Dirty Air
Fall 2000

Many parts of Georgia suffer from poor air quality. Even our own area is subject to haze from the ozone produced in Gainesville and Atlanta.

But the major cause of dirty air in our state is the dirty coal-fired power plants that generate smog-forming nitrogen oxides, particulate-forming sulfur dioxide, and mercury emissions that contaminate our rivers and lakes as well as the air we breathe.

Air pollution is especially threatening to children because they have smaller lungs and breathe more rapidly than adults. The elderly and those with respiratory illnesses are also at risk.

Old coal-fired plants receive preferential treatment to pollute because it was assumed that the older plants would shut down -- yet the plants are now expected to operate well into the future.

Alternative sources also produce electricity, and every day costs come down for solar and wind power. If you set up your own solar panels or wind turbines that generate electricity, or your own hydroelectric system on a stream, you could have your power bill offset by connecting to the power grid and donating excess electricity for others to use. That is, if we had a “net metering” provision that other states have.

The first major wind turbine project in the Southeast is now underway, with three turbines operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority expected to go online in October.

To mark Earth Day 2000, the TVA on April 22 began offering a pilot green energy package to customers of a dozen of its 158 local distributors. Residential users will pay about $4 extra per month to get power from renewable sources. So far, almost 2,000 homes and 115 businesses have signed up for the green option. In addition, TVA already operates four solar collectors.

Seattle’s mayor and a member of the city council wrote in an op-ed in the Seattle Times about the city’s Earth Day pledge to work toward meeting all of its electricity needs while producing no net greenhouse gas emissions.

With California suffering from a heat wave in August and on the brink of exhausting its electrical power supply, Gov. Gray Davis mandated new energy conservation measures in the state. Under his executive orders, the government will develop a strategy for making state-owned buildings more sustainable and energy efficient, with eco-friendly lighting, windows, and heating and cooling systems.

As energy costs rise this winter, consider improving your home’s insulation and other efficiency steps that Georgia Power once advised after a free home energy audit. Perhaps the Public Service Commission would relay your suggestions to them (1-800-282-5813) to reinstate that service, as well as provide net metering. Georgia Power has yet to express a public opinion about net metering.

We need to participate in the deregulation process instead of allowing the industry to set its own standards. Just remember how messy gas deregulation has been. Public oversight of electric utilities must be maintained.

Two good bills in Congress call for cleanup of dirty plants, HR 1900 and SR 1369, co-sponsored by Representatives John Lewis and Cynthia McKinney and 100 others. Tell your own representative to support these bills; call them at home during the recess or at 202-224-3121 during the session.

-- Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, 8/4/00., Duncan Mansfield, St. Louis Post Dispatch, AP, 9/19/00.

Banks County Air
Winter 1999/2000

State authorities have finally decided to take on the problem of air emissions from landfills. Emissions could be anything from dust and odors to asbestos and chemicals such as methane, volatile organic chemicals, or solvents. As waste builds up, more and more chemicals also build up.

EPD’s solution to accumulating methane is a “flare” which means burning it off on or near the landfill site in the open air. Burning also means smoke and the unburned parts of the methane.

The EPD jointly with EPA will hold a public hearing in mid-April to hear people’s concerns. This is a first, although public hearings have been advertised in many other counties. EPD says they received no requests for a hearing and thought the reason is that it’s such a new procedure for air emissions.  Solid waste has always been a concern around landfills, but not air quality.

What can be done about the accumulated chemicals and the odor of uncovered garbage? Monitoring air emissions is a lot harder than water and soil contamination, so it will be interesting to see what methods EPD will use.

For more information call Jimmy Johnston at EPD in Atlanta, 404-363-7000 or write to him at Air Protection Branch EPD, 4244 International Parkway Suite 120, Atlanta 30354.

French Smog
Fall 1999

After the second national "car-free day" when eight million citizens got to city centers using only clean fuel vehicles and public transport, central Paris reported that carbon monoxide fell by 30% while nitrogen oxides fell by 15%. It was a busy day for the Paris Metro, bicycles and electric cars.

In Italy 92 towns, or 14 million people, also joined in, and two Spanish experiments ran earlier in the year.

A French environment ministry opinion poll showed strong public support (4/5 of respondents) but nearly half felt it was "not effective."

-- "Car-free Parisians Love New Bon Air," Environmental News Service.

U.S. Government Sues Power Plants to Clear Dirty Air

WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 1999 (ENS) - In an unprecedented action to enforce the Clean Air Act against private companies, the federal government filed suit today against seven electric utility companies in the Midwest and South. The lawsuits, filed by the U.S. Justice Department on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charge that 17 of the companies' power plants illegally released massive amounts of air pollutants for years, which the government says has contributed to some of the most severe environmental problems facing the U.S. today.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999

Note: The power plants include several Southern Co. plants in Georgia and Alabama.

Who Makes Smog
Fall 1999

The smog that sends more than 2,000 people to Atlanta hospitals every summer comes mostly from cars as well as coal-burning plants, says the Georgia AirKeepers Campaign. The smog, or ground level ozone, sends 1,740 people to emergency rooms, plus 580 admitted with respiratory problems, and 230 with cardiovascular problems, all related to air pollution.

A Big To-Doo-Doo
Winter 2004/05

EPA offers air-pollution immunity to factory farms   

On Jan. 21, while inaugural revelers were still shaking off their hangovers and tending to their square-dance-induced blisters, the Bush EPA officially unveiled a deal whereby factory farms can get more than two years of immunity from the Clean Air Act if they join a voluntary program to measure their emissions. The feds, who say they need the emissions data in order to develop a good enforcement program, tout their collaborative plan as far better than slapping factory farms with lawsuits one by one. Enviros say the strategy stinks as bad as the huge piles of doo-doo that are emitting toxic gases at factory farms around the country.

