B'More Green

We've moved!

2011-12-05T11:03:29Z

B'more Green has moved to a new home on the web.

We've switched to a more reliable blog platform, and that's meant having to get a new address, or url. Nothing else has changed, really. We'll still be sharing plenty of news and analysis there about the environment, the Chesapeake Bay and green living.

The new address is: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/ Be sure to update your "favorites" links.

And for RSS subscribers who like to stay on top of B'more Green, you need to sign up here to keep getting the latest posts sent to you: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/rss2.0.xml

So don't be a stranger - come on over and check out the new digs!

(Baltimore Sun file photo)

"String of pearls" honors land conservation

2011-12-04T12:05:01Z

If you think of open, undisturbed land as a precious jewel, you might like this idea. Conservationists have put together what they call the "String of Pearls" project honoring landowners in the Cheapeake Bay watershed who've permanently preserved their property from development.

The idea behind the effort, which was begun in 2009, is to foster the creation of corridors of untouched land and water where wildlife can flourish. Lands protected in perpetuity are the "pearls," which supporters hope will eventually be strung together to provide wildlife with corridors in which they can safely roam, as they're wont to do.

Last year, six preserved tracts in Anne Arundel County were celebrated. This year, the project and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy are recognizing five Shore landowners for their acts of preservation. Three of them are in Talbot County and two in Caroline County, where my family first lived when we moved to Maryland more than 25 years ago. The photo above is of Robins Creek Preserve, more than 200 acres bordering the Choptank River and Robins Creek, set aside in 1999 for wildlife habitat.

To see photos and read about all the lands in the project thus far, go here. The "pearls" are fairly scattered now, but proponents aim to hold at least one ceremony a year honoring more conservation-minded stewards of the land. Perhaps in time enough tracts will be perserved that those pearls will be strung together in a solid necklace of protection.

This year's ceremony, free and open to the public, is at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, in the Bradley Room of the Talbot County courthouse in Easton.

(Photo of Robins Creek Preserve courtesy String of Pearls Project)

Saving menhaden, Chesapeake Bay fishermen

2011-12-02T14:59:11Z

Can the Atlantic coast's menhaden population be restored without hurting Chesapeake Bay commercial fishermen?

That remains to be seen, as the video above makes clear. It was produced by students in the environmental law class at University of Maryland law school. Yup, that law school - the one in the crosshairs for the Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by its environmental law clinic against an Eastern Shore farm couple and the Perdue poultry company. The clinic's catching hell for not representing the farm couple as well as - or instead of - the Waterkeeper Alliance, the client for whom it filed the suit. On this issue, the students' video does a good job of presenting both sides - the argument for conserving, and the concern about how a catch reduction could hurt Bay fishermen and crabbers. Of course, the class video project is an academic exercise, so you would expect the students to examine all sides in a dispute. In the real world in which the clinic operates, lawyers represent one client at a time, and can't ethically work both sides of a case.

Thanks to Joey Kroart for sharing.

Arsenic, lead found in fruit juices

2011-12-01T15:17:45Z

Fruits are healthy to eat, experts agree, but new research by a consumer group shows some fruit juices - a staple in children's diets - contain toxic arsenic or lead.

There are no federal limits now on either contaminant in fruit juices. But according to Consumer Reports, about 10 percent of the juices it sampled from five different brands had total arsenic levels exceeding federal drinking-water standards.

One in four samples checked also had lead levels higher than the Food and Drug Administration's limit for bottled water of 5 parts per billion.

While the FDA has dismissed previous reports of arsenic in apple juice by saying the contaminant was a harmless organic form of the chemical, Consumer Reports says most of the arsenic it found was inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.

Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, is calling on the FDA to set arsenic and lead limits for apple and grape juices, which are frequently consumed by children.

