Posted on 04/21/2004 7:54:14 PM PDT by writer33
Spokane isn't on a new federal list of 474 U.S. counties that flunk cleanair limits for ozone, a respiratory health risk more commonly known as smog.
But that good news could change.
For five years, Spokane on hot summer days has registered some of the highest ozone readings in the Pacific Northwest, air quality experts say.
Ground-level ozone is formed when emissions from cars, factories, gas stations, lawnmow ers, barbecues and other sources of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic chemicals interact with sunlight, causing the telltale brown haze of smog.
Since 1999, Spokane has had nearly 40 days with temperatures over 90 degrees, said Mahbubul Islam, an environmental scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Seattle regional office.
‘‘Spokane seems to have adequate precursor emissions and has the high temperatures as well, ” Islam said.
That means Spokane needs to take additional steps to combat ozone formation, air-watchers say. If Spokane becomes a ”non-attainment area” for ozone, it could lose federal highway funds.
Ozone can have serious health effects, said the EPA's Thomas Eaton, director of the agency's Washington state operations office in Olympia.
‘‘Chronic exposures can lead to long-term lung damage and bronchitis. It's extremely important to keep local programs going” to control ozone, Eaton said.
Local clean-air cops are examining new ways to keep on top of the growing ozone problem, said Eric Skelton, Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority director.
Ideas under discussion by SCAPCA's board include encouraging more vapor shields at gas stations and launching a pilot voucher program that would offer consumers cash assistance to trade in their gasoline-fueled lawn mowers for electric ones.
In 1997, EPA set a new eight-hour ozone limit at .08 parts per million, replacing a laxer one-hour standard established in 1979.
Three states and several industry plaintiffs immediately challenged the new ozone rule. The legal challenge went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2001 unanimously upheld EPA's powers under the Clean Air Act to set a health-based ozone limit.
Last week, EPA released the list of ozone non-attainment areas for the nation. Cities with the most serious ozone problems include Los Angeles,
Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee and New York. No Pacific Northwest cities made the list.
The new ozone designations are ”causing all the local state and air agencies around the country to gear up,” Skelton said.
For several years, SCAPCA experts have been watching Spokane's escalating ozone levels from monitors at Greenbluff and the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.
”We've seen a gradual uptrending. We haven't exceeded the standard, but we seem to be coming closer and closer. We are in the high .07s now,” Skelton said.
EPA averages ozone data over three years, so it's possible to still be in attainment if a few days are above the limit. Ozone isn't a problem in the winter.
While environmental critics have assailed the Bush administration for rolling back pollution limits on new industrial smokestacks, that's not the main source of Spokane's ozone problem. There's little new industry here and existing companies are already controlling their emissions, Skelton said.
Also, cars -- responsible for roughly half the chemicals that can lead to ozone formation -- are getting cleaner and are gradually replacing dirtier older models.
Population growth in the Spokane area is offsetting those gains, Skelton said. ”It comes down to peoplecaused pollution,” he added.
In its education outreach materials, SCAPCA is already encouraging people to gas up their cars in the evenings in summer to reduce the release of fumes.
At its June meeting, the SCAPCA
board will discuss a proposed pilot lawnmower exchange program for Spokane.
Interested consumers would be given a voucher toward the purchase of an electric lawn mower. In return, they'd hand over their gas-powered mowers to be scrapped.
Clean air officials in Sacramento, Calif., where Skelton used to work as an air quality regulator, have adopted a ”Mow Down Pollution” voucher program as part of their ozone abatement efforts.
Last year, people traded in 598 old gas mowers and eliminated 5.8 tons of emissions from Sacramento's air, according to a brochure on the program.
Similar lawnmower trade-in programs in Tacoma and King County have attracted hundreds of participants, Eaton said.
This is completely idiotic. There are only about 300,000 people in Spokane. They can't be causing all this pollution. Most of the areas named are rural. And I mean rural.
It reminds me of this Swedish study on pine needles. It was on Rush. It stated that fallen pine needles, when left in the sun, emit more carbon dioxide than a car. So, could nature be responsible? I'm a thinkin' so.
You're thoughts, FReepers?
Tell me it isn't so.
There has been a campaign in this area for a couple of years to prevent the burning of grass fields - the farmers won in court last year, so the Greenie-weinies enlisted the regulatory apparatus to compel change that they couldn't gain through legislation or the courts.
I await with trepidation, the day...I'm arrested for placing a glass bottle in my regular garbage.
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