. Fad, Raje, Noa James, Xydewayz8, The Faze, Lil Xan and A Lighter Shade of Brown have brought about attention to the growing Hip hop community in and around the region. The Jerkin' street dance culture originated from the Inland Empire-based hip-hop groups New Boyz and Audio Push. A number of artists associated with the Palm Desert Scene forged the genre of desert rock as well as playing a large role in the genre of stoner rock. A Danish record label, Musikministeriet, recently opened up an office in Redlands in hopes of further cultivating the IE music scene.

Frank Zappa performed in Upland on Foothill Boulevard during the early 1960s where he played shows on a makeshift stage for college crowds. Zappa also purchased Pal Recording Studio on Archibald Avenue in Rancho Cucamonga where the Surfaris had recorded the surf music classic "Wipe Out." He dubbed it Studio Z and began making recordings which eventually led to the founding of Zappa's group, The Mothers of Invention. Up until his death in December 2012, singer Ray Collins of the Mothers of Invention lived in the area. Zappa mentions the Inland Empire in the song "Billy the Mountain."

From the late 80s until the late 90s, many up-and-coming musical acts, such as Rage Against the Machine, Blink-182 and No Doubt cut their teeth playing venues in Riverside. However, these historic venues (Spanky's Cafe, and the De Anza Theatre) have since been closed and converted to other purposes. The Barn at UCR was closed as a music venue for 10 years but beginning in October 2008 KUCR Radio 88.3 FM, ASPB The Associated Student Program Board with funding from UCR Housing began having a free concert series once a week during the school quarter. Emerging music venues in the IE include the Showcase Theatre in Corona (recently closed), Red Planet Records in Riverside, the Vault in Redlands, the Buffalo Inn and The Wire in Upland, the Twins Club in Rancho Cucamonga, the Press Restaurant in Claremont, the Glass House in Pomona, Back To The Grind Coffee Shop in Riverside, Liam's Irish Pub in Colton, and CommonGround Soundstage in Riverside.

Orchestras in the IE include the Redlands Symphony, which performs at the University of Redlands, the Riverside County Philharmonic, which performs at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, the San Bernardino Symphony, which performs at the California Theatre, and the Victor Valley Symphony, which performs at Victor Valley College. Theatrical Arts International is housed at the California Theatre as well. With the largest subscriber base in the Inland Empire, Theatrical Arts International presents the largest caliber tours available including such blockbusters as "Cats", "Hairspray", "Mamma Mia", and "Miss Saigon." There are many other large theater programs in the community. The Riverside Fox Theater, also known as the Fox Performing Arts Center, was built in 1929, and is a Spanish Colonial Revival style building in the heart of downtown Riverside, California. The theater is the centerpiece of Riverside's Arts & Culture initiative and underwent a major renovation and restoration to become a regional performing arts facility. Renovation was completed in the Fall 2009, with a grand-reopening in January 2010. At Chaffey High School in Ontario, they have a very large theater program that puts on shows in the fall and in the spring on one of the largest High School stages in the Inland Empire. The Inland Empire Harmony Carousel Chorus provides music in Barbershop Quartet productions.

The Inland Empire is home to numerous minor league baseball, basketball, and ice hockey teams. The Inland Empire team with the most championships is the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, who won their most recent championship in 2013.

The Auto Club Speedway, located in Fontana, opened in 1997. It contains an oval, a road course, and a dragstrip for auto racing. The Speedway is located approximately from the former Ontario Motor Speedway site. The Riverside International Raceway, another defunct motorsport venue, was located about east of Riverside.

The Inland Empire is served by four major local newspapers:
There is also an Inland Empire edition of the "Los Angeles Times". For the segments of the Inland Empire surrounding San Bernardino and Riverside cities, regional newspapers include:

The Inland Empire is ranked 26th (June 2008) in the national radio market as a stand-alone market. When combined with the Greater Los Angeles Area, it is part of the second largest radio market.

Due to the various mountain ranges including San Bernardino, San Gabriel, and Idyllwild, it may be difficult to receive a single station throughout the entire Inland Empire area without interference.

PBS member station KVCR-TV broadcasts directly to the Inland Empire. The station covers all of Riverside County and San Bernardino County with some Los Angeles area overlap. The station is located on the campus of San Bernardino Valley College. In addition to PBS and original, local content, First Nations Experience (FNX), KVCR's sister station, also broadcasts programming about the indigenous peoples and Native Americans to the Inland Empire.

While there are no large film production companies or studios based in the Inland Empire, on-location shoots accounted for a total economic impact of $65.2 million in the two-county region in 2006. From 1994 to 2005, filming accounted for over a billion dollars ($1,228,977,456) in total revenues spent in the area. Some famous films shot in the Inland Empire include "Executive Decision", "U Turn", "Erin Brockovich", and "The Fast and the Furious".

While the David Lynch film "Inland Empire" is named after the region, no scenes were actually shot in the Inland Empire.

Internet media and blogs are quickly gaining traction in the Inland Empire as newspaper readership has been falling. Some entertainment blogs include Things To Do Inland Empire, DiscoverIE.com, JooseBoxx.com, InlandDaily.com, and InlandEmpire.com. Politics has also received coverage on the web, with iepolitics.com providing an outlet for political bloggers.

Ann Lerner, Albuquerque's film liaison, told the "L.A. Times" about the AMC cable TV series "Breaking Bad" producers wanted to film the series in California's Inland Empire but switched to New Mexico because of New Mexico's tax incentives.