Dec 23, 2008 9:40 am US/Central
In America, Millions Breathe Too Much Soot
EPA Adds 15 Cities To Sooty Air List, Brings Total To 46; Environmentalists Critical Of Lax Standards
WASHINGTON (AP) ―
More than 100 million people living in 46 metropolitan areas of the United States are breathing air that has become fouled with too much soot on some days, and now those cities have to clean up their air, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
The EPA added 15 cities to the sooty air list, mostly in states not usually thought of as pollution-prone, such as Alaska, Utah, Idaho and Wisconsin. That probably is because of the prevalence of wood stoves in western and northern regions, a top EPA official said.
But environmentalists said the EPA was doing only half its job on soot-laden areas, letting off the hook some southern cities with long-term soot problems, such as Houston, Texas.
The EPA notified elected officials in 211 counties in 25 states that their air violated newly tightened daily standards for fine particles of pollution from diesel-burning trucks, power plants, wood-burning stoves and other sources. Those particles, often called soot, can cause breathing and heart problems.
These lists of what EPA calls "nonattainment areas" are important because regions that have air that is too sooty must develop plans by 2012 to show they plan to clean it, and then do so by 2014. When old power plants and factories in these areas expand or do major refurbishing, they have to show EPA that it would not further pollute the air. It could mean also controls on vehicle emissions and regions having to take pollution into effect when they build new roads.
Fifty-four counties that didn't violate soot standards in 2004, the last time EPA put out a list, do now. They include areas around Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska; Nogales, Arizona on the Mexican border; Logan and Pinehurst, Idaho; Davenport and Muscatine, Iowa; Klamath and Oakridge, Oregon; Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; and Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The air is getting cleaner, but the daily soot standards were made nearly 50 percent tougher in 2006, said Robert Meyers, the principal deputy assistant administrator for air and radiation at EPA.
Since 2006, EPA has had two sets of soot standards and this list looks only at one of them. There are daily air quality standards and long-term yearly standards. The Bush Administration tightened the daily standard, but not the long-term one, despite EPA's science advisers' recommendation to do so.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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