Progress Health & Well-Being News and Tribune 05.29.2015
Clark and Floyd counties received failing grades in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2015 report. | STAFF PHOTO BY TYLER STEWART
A FAILING GRADE
Despite American Lung Association report, air quality debate rages on in Southern Indiana
By CHARLIE WHITE newsroom@newsandtribune.com
S
OUTHERN INDIANA — As the federal Environmental Protection Agency looks to adopt stricter ozone standards, Indiana state environmental officials weighed that existing air-quality monitoring is sufficiently working toward less pollution. There’s no disputing that air pollutants freely cross the Ohio River between Louisville and surrounding counties like Clark and Floyd, though local environmental officials say they haven’t detected significantly more ozone from vehicles sitting in traffic for ongoing downtown construction for the Ohio River Bridges Project. The Louisville metro area that includes 11 Kentucky counties and six in Southern Indiana received failing grades from the American Lung Association for both ozone and particle pollution, according to its latest State of the Air report. “It seems that raising the standards is the only way,” said Judy Martin, president of the Floyd Action Network, a group of about 200 local environmental activists. Still, Martin doubts there’s any way to count on consistent improvements no matter what the standards, if the population grows and there’s more demand for consumer goods. “So many people in the U.S. are saying we have no air-quality problems,” Martin said. “We have to keep reaching above.” Some business and state leaders, however, disagree, strongly opposing further federal ozone limits by the EPA to limit ozone. The National Association of Manufacturers has called on federal regulators to keep the ozone standard at 75 parts per billion rather than lowering it to 65-70
Traffic moves southbound on Interstate 65 and U.S. 31 in Jeffersonville. | FILE PHOTO
North and southbound traffic moves along Interstate 65 in Jeffersonville last year. | FILE PHOTO
parts per billion, as proposed in late 2014. The association commissioned a study done by the New Yorkbased consulting firm National Economical Research Associates, which estimates the EPA’s proposed new ozone standard could cost American manufacturers more than $1 trillion from 2017–2040. The study also found the measure would slash the national gross domestic product by $140 billion annually, resulting in the equivalent of 1.4 million jobs being eliminated per year. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and state environmental officials echo the National Association of Manufacturers’ study, saying the EPA proposal would be a job killer that diminishes the quality of life in the Hoosier state. The Indianapolis Star reported May 18 that state officials are downplaying what medical researchers say is an unacceptable public health risk because the science behind the proposed changes can’t be trusted.
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The state’s top air-quality regulators also claim lowering ozone levels won’t help people with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia and those with other conditions made worse by ozone. Martin said “the bad air isn’t going to stop at the state line so there has to be as many local organizations working together as possible” to improve air quality. Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Distict officials work with businesses, Indiana environmental officials in Indianapolis and their Kentucky counterparts in Frankfort to help enforce the federal Clean Air Act first enacted in 1963. Louisville air pollution district spokesman Tom Nord asserts that air quality is gradually improving, as the law originally intended, noting there is some discretion given to local and state agencies. “The air quality is vastly improved from what our fathers and grandfathers breathed,” Nord said.
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“So many people in the U.S. are saying we have no air-quality problems. We have to keep reaching above.”
— Judy Martin
president of the Floyd Action Network, a group of about 200 local environmental activists.
SO YOU KNOW
American Lung Association State of the Air 2015 grades: CLARK COUNTY • Ozone: F • Particle Pollution 24-hour: B • Particle Pollution Annual: Fail FLOYD COUNTY • Ozone: F • Particle Pollution 24-hour: C • Particle Pollution Annual: Pass For more information about State of the Air 2015, visit stateoftheair.org To read the Energy Information Administration’s analysis on the Clean Power Plan, visit eia.gov/analysis/ requests/powerplants/cleanplan/.
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