"Many Counties Failing Fine-Particle Air Rules" is the headline to this story today in the NY Times. Some quotes:
About a third of all Americans live in counties that do not meet seven-year-old standards for microscopic particles of pollution that cause thousands of premature deaths a year, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday.Here is a current EPA map of Attainment and Nonattainment Areas in the U.S. for the PM 2.5 Standard. Here is the EPA website that "provides information about the Clean Air Fine Particle Rule, an EPA action designating areas whose air quality does not meet the health-based standards for fine particle pollution."The 20 states affected ... now have three years to develop plans to bring their problem counties into compliance by 2010, or face the loss of federal highway money.
This is the first time since the environmental agency set tough new health-based standards in 1997 that it has declared which counties around the country are out of compliance for the fine particles produced by a variety of sources, including car exhausts, wood-burning stoves and power plants.
These sooty chemical particles are known as PM2.5, shorthand for particulate matter measuring no more than 2.5 microns, a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair, so small they can lodge deep in the lungs if inhaled. * * *
[T]he Bush administration has proposed two measures aimed at reducing emissions of particulate matter and other regulated air pollutants.
One is the Clean Air Interstate Rule, a regulation that would lower emissions from coal-fired power plants, helping to control pollution in 29 Eastern states and the District of Columbia, a region to which many emissions drift from Midwestern plants. [Link to EPA Interstate Air Quality Rule site.]
The other is the Clear Skies Initiative, a bill languishing in Congress that many environmental groups say would undercut the Clean Air Act. [Link to EPA Clear Skies Initiative site.]
Mr. Leavitt had promised to sign the Interstate Rule by the end of the year, but the White House last week pushed final adoption back to March.
Most environmental groups view the Interstate Rule as a useful tool that would at least help one state to force another to restrain emissions that are carried by the winds across state lines. Still, they view the E.P.A.'s efforts as insufficient.
"It's one thing to identify areas with dirty air," said Frank O'Donnell, president of a new environmental watchdog, Clean Air Watch. "It's more important to clean up the pollution causing the dirty air. That's where they are dropping the ball."
Mr. Leavitt said the agency had taken a number of steps to reduce air pollution, including regulations issued in April to control ozone, which causes smog and damages the lungs.
Today's declaration sets in motion complex requirements for the 20 states that have areas in noncompliance with the fine-particle standards. By law, the states must now develop programs, which require federal approval, that will address the sources of the PM2.5 pollution so that compliance is achieved by 2010.
While coal-fired power plants account for much of the problem in the East, vehicle exhaust is the major offender in parts of California. That means an Eastern state's solution might include new technologies for power plant smokestacks, while California could propose anything from electrical outlets at truck stops, so that drivers would have incentive to turn off their engines overnight, to new initiatives for mass transit, said Steve Johnson, deputy E.P.A. administrator. Most states, though, would probably seek to control emissions from all types of sources.
The site states that: "On December 17, 2004, EPA took final action to designate attainment and nonattainment areas under the more protective national air quality standards for fine particles" and then provides links to detailed information. With respect to Indiana (and other states in Region 5), here is the link to the Table identifying "all counties EPA has designated as nonattainment. In some cases EPA designated partial counties. These are identified by a (P)."
Finally, here are stories from Indiana papers:
Both Indiana and Kentucky tried to persuade the EPA to put far fewer counties on the list of those not complying.Kentucky was able to whittle four counties off EPA's list, which state Division for Air Quality Director John Lyons considered a success.
"So now the real work begins in terms of trying to determine what the plan is going to be to get these areas back into attainment," he said.
Indiana was unable to get any of its 19 targeted counties off the list, but the EPA agreed in the case of five counties to designate only portions of the counties.
"We are disappointed the EPA has made these designations, but we are committed to meeting these standards as quickly as we can," said Janet McCabe, assistant commissioner for air quality in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The EPA has given states the chance to appeal early next year, if air monitoring from 2004 shows that they could bring some counties into compliance.
On Friday, the EPA said air in 14 counties and portions of five others is polluted with unacceptable levels of particles from automobiles, industries and even backyard burning.State environmental officials and Kernan had recommended that six counties -- Clark, Dubois, Elkhart, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh -- be listed in violation, based on air-monitoring data. Also, most of the counties will comply with the standard once proposed EPA air-quality rules for coal-fired power plants and diesel engines take effect.
"It doesn't make sense to us," said Janet McCabe, assistant commissioner of the state agency's office of air quality.
EPA officials have acknowledged that federal rules will help many counties but said they could not base their decision on rules that are not yet implemented. The agency appeared to have compromised, though.
In June, the EPA said 18 counties and one township within a 19th county probably would be designated in violation of the standard. Now, the number of counties is reduced to 14, with five counties having only one township each in violation.
State and industry officials have warned that the particle designations could discourage industrial development, because businesses wanting to locate in a violating county will have to find a way to offset any pollution they would create. * * *
Environmentalists were not satisfied with the designations, either, saying they all should have been entire counties instead of single townships in Jefferson, Dearborn, Spencer, Gibson and Pike counties.
"It seems to me just a recipe for mass confusion," said John Blair, president of the Evansville-based environmental group Valley Watch. "It appears to me to be a politically driven response."
Still, he said, Friday's announcement means counties finally can start planning how they'll reduce particles.
Indiana and Illinois are among 20 states that don't meet the new national air quality standard set by the agency.Posted by Marcia Oddi at December 18, 2004 09:36 AMLake and Porter counties are among 14 in Indiana that failed the test because of microscopic fine particles, like soot. In addition, parts of five townships failed.
Illinois' Cook County also failed the test, along with nine other counties in the state and parts of three others.