It's not clear how the contaminants got into the fruit juices, but environmental activists point out that one source may be coal-burning power plants which emit arsenic and other toxic pollutants into the air. They contend this is another reason for the Obama administration to move forward with new power-plant pollution regulations drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Some power companies and their supporters in Congress oppose the rules, contending the costs of compliance will be too high, forcing the shutdown of some power plants and jeopardizing electrical reliability. Others point to the health benefits and say the fears of brownouts are overstated, noting that some power companies such as Baltimore-based Constellation Energy support the rule because they have already upgraded their plants' pollution controls to reduce toxic emissions.

For a list of brands tested and results, go here.

(Above: Student sipping apple juice at Mt. Washington Elementary School. 2005 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenrick Brinson)

Going Gaga over recycling

2011-12-01T14:44:31Z

Digging back through emails piled up in my inbox, I want to share some "good news" - this recent announcement of the winners of the 10th annual "Rethink Recycling" contest sponsored by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The grand prize this year went to Amber Robinson from Digital Harbor High School in Baltimore for her portrait of Lady Gaga, made from soda bottle caps, utensils, and compact discs. Pictured above with her work, she won an iPad 2, one of several prizes donated by sponsoring businesses and institutions.

Twenty-nine different high schools across the state displayed 65 entries in the contest, which challenges Maryland students to use recycled materials in creating sculptures.

Environment Secretary Robert M. Summers praised the students and teachers for doing their part to promote recycling by "turning everyday trash into beautiful works of art."

"If not for the creativity and energy of these students, the materials used to make these sculptures would have ended up as trash that pollutes our air, land and water," he said. According to MDE, current recycling efforts have reduced waste going into landfills and to incinerators by 40 percent.

Other winners in various contest categories included:

Crystal Blackwood, South Carroll High School, Carroll County, for building a towering giraffe from records, compact discs, PVC pipe, and cardboard.

Margaret McGill, C. Milton Wright High School, Harford County, for creating an anglerfish out of compact discs, nails, and light bulbs.

Olivia Borum, South Carroll High School, Carroll County, for designing a miniature dress made of reused puzzle pieces and buttons.

Lauren Johnson, Smithsburg High School, Washington County, for crafting a great blue heron from chicken wire and zip ties.

To see more photos of the prize-winning recycled art, go here.

I'll be thinking of the sculptures crafted by these creative high schoolers every time I haul my recycling bin to the curb!

(Photo Amber Robinson and grand-prize winning Gaga sculpture, courtesy MD Dept of the Environment)

Another tiff brews over Constellation ash landfill

2011-12-01T11:33:45Z

A new dust-up is brewing over the coal-ash landfill on Hawkins Point in South Baltimore.

Nearby residents, who waged a vain fight to keep power plant waste out of the landfill, now are girding to oppose a proposal to expand it.

Constellation Energy recently began dumping ash there from its three local coal-burning plants, Brandon Shores, H.A. Wagner and C.P. Crane. Meanwhile, the company has applied to the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to operate the disposal site and to expand it, bulldozing an acre of wetlands in the process.

The 65-acre site on Fort Armistead Road had been owned by Millenium Inorganic Chemicals, but Constellation bought it about the time MDE approved depositing coal ash there. Now the energy company wants to expand the landfill on the tract from 28 acres to 32 acres and raise the height by up to 50 feet (from 220 feet above mean sea level to 270 feet, or 156 feet above ground level.)

Some environmentalists and Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold have already weighed in against the expansion. Leopold, who's maintained a ban on ash disposal in Arundel since an earlier Constellation dump contaminated Gambrills residents' wells, wrote a letter urging the state to deny the permits for the expansion. The ash contains toxic residues, some of them carcinogenic.

"We weren't crazy about this - we fought it," Mary M. Rosso, a longtime activist from Glen Burnie, said of the landfill. Now the expansion proposal "just drives me crazy," she added.

She and other residents have dueled with Constellation before over ash disposal and have long complained about air and water pollution from other facilities in the nearby industrial areas of South Baltimore. This time, she said, she and others are particularly upset about the prospect of losing an acre of noontidal wetlands.

