50 Cleanest (Dirtiest) Cities in America

From Reader's Digest

What’s the cleanest big city in the U.S.? How about the dirtiest? In our July issue, we decided to find out, by analyzing data to score each of the 50 largest cities on air quality, water quality, industrial pollution (toxics), Superfund sites, and sanitation. Rather than just the cities themselves, we looked at metropolitan areas, which include surrounding counties and suburbs. (This can have a real effect on a place’s score; Chicago, for example, has excellent water but its score is brought down by problems in the outlying areas). Because we only looked at the 50 largest places, there may be smaller cities that are much cleaner or dirtier than these—and because the scores represent relative rankings, that a city comes in first or last in a given category does not necessarily mean it’s perfectly pristine or dangerously filthy.



HOW WE SCORED: Metro areas earned points on a scale from 1 to 50 in each category, with the numbers reflecting a city's ranking next to the other places. Since it's a 50-city survey, the cleanest in a category got 50 points. Next, to get a preliminary score, we weighted the five categories in terms of the health threat each one posed relative to the others (the weighting was further adjusted for cities with no sanitation data.) Water and air scores, for example, got twice the weight of sanitation scores, since it's of little value to have pristine streets if what you drink and breathe are killing you. To get final scores, we averaged all the points for each city.

Here, then, is our list of the 50 largest metro areas in America and how they compare. Higher total numbers mean a cleaner city.

NAME	Air	Water	Toxics	Hazardous Waste	Sanitation	Total
Portland (OR)	49	50	35	32	43	44.00
San Jose	41	50	50	21	32	40.71
Buffalo	34	50	27	26	47	38.29
Columbus	24	50	31	45	NA	37.33
San Francisco	47	50	34	16	12	36.57
Denver	27	50	44	19	NA	36.17
Rochester (NY)	46	32	32	43	19	35.71
Austin	44	9	48	50	NA	34.00
Orlando	48	23	9	38	48	33.86
San Diego	13	50	46	42	14	32.57
Hartford	32	29	47	9	44	31.71
Sacramento	4	50	49	40	24	31.57
Las Vegas	12	50	40	49	7	31.43
San Antonio	42	18	42	47	8	31.00
Oklahoma City	43	1	45	41	40	30.57
Minneapolis	33	30	21	35	31	30.43
Indianapolis	23	31	33	44	27	30.29
Salt Lake City	26	50	2	14	42	30.00
Jacksonville	45	24	19	20	NA	29.50
Charlotte	28	34	22	27	28	28.71
Virginia Beach	35	17	29	33	30	28.00
Cincinnati	19	35	11	38	34	27.29
Nashville	30	14	18	46	38	27.14
Riverside (CA)	1	50	43	25	15	26.43
New Orleans	39	13	10	48	21	26.14
Milwaukee	37	10	38	38	10	25.71
Seattle	36	21	37	15	13	25.57
Baltimore	16	33	14	24	41	25.29
Miami	50	11	36	8	9	25.00
Dallas	20	28	30	31	16	24.71
Tampa	40	3	17	17	50	24.29
Memphis	22	12	24	29	46	23.86
Providence	39	8	41	7	22	23.43
Louisville	21	15	15	39	35	23.00
Washington (DC)	25	19	12	13	45	22.57
Phoenix	17	37	1	22	23	22.00
Detroit	10	27	20	10	49	21.86
Richmond	31	4	13	34	36	21.86
Cleveland	9	25	26	31	26	21.57
Atlanta	15	26	4	11	39	19.43
Houston	7	39	3	19	20	19.14
Los Angeles	2	38	28	3	17	18.29
Boston	29	7	39	5	11	18.14
Philadelphia	14	22	16	2	37	18.14
Kansas City	19	16	25	13	NA	18.00
Birmingham	8	20	8	28	33	17.86
St. Louis	5	36	6	6	25	17.00
Pittsburgh	6	5	5	23	29	11.29
New York	11	2	23	1	NA	8.33
Chicago	3	6	7	4	18	6.71