EPA's new rule will cut pollution
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Pollution wafting across state borders will decline throughout East Coast and Midwestern states with adoption of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and bring reductions in pollution-linked mortality and health damage.
But perpetuating the disappointment for the Pittsburgh region, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicts the new rule will bring all counties in 27 affected states, and the District of Columbia, into compliance with 2006 standards for fine particulate pollution -- except for Allegheny County.
"It will come close," said David Arnold, EPA's Region III deputy director of the Air Protection Division, blaming the lack of attainment on "our friends at [U.S. Steel Corp.'s] Clairton Coke Works."
"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that most emissions are coming from Clairton, although there are other areas that might also have an impact," he said.
Still, environmental groups including PennEnvironment and the Group Against Smog and Pollution are lauding the new rule that requires 27 states, including Pennsylvania, to improve air quality significantly by reducing power-plant emissions that contribute to pollution in other states.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced the new rule during a noontime Thursday news conference in Washington, D.C., noting that "no community should bear the burden of another community's polluters."
Rachel Filippini, GASP executive director, said the EPA's new rule "will go a long way towards cleaning the air for regions affected by coal-fired power plants, like southwestern Pennsylvania."
"Cleaning up the Liberty-Clairton hot spot will require additional local, state and federal actions," she said.
Mr. Arnold agreed, noting further action is necessary to improve air quality in that area, which he said should come into compliance "in a few short years after 2014."
The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will benefit the Pittsburgh region by lowering amounts of pollution that crosses into Pennsylvania from 12 states. It also will force this region to reduce the pollution levels it sends to its neighbors. The EPA said the new rule will reduce sulfur dioxide pollution in Pennsylvania from 493,206 tons in 2012 to 123,224 tons in 2014, while nitrogen oxide rates should drop from 129,125 tons to about 117,000 tons.
Nationwide, the EPA said, the rule will bring 73 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and 54 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions, with the impact expected to begin taking effect as early as Jan. 1, 2012.
First Published July 8, 2011 12:00 am