]]> But Andrew Galli of Clean Water Action said he's still reviewing the company's application. He said he and others had worked to tighten safeguards against ground and surface water pollution at the landfill when the state first permitted ash to be disposed of there.

Constellation sought state approval to dispose of its coal ash at the Hawkins Point landfill, so it could stop trucking its waste to a landfill near Richmond, Va. and to a coal mine reclamation site in western Maryland. State rules require ash diposal sites to have liners preventing ground water contamination and other controls to capture potentially contaminated runoff.

Constellation spokesman Kevin Thornton said the company has said all along that it wants to expand the landfill, to increase its capacity and to improve the efficiency of the waste site's operations. The site's being designed to take 7 million tons of ash - enough to hold all the waste from those three plants for 25 years or more. For more details, go here.

Thornton said the three coal plants are generating about 120,000 tons of ash a year - less than normal, he noted, as the poor economy has reduced demand for their power.

"The less the plants run, the less ash generated," Thornton said.

The expansion also would help accommodate an added environmental safeguard, according to Thornton. A heavy-duty plastic liner is to be put in under each of the landfill's six waste "cells" as an added safeguard to keep contaminants from seeping into the ground water.

Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Department of the Environment, said it's his understanding no extra space is needed to install the liner. State regulators are still reviewing the project and will schedule a public hearing if they make a prelimilnary decision to approve it. If the wetland destruction is approved as part of it, Apperson said, the company would be required to restore two acres for the acre lost.

Rosso said Constellation officials at an informational meeting in early November talked about reforesting some land in Essex as mitigation for the wetlands destruction. She questioned how that would benefit her area, where there aren't many wetlands left now.

"The state should have more sense than to let them have that extra footprint," Rosso said. "We always get dumped on."

Bay foundation: Video shows fracking sites polluting air

2011-11-30T11:30:00Z

Natural gas wells and related processing sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia are spewing "invisible" plumes of air pollution, according to an investigation by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The Annapolis-based environmental group hired an infrared videographer to check 15 natural gas drilling and compressor sites in the Marcellus shale region of the three states. The special camera picked up the heat signature of gases billowing into the air from 11 of the sites, or nearly three out of four.

Robert Howarth, an ecologist at Cornell University in New York, said the gases being released in the video most likely contained methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and other other hydrocarbons, including possibly benzene and toluene.

“This would certainly contribute to smog, ozone… and it’s putting out carcinogenic substances," Howarth told the foundation, according to a post by Tom Pelton on CBF's blog Bay Daily. “I would not want to be breathing the air downstream of those rigs.”

Howarth co-authored a study last year that estimated hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Marcellus shale formations allows 4 to 8 percent of the methane to escape into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming.

The foundation contended in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency that its video shows air pollution from hydraulic fracturing is not being adequately controlled and a new rule EPA is considering to limit methane emissions does not go far enough.

]]> Harry Campbell, the foundation's senior scientist in Pennsylvania, said in Pelton's blog post that the video provides new evidence of the need for a comprehensive federal study of the human health and environmental impacts of drilling in the Marcellus shale. CBF has petitioned the White House Council on Environmental Quality and EPA for a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, as the study is known. To date, it has received no response..

Maryland has imposed a de facto moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," for gas in western Maryland's Marcellus shale deposits until it completes a three-year study of the potential environmental impacts and needed controls. Drilling has taken off in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, though, and controversy has swirled over its impact on neighboring residents, on drinking water wells and streams.

One of the sites filmed is a natural gas processing center in the town of Accident in Garrett County, MD. Though not directly related to the debate over hydraulic fracturing, the compressor station is often mentioned by gas industry supporters as an example of the industry's benign environmental footprint. Pelton reports that the facility reported to the Maryland Department of the Environment that it released 1,038 tons of methane in 2010, more than double the 483 tons of methane it reported releasing in 2009.

