Wind and terrain play a role in 'transport' pollution
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Elisa Young stands along the banks of the Ohio River in Meigs County, Ohio, with the Philip Sporn and Mountaineer power plants on the West Virginia side of the river. There are two other power plants on the Ohio side of the river.
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RACINE, Ohio -- Anger and frustration flicker across Elisa Young's face as she stands on the bank of the Ohio River to illustrate "transport" pollution.
It's the pollution generated in one state that pollutes other states.
She is in Racine, but behind her, across the river in West Virginia, sit the Mountaineer and Philip Sporn power plants. Their smokestacks billow pollution that refuses to stay on the West Virginia side of the river.
Pollution does not acknowledge state borders. In fact, much of the air pollution emitted in both West Virginia and Ohio finds its way into Western Pennsylvania on prevailing winds.
Ms. Young, who created Meigs Citizen Action Now, has been battling power plants and pollution for years. Meigs County, where she lives, claims some of Ohio's worst mortality rates, according to state health statistics, with heart, respiratory, lung cancer and total cancer deaths that exceed state averages by a range of 21 to 48 percent.
"The first time it caught my attention was when I just kept seeing the prayer list getting bigger and bigger at church," she said.
Two power plants are situated along the Ohio River in western Meigs County, with the West Virginia plants to the east. Ms. Young, who has her own health problems at 44, now plans to sell the 444-acre farm that's been in her family for seven generations. It's the only way to avoid pollution exposure, she says.
"I'm frustrated," she said, her back still to the power plants. "Is there a limit on how many power plants can be built here? Four, five, 10 ... 20? We have fulfilled our obligation to society."
During impassioned debate years ago, anti-smoking advocates equated smoking sections in restaurants with having designated areas in swimming pools where people could urinate.
The comparison made its point: Diners couldn't avoid secondhand smoke any more than swimmers could avoid a repulsive form of water pollution.
Those same dynamics hold true on a much larger scale with smokestack pollution.
Wind, meteorological conditions, terrain -- but mostly the wide-open atmosphere -- all conspire to spread pollution great distances.
Wind patterns add to the understanding of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's ecological study mapping major sources of pollution together with death rates of heart and respiratory diseases and lung cancer, three pollution-related diseases.
First Published December 15, 2010 12:00 am
