Recent press coverage of a private report purporting to measure the nation’s “dirtiest cities” claimed that Peoria, Bloomington and Springfield were some of the worst in the country. However, environmental advocates are taking issue with published conclusions — and the original report.
Issued by a lawn-care service, LawnStarter — an Austin, Texas, company with offices in Chicago, St. Louis and dozens of cities — the report is titled “Dirtiest Cities in America.” It considered 303 U.S. cities and assigned scores, with 1 the dirtiest and 303 the “least dirty.”
The Alton Telegraph, for example, reported, “mid-sized cities like Peoria, Springfield and Bloomington rank poorly on overall cleanliness and pollution, reflecting statewide disparities in environmental management.”
That Hearst newspaper listed “Cities in Illinois ranked the dirtiest in the U.S.,” including Chicago (#34), Rockford (#62), Aurora (#110), Springfield (#156), Champaign (#231), Bloomington (#264), and Peoria (#276), adding that “these results demonstrate the immediate need for specific environmental programs in Illinois, notably in its mid-sized cities, to combat pollution, enhance waste disposal, and cultivate cleaner, healthier communities statewide.”
Michael Brown, Executive Director of the Ecology Action Center, based in Normal, challenges the findings of the story — and its value.
“While those of us who work for a clean environment in our community might react a little defensively upon reading such accusations, all it took was a quick click to the actual source of the data, lawnstarter.com, to see that the Telegraph reporter completely misreported the findings.
“These are not the top 303 dirtiest cities in the United States, but rather these are the 303 cities they chose to compare out of the 500 largest cities,” Brown continued. “Placing on the list at all simply means that these are among the largest cities in the United States for which lawnstarter.com could find enough evidence to make their comparison.”
LawnStarter notes that it based its analysis on four factors: air quality, “near-roadway” pollution, the number of junk yards and the share of residents dissatisfied with pollution. Then LawnStarter assigned a weight to each factor and grouped them into four categories: pollution, inadequate living conditions, inadequate waste infrastructure, and resident dissatisfaction. “For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed. We eliminated 197 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 303 cities,” according to the report. “Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s overall score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories.”
Brown dismisses its validity.
“First of all, their sample of cities was nonrepresentative due to a lack of complete data,” Brown says. “Nearly 200 of the largest cities in the United States — or 39% of the initial sample group — were simply eliminated from consideration. Secondly, of the remaining 303, Bloomington is ranked 264, or within the top 13% cleanest cities in the United States in this already-flawed study.”
Peoria is even cleaner, in the top 9% of the list of 303.
One remark in LawnStarter’s actual report may be revealing: “Why is LawnStarter ranking the dirtiest cities? How you manage your lawn can play a big role in local air and noise pollution. Poor landscaping and lawn care is the No. 2 pet peeve between neighbors.”