Tag: particulate

Report Finds Cleaner Air Out There

  • According to a recent report, a decade of cleanup measures to reductions in emissions have paid off in cutting levels of deadly particle and ozone pollution. (Photo courtesy of the NREL)

A new report finds some of the cities with the worst air pollution are breathing a little easier. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A new report finds some of the cities with the worst air pollution are breathing a little easier. Lester Graham reports.

The American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report uses the latest data from 2006, 2007 and 2008. That’s just before the economy really tanked. Janice Nolan is with the American Lung Association. She says even though factories were still running at full tilt, improvement in air quality was seen across the nation. Particularly in cities the group watches closely.

“We’ve tracked some of the 25 most polluted cities each year to see how they’re faring and in each case we saw significant improvement in most of the cities in those twenty-five.”

Nolan says cleaner diesel fuel and new less polluting trucks… along with some improvements at coal-burning power plants helped. But she says other dirtier coal-burning plants and older diesel trucks continue to pollute the air.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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New Air Standards Tough on Particulates

Environmental and health groups from around the country are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for its new air quality rules. Dustin Dwyer has more:

Transcript

Environmental and health groups from around the country are criticizing the
Environmental Protection Agency for its new air quality rules. Dustin Dwyer has more:


The new standard for short-term exposure to particulate matter, or soot, has been cut in
half. The standard on long-term exposure was left unchanged. EPA administrator
Stephen Johnson says it’s the most health-protective standard in the nation’s history:


“These are significant, significant steps to improve the quality of our air.”


Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club have criticized the new rules, and Paul
Billings of the American Lung Association also says the new soot standards do not go far
enough:


“They quite simply fail to protect public health.”


Huge areas of the country already failed to meet the previous standards on soot. Now,
another 32 counties are out of compliance. It’s up to the states to force smokestack
industries to reduce soot pollution within the next 10 years.


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

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Water Quality Data Collection Inefficient

A government report has found federal agencies collect a lot of data on water quality, but don’t always share the information in a way that can help the environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A government report has found federal agencies collect a lot of data on water
quality, but don’t always share the information in a way that can help the
environment. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:


The investigative arm of Congress, the General Accounting Office, looked at how
federal agencies and state governments gather water quality data. It found the
different agencies are either not coordinating their efforts or have difficulty
doing that. That’s because: 1) agencies collect the same data for different
reasons; 2) they use different methods; 3) each agency is unaware what the
others are collecting; and 4) coordinating the information is just not a big
priority for them. The problem is collecting water quality data is expensive,
so duplication is a waste of taxpayer money.


The General Accounting Office is recommending Congress designate a lead agency
to coordinate the water quality data and establish clear standards so everyone
is measuring the same things in the same way.

For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

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States Contest Epa’s Particulate Standard

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a list of counties it says are out of compliance with new rules governing fine-particle pollution or soot. Dozens of the counties are in states in the Midwest, but many states are contesting the EPA’s list. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a list of counties it says
are out of compliance with new rules governing fine-particle pollution
or soot. Dozens of the counties are in states surrounding the Great
Lakes, but many states are contesting the EPA’s list. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports.


State environmental officials and the U.S. EPA agree about one thing:
fine-particle pollution, or soot, causes thousands of premature deaths
a year. But state officials say many of the counties on the EPA’s list
are actually complying with the new rules. Indiana says it only has
six counties out of compliance instead of 19. Southeast Michigan says
only two of its seven counties on the list are out of compliance.


Chuck Hersey is with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments,
which monitors air pollution. He says the EPA’s list could be both
costly and ineffective.


“Once the EPA puts a boundary around a larger area, you’re obliged to
put controls in that whole area even if they’re not necessary.”


EPA officials say they included many counties that they believe are
creating pollution that travels into nearby counties. That can be
because they have coal-fired power plants or lots of commuter traffic.
States have until September to convince the EPA to reconsider the list
before it becomes final.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m
Tracy Samilton.

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