By Julia Cechvala
Great Lakes Echo
For the past six years the Dane County Clean Air Coalition has promoted voluntary efforts to reduce air pollution. In February they paid off when the coalition announced that the county meets the federal standards for fine particle pollution.
This means that Dane, along with Brown and Columbia counties, escaped regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency can impose on “non-attainment areas.”
Plenty of air quality challenges have confronted Dane County, including some outside the county’s control. Emissions as far away as Texas or Ohio affect Wisconsin’s air, according to Larry Bruss, head of regional pollution issues for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Industrial farms, factories and power plants emit pollutants that combine to form ground level ozone and fine particle pollution. Based on levels of these pollutants, Dane County had nine days in 2007 rated as unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, older adults and people with asthma or other lung diseases.
Fine particles attracted attention in recent months as Dane County wavered on the edge of the EPA’s limit for the pollutant. These invisible particles are so small it would take 36 lined up end to end to equal the diameter of one grain of sand.
While this pollutant can come directly from fires and other sources, most of these tiny particles are created through chemical reactions in the atmosphere, Bruss said. Wisconsin has high background levels of ammonia, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides – ingredients that combine to form fine particle pollution, he explained.
This is because of Wisconsin’s location. Ammonia comes from large hog farms and cattle ranches to the south and west of Wisconsin, while sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides come from power plants and industry to the south and east. Given frequent high background levels of these components, Wisconsin cities, which have their own urban pollution levels, can be pushed over the edge, Bruss said.
The Dane County Clean Air Coalition, made up of local and state government agencies, schools and businesses, has worked to reduce ground level ozone and fine particle levels. Projects have included a clean school bus initiative, gas station vent cap installations, and a network of local employers working to reduce emissions. The coalition currently issues advisories on “Clean Air Action Days” based on pollution levels, said Dave Merritt, the coalition’s project coordinator.
On “Clean Air Action Days” all county employees receive an email notification with steps they can take to reduce emissions, such as telecommuting or combining errands to reduce vehicle travel. In addition, Madison Gas and Electric does not burn coal on the action days, Merritt said.
In August of 2008, the EPA recommended that six Wisconsin counties; Brown, Columbia, Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Dane, be designated in non-attainment for exceeding the limit for fine particle pollution. The proposed status would have prevented new emissions sources, such as factories or power plants, from moving into the county without an equal offset in the same county.
Dane hovered on the edge of the standard, and through efforts already in place to reduce emission levels, as well as planned changes, Gov. Jim Doyle was able to escape the costly designation.
In an Oct. 20 letter to the EPA, Doyle detailed Wisconsin’s plans to clean up its power plants.
“Most notable of these actions are the conversion from coal to natural gas by Madison Gas and Electric’s Blount Street plant by 2011, and the conversion, at my direction, of the University of Wisconsin’s Charter Street plant from coal to natural gas/biofuels by 2015,” he wrote.
These changes reduce two of the significant ingredients of particle pollution: nitrogen oxides and, more dramatically, sulfur dioxide or SO2.
“When you switch from coal to natural gas you’re essentially eliminating your emissions of SO2,” said Jeanne Burns-Frank, senior air quality specialist for Madison Gas and Electric.
Even though Dane County is in the clear with the EPA for now, Merritt said, “we won’t take our attainment status for granted.”