Four the Future - Air Quality

Four air quality articles, including an update to the Waste-to-energy mercury violation, power plants killing plant life, smoking-related deaths, and improvements in a world city's air.

• City, air agency could settle fine, upgrade incinerator
  Source: Spokesman-Review; December 28, 2010
  See also: Four the Future – November 3
  Summary: The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency has offered to settle a Waste-to-Energy air quality violation from last year for $5,000 and a required upgrade. During a test, the City of Spokane turned off a pollution control system they normally use to prove they didn’t need it. Under the deal, a carbon-based system will be installed at a cost of approximately $40,000. The director of the Spokane Regional Solid waste System says the cost won’t make much difference because the plant was already committed to using the new system.
  Opinion: The attitude that argues that air quality control measures are unnecessary might stem from a philosophy of maintaining flexibility or being scientific in their approach, and not merely to thumb their noses at regulators. Indeed, the former what the city is claiming. Latest update: the city agreed.
• Is coal-fired power plant killing farmers' trees?
  Source: MSNBC; December 28, 2010
  Summary: Farmers in central Texas are losing their crops, they say, because of the sulfur dioxide emitted by coal-fired plants. Sulfur dioxide, combined with water, makes sulfuric acid, a source of acid rain. It is known that sulfur dioxide kills trees, especially pecan trees. The Fayette Power Project has operated for 30 years, mostly without emissions control. The Lower Colorado River Authority, which operates the plant, and the state regulator both say it is not the plant's fault, but the EPA is suing Texas over its failure to enforce the Clean Air Act. There are 19 coal-fired plants in Texas. Each place where the trees are dying off there is a plant nearby. The EPA’s criminal investigation branch is getting involved. In the meantime, the Fayette plant is receiving a $500 million upgrade to scrub sulfur.
  Opinion: This is one of the difficulties with coal, other than coal not being renewable and its combustion causing climate change. Coal contains about 1% sulfur. Lower quality coal (which is what is used because much of the high-quality anthracite has already been burned) has more sulfur.
  
• More Than 600,000 People Killed by 2nd-Hand Smoke
  Source: ABC News; November 26, 2010
  Summary: Annually, passive smoking causes about 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 from lung disease, 36,900 from asthma, and 21,400 from lung cancer. This accounts for about 1 percent of all deaths. This is in addition to the 5.1 million deaths caused by smoking. Children are especially affected due to SIDS, ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, and asthma.
  Opinion: If smokers as a group killed 600,000 non-smokers a year by any other means, it would be called murder. Hopefully legislation such as the Washington Clean Indoor Air Act will show a reduction in deaths over time. However, since it doesn’t apply to homes, children will still be disproportionately harmed.
• What's missing in Mexico City? Dirty air
  Source: McClatchy; December 2, 2010
  Summary: In 1991, Mexico City’s air had only 8 days with air quality below hazardous levels. This year, however, adequate to good air days has set a record of 193 days. This is a result of policies such as emissions testing every six months, reductions in lead and sulfur in fuels, and the relocation of the heaviest polluting factories. In 1989, the city created Hoy No Circula ("No Driving Today") that prevents driving one day per week. They also expanded the subway system and extended bus-only lanes for low-emission articulated buses. Still, ozone is a problem 180 days per year, complicated by the city’s high altitude.
  Opinion: Mexico City is an mega-huge, sprawling city. Just like Los Angeles, it is heavily auto-dependent. And like Los Angeles, they have air quality issues and are embracing infrastructure-intensive transit as a solution. Smaller cities would be smart to heed the lesson and avoid the auto-centric, sprawling pattern that made those cities so dirty.