New farm nutrient rules pulled back

2011-11-29T20:00:32Z

Feeling the heat from farmers and environmentalists alike, the O'Malley administration has put on hold new rules on how and when farmers can fertilizer their fields.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture had planned to publish new "nutrient management" regulations on Dec. 2, but has now postponed them in order to meet with critics, including municipal officials.

"We were contacted by stakeholders on all sides (ag, enviros, locals) and asked to discuss a little more the draft regulations," MDA spokeswoman Julianne Oberg said in an email. "We're affording that opportunity, and will be resubmitting soon."

The new rules, aimed at reducing nutrient pollution of Chesapeake Bay, have been stirring furor since they were first floated last summer. Farmers complained about proposed limitations on putting animal manure in their fields in fall and winter, and about another provision essentially requiring fencing livestock out of streams. Municipal and county officials, meanwhile, objected to another provision barring the spreading of sewage sludge on fields in winter, which they said would require costly storage facilities.

Environmentalists joined the critics a few weeks ago, charging that agriculture officials had watered the rules down unacceptably in an attempt to mollify other critics.

]]> Jen Brock-Cancellieri, deputy director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, emailed that she was "encouraged" the administration had pulled the regulations for further consideration. Environmentalists had complained especially about a recent change that would let farmers keep spreading animal manure or sludge in the late fall, when it's likely to pollute streams and ground water.

The Dagger, a Harford County news site, had reported that MDA indicated it would try to hammer out some consensus among the various disputants over the next two months. But Oberg said officials have set no time frame for the consultations.

Sen. Barry Glassman, a Harford County Republican who's complained the rules could hasten the demise of farming in Maryland, has said he's mulling introducing legislation to head off some of the provisions farmers most object to.

He's focused in particular on the proposed ban on livestock in streams, which he contends would require that all water ways be fenced. That would amount to a regulatory "taking" of private property, Glassman argues, because farmers couldn't use the fenced-off stream buffer and couldn't get paid for it either under federal farm conservation programs.

(Photo: Barley blowing in wind near Hillsboro. 2008 Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett)

A pause for PlanMaryland?

2011-11-29T16:52:40Z

Under pressure from conservative lawmakers, state planners have agreed to delay their disputed blueprint for Maryland growth until after they get a little more feedback on it in Annapolis.

Planning Secretary Richard E. Hall confirmed a report in The Washington Times that he's agreed to hold off delivering PlanMaryland to Gov. Martin O'Malley until after he's met with the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee on Dec. 12.

Hall said his staff has been working for months to generate a third "full draft" of the statewide growth plan that incorporates or responds to the outpouring of comments and criticism of it from rural and suburban officials. That's still on track, Hall indicated in an email, but added that a brief postponement to brief lawmakers one more time would be "fine."

Administration officials have said the document is merely the long-delayed fulfillment of a 1974 law calling for a state growth plan, so does not require legislative approval. They've said it won't usurp local planning authority, just better coordinate state spending on roads and other infrastructure under Maryland's longstanding Smart Growth policies, which call for preserving open space by encouraging development in and around existing communities.

Local officials contend, though, that PlanMaryland may effectively take away their traditional control over development decisions if the state does deny funding or permits for projects that don't mesh with the plan. State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, a Republican representing the upper Eastern Shore who's accused O'Malley of waging "war" on rural Maryland, has said he'll introduce a bill that would require legislative approval of the plan - though administration officials have insisted they're not waiting for the General Assembly to act before putting the finishing touches on the plan.

Tree planting in Carroll Park

2011-11-29T11:22:10Z

Feeling like playing Johnny Appleseed? Blue Water Baltimore needs volunteers to help plant heirloom apple trees Friday (Dec. 2) in Carroll Park, at 1500 Washington Blvd.

The area watershed group will be working with elementary school students from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to put the trees in the ground.

Assistance welcomed. Gloves, tools and training will be provided.

