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So now Iowa is coming after idling Trucks also...just one more to toe the line.......
Limits on burning, vehicle emissions on legislative agenda
By PERRY BEEMAN • [email protected] • January 22, 2009
Limits on burning, vehicle emissions on legislative agenda | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
Buzz up! Iowans will continue to face serious health risks and the state may lose new business unless the Iowa Legislature takes big steps soon to reduce air pollution, state air-quality officials say.
State environmental regulators are asking the Legislature this year to ban trash and yard-waste burning soon in Iowa's largest cities and statewide by 2013, and to consider limits on the amount of time diesel trucks and buses can legally idle. Both emit 40 dangerous compounds and contribute to climate change.
In addition, lawmakers are expected to discuss vehicle emissions limits similar to those proposed in California. A dozen other states are considering comparable proposals, which would likely be phased in over a decade, said state Rep. Donovan Olson, who heads the House Environmental Protection Committee.
Those emissions limits would likely also mean higher vehicle prices, said Catharine Fitzsimmons, who leads Iowa's air-quality bureau.
Fitzsimmons said Iowa has so much soot in the air statewide — from cars, boilers, power plants and the like — the pollution is close to violating tighter federal air-quality limits set in 2006.
The pollution needs to be reduced, or the state may be forced to deny air permits for new companies that would contribute to the problem.
Even a small business development could put some areas over the limit for fine-particle pollution, or soot, she said.
Vehicles on the road account for 2 percent of the state's small-particle pollution, half of what power plants contribute. Nearly three-quarters comes from the combination of agriculture, hospitals, farming and repair shops, according to federal data.
Open burning and vehicles, meanwhile, emit soot that gets lodged in lungs, and can contain dioxin, benzene and other cancer-causing pollutants.
Most of the Midwest has soot readings similar to Iowa's, with metro areas in Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio registering slightly higher. The U.S. Environmental Protection Commission in December notified 25 states and 23 Indian tribes that they have areas in violation of the limits. Muscatine and Scott counties in Iowa were included in the list, though state regulators say they may later be dropped.
Olson, a Boone Democrat, said the three proposals limiting car emissions, idling and burning will get serious consideration this year.
"This is an area where we can affect public health," he said.
Zoey Grimm, 16, who has asthma, would likely benefit from the proposals.
When she goes to school in Wapello, Grimm can be exposed to soot from burn barrels, said her mother, Christina Nichols.
"She reacts to this type of smoke with shortness of breath, watery, itchy eyes and coughing," Nichols said. "In all seriousness, it very well could be life-threatening, given her health history."
Dr. Miles Weinberger, director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonology at University of Iowa Children's Hospital, said the burning ban is overdue.
"I support such a ban, and the more enlightened — perhaps I should say civilized — communities have already imposed such bans," said Weinberger, who is Grimm's doctor. "Such burning is an ancient and revered custom with no redeeming virtue in the era of residential garbage pickup. I've seen patients with asthma end up in the intensive care unit from being downwind from trash-burning, and Zoey would be someone at such a risk."
Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the tiny particles at issue are less than one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. They become lodged in lungs, causing a variety of illnesses and even premature death.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dropped the legal limit of particles to 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2006, nearly halving the limit.
The air in most of Iowa has routine readings of fine-particulate matter ranging from 26 to 30 micrograms. A single small diesel-powered generator could add another 15 micrograms, leading to violations of federal air-quality regulations, Fitzsimmons said.
Key industries in the Davenport and Muscatine areas already have made changes to reduce emissions, and state regulators hope new monitoring will show those areas comply with the EPA's limits.
At the same time, the state is preparing an air-quality permit for a new coal-burning power plant in Marshalltown.
That riles environmentalists, but the plant has promised to limit emissions through the latest control technologies and a more-efficient design, said Christine Paulson, a state air-quality worker.
So now Iowa is coming after idling Trucks also...just one more to toe the line.......
Limits on burning, vehicle emissions on legislative agenda
By PERRY BEEMAN • [email protected] • January 22, 2009
Limits on burning, vehicle emissions on legislative agenda | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
Buzz up! Iowans will continue to face serious health risks and the state may lose new business unless the Iowa Legislature takes big steps soon to reduce air pollution, state air-quality officials say.
State environmental regulators are asking the Legislature this year to ban trash and yard-waste burning soon in Iowa's largest cities and statewide by 2013, and to consider limits on the amount of time diesel trucks and buses can legally idle. Both emit 40 dangerous compounds and contribute to climate change.
In addition, lawmakers are expected to discuss vehicle emissions limits similar to those proposed in California. A dozen other states are considering comparable proposals, which would likely be phased in over a decade, said state Rep. Donovan Olson, who heads the House Environmental Protection Committee.
Those emissions limits would likely also mean higher vehicle prices, said Catharine Fitzsimmons, who leads Iowa's air-quality bureau.
Fitzsimmons said Iowa has so much soot in the air statewide — from cars, boilers, power plants and the like — the pollution is close to violating tighter federal air-quality limits set in 2006.
The pollution needs to be reduced, or the state may be forced to deny air permits for new companies that would contribute to the problem.
Even a small business development could put some areas over the limit for fine-particle pollution, or soot, she said.
Vehicles on the road account for 2 percent of the state's small-particle pollution, half of what power plants contribute. Nearly three-quarters comes from the combination of agriculture, hospitals, farming and repair shops, according to federal data.
Open burning and vehicles, meanwhile, emit soot that gets lodged in lungs, and can contain dioxin, benzene and other cancer-causing pollutants.
Most of the Midwest has soot readings similar to Iowa's, with metro areas in Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio registering slightly higher. The U.S. Environmental Protection Commission in December notified 25 states and 23 Indian tribes that they have areas in violation of the limits. Muscatine and Scott counties in Iowa were included in the list, though state regulators say they may later be dropped.
Olson, a Boone Democrat, said the three proposals limiting car emissions, idling and burning will get serious consideration this year.
"This is an area where we can affect public health," he said.
Zoey Grimm, 16, who has asthma, would likely benefit from the proposals.
When she goes to school in Wapello, Grimm can be exposed to soot from burn barrels, said her mother, Christina Nichols.
"She reacts to this type of smoke with shortness of breath, watery, itchy eyes and coughing," Nichols said. "In all seriousness, it very well could be life-threatening, given her health history."
Dr. Miles Weinberger, director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonology at University of Iowa Children's Hospital, said the burning ban is overdue.
"I support such a ban, and the more enlightened — perhaps I should say civilized — communities have already imposed such bans," said Weinberger, who is Grimm's doctor. "Such burning is an ancient and revered custom with no redeeming virtue in the era of residential garbage pickup. I've seen patients with asthma end up in the intensive care unit from being downwind from trash-burning, and Zoey would be someone at such a risk."
Richard Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the tiny particles at issue are less than one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. They become lodged in lungs, causing a variety of illnesses and even premature death.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dropped the legal limit of particles to 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2006, nearly halving the limit.
The air in most of Iowa has routine readings of fine-particulate matter ranging from 26 to 30 micrograms. A single small diesel-powered generator could add another 15 micrograms, leading to violations of federal air-quality regulations, Fitzsimmons said.
Key industries in the Davenport and Muscatine areas already have made changes to reduce emissions, and state regulators hope new monitoring will show those areas comply with the EPA's limits.
At the same time, the state is preparing an air-quality permit for a new coal-burning power plant in Marshalltown.
That riles environmentalists, but the plant has promised to limit emissions through the latest control technologies and a more-efficient design, said Christine Paulson, a state air-quality worker.