— Grist Magazine, 24 Jan. 2005, http://www.Grist.org   

Hold the Mercury
Summer 2004

Mercury levels in the Florida Everglades have fallen sharply since authorities curtailed waste incinerators and battery manufacturers reduced their use of the heavy metal. Researchers from the University of Florida said they had proved that dangerously high levels of mercury found in the wetlands in the early 1990s had been caused by local waste incineration. The introduction of new regulations demanding that waste incinerators install pollution-cutting scrubbers on their smoke stacks made a great difference.

“This is a triumph of regulation, which is something you don’t hear about very often,” said Peter Frederick, an associate professor of wildlife ecology.

Mercury is a toxin that causes reproductive and behavioral problems in birds, and is also toxic to humans.

The study said populations of wading birds in the Everglades dropped by 90% between the 1950s and 1980s, and high mercury levels played a part. The numbers of breeding pairs in the marsh in the last five years were higher than they had been in the previous thirty years.

Clean Air For All
Fall 2001

Smog is bad for business. Businesses located near national parks told the EPA to get on with a plan to reduce smog over 156 parks. At a hearing in late August the businesses and environmental groups warned that tourism dollars could dry up and acid rain problems increase unless the agency adopted rules proposed by the Clinton administration to improve visibility.

Big industry groups, like the Edison Electric Institute, were opposed, arguing that the cost to reduce pollution from cities and power plants would be too great, and that the plan exceeded the EPA’s authority anyhow. The Bush administration has said it would like to scrap the proposal, replacing it with a major revision of the Clean Air Act.

— Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka, 22 Aug 2001

Smog is also bad for your health.Pollution from burning fossil fuels is killing thousands of people a year, according to a study in the journal Science.

Devra Lee Davis, of Carnegie Mellon University, and four coauthors found that if four large world cities used existing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 64,000 premature deaths and 37 million lost workdays could be prevented over the next twenty years.

Another study in the August 2001 issue of Science found that air pollution from traffic causes more deaths than do traffic accidents.

In other words, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases would do more than slow global warming.

Los Angeles Times, Aparna Surendran, 17 Aug 2001

Unhealthy Air
Winter 2000/1

Two metal finishing industries in our area are ready to expand their paint operations. Unfortunately, paint comes with solvents: benzene, toluene and xylene, volatile organic chemicals that cause cancer and other illnesses especially in children who are more sensitive to toxins.

The Indalex plant in Hall County, on Old Oakwood Road at Mountain View, already emits enough solvents to be called a “major source pollutant,” spewing out 260,000 pounds of chemicals in the air during 2000.

The Scoville plant in Habersham County, on 441 south of Clarkesville, is still a “minor source pollutant,” emitting 100,000 pounds of chemicals in 2000. One more paint booth would add 40,000 pounds to their air, getting them closer to the 200,000 pounds that would make them a major source pollutant.

EPD (the Georgia Environmental Protection Division), which issues the necessary permits, does not take into account the direction of air flow or the fact that both plants are near residences. Indalex is directly across Old Oakwood Road from a subdivision with over 200 homes.

Thanks to all the people who wrote in requesting hearings, they are now scheduled for April. The public hearing on Indalex will be held April 9, 7 pm, at the Public Safety Building, 118 Jesse Jewell in Gainesville. The public hearing on Scoville will be held April 19, 7 pm, at the Habersham County Courthouse Commissioner’s conference room. The more people who come, the better.

Contact EPD at 404-363-7000 for details on written comments. For details on the permit applications, see the EPD web page, www.dnr.state.ga.us/dnr/environ/.

Power Plant Pollution
Winter 1999/2000

Hazardous waste from power plants is a major public health and environmental threat, say three environmental groups, who charge that some 76 million tons of toxic waste are dumped without federal regulation. This waste increases cancer risk in the largely low income communities where it is dumped.

The report, released March 2 by EPA, came from the Hoosier Environmental Council and Clean Air Task Force. Now EPA must decide by March 10 whether to put safeguards in place, or allow the politically powerful electric utility industry to continue its unregu-lated dumping.

Wastes are typically disposed of in either landfills or surface impoundments, usually located on site at the power plant. The sites have been exempted from EPA rules for the past 20 years and are regulated solely by state laws.

Coal wastes, which contain concentrated arsenic, mercury, chromium and cadmium, have the potential to contaminate water supplies, and then bring about serious life-threatening health risks.

-- Environmental News Service 3/2/00.

The EPA reached a $1 billion agreement with a Florida utility to cut tens of thousands of tons of pollution annually from two power plants - a settlement that could prompt similar agreements to resolve a government lawsuit seeking pollution reductions at 32 aging coal-fired plants in ten states.

As part of the settlement the Florida utility will switch one of the two plants from coal to natural gas and install new pollution devices to curtail emissions at the other plant. The cost of these changes, when fully implemented by 2010, would be "approximately $1 billion," said Carol Browner, EPA Administrator.

The result will be a reduction of more than 120,000 tons of smog-causing and acid-rain-causing chemical releases annually by the end of the decade, she said.

The six other utilities named in last November's lawsuit include the Southern Company, parent company of Georgia Power. Spokesmen for both Southern Co. and American Electric Power ­ two of the largest companies involved in the lawsuit ­ said the Tampa Electric settlement has no bearing on their litigation. "We still believe very strongly that EPA’s arguments are seriously flawed," Southern spokesman Buddy Eller said.

-- The Gainesville Times, 3/1/00