air pollution in LA...oops

Looks like I was wrong in this post about air pollution. A reader writes:

I thought you might want to know that all that pollution you were seeing from Cove is actually blowing dirt. It happens here when we get these heavy winds for days--first it blows off the snow, then it dries out the dirt, then the dirt starts blowing too. We have been eye witnesses to this phenomenon more than once. One time we couldn't even see our barn! Gilbert says the valley topsoil is ending up on Cricket Flat. It is supposed to die down today, and then rain, which will clean things up considerably.

That's not to say La Grande doesn't have an air quality issue; it does. But the photo is evidence of something else altogether. Thanks for keeping me honest!
K