For more info, contact Suzie at slmerryman1@yahoo.com

(Photo: Students from Baltimore Talent Development High School plant fruit trees in Carroll Park, 2006. Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Greens pushing offshore wind at forums

2011-11-28T17:22:51Z

Gearing up for another push in Annapolis to get legislation subsidizing offshore wind development, environmental and labor groups are staging public forums over the next few weeks to tout the economic and health benefits of building the giant electricity-generating turbines off Ocean City.

There's an offshore wind "town hall" planned in Baltimore Wednesday (Nov. 30) from 7 - 8:30 p.m. in the fellowship room at St. Mark's Lutheran Church. 1900 St. Paul St. Details here. Other forums are planned in Salisbury Dec. 5 and in Rosedale in Baltimore County on Dec. 13.

Despite backing from greens, unions and some businesses, Gov. Martin O'Malley's bid earlier this year to help offshore wind developers failed to win General Assembly approval. Lawmakers balked at the potential cost to ratepayers of an administration bill that would have required utilities to sign long-term deals to buy power from the projects.

The administration has been working since spring with legislative committees studying the issue and appears leaning toward trying again in January with a different approach - this time geared towards requiring state electricity suppliers to get a certain share of their power from offshore wind projects. Supporters are touting the jobs the projects will support, the relatively pollution-free nature of wind-generated electricity and the potential for stable (if higher) power prices in a potentially volatile future.

For more info, go here or contact Keith Harrington at keith@chesapeakeclimate.org

(Wind turbines off the Dutch coast, 2007. Reuters photo)

Septic task force produces "roadmap" for MD growth

2011-11-23T14:02:52Z

The task force Gov. Martin O'Malley formed to revive his failed attempt to curb septic systems in Maryland has come up with something far more sweeping - a "roadmap" to future growth in the state that attempts to rein in the metastasis of sprawl into the countryside.

Whether the panel's new "tiered" approach to development will win over the builders, farmers and local pols who blocked O'Malley's septic restrictions remains to be seen. Likewise for whether it will work, even if it becomes law.

The 28-member panel, meeting Tuesday in Annapolis, sidestepped O'Malley's contentious proposal to ban large new housing projects on septic and voted instead to recommend putting all state land into one of four growth "tiers," with varying degrees of incentives or hurdles for new septic-dependent development in each.

The impetus for change comes as the state struggles to meet its federally set targets for reducing the nutrient pollution fouling the Chesapeake Bay. Per household, officials say, septic systems release far more nitrogen into ground water and nearby streams than do properly functioning wastewater treatment plants.

]]> Growth would continue to be encouraged in cities, towns and "priority funding areas" previously designated for intense development under Maryland's 14-year-old Smart Growth laws. The vast majority of those already are served by water and sewer systems, though the plan does not preclude septic systems in places not now hooked up.

A second tier of more limited development would be allowed around existing municipalities and unincorporated growth areas. Septic systems would only be allowed there if local officials could demonstrate to state officials that connecting to sewer was out of the question. Moreover, the impacts on ground water and nearby streams of the water-fouling nitrogen from those septic systems would have to be offset somehow, say by curbing polluted runoff from nearby farms or other existing development.

New construction would be even more limited in a third "tier" consisting of rural villages and crossroads already on septic systems, but it would be largely restricted to "filling out" the existing boundaries of those small communities.

Finally, almost no septic-based construction would be allowed on lands targeted for rural or environmental preservation, including much of the state's farmland.

"This approach works harder to deal with what's in place," said Richard E. Hall, state planning secretary. Rural officials had complained that the septic curbs O'Malley had pushed earlier this year were too rigid and didn't recognize the different circumstances of various parts of the state.

"Bottom line, it will change the way we hope counties and municipalities look at planning growth," said Del. Maggie McIntosh, the Baltimore Democrat who co-chaired the 28-member task force, along with Baltimore real estate lawyer Jon Laria.

Details remain to be worked out before submitting the plan to O'Malley, who will then decide whether to seek legislative approval for it. But McIntosh said she was glad the group had gotten beyond the bitter debate of last winter over septic curbs and tackled the broader issue of how to reform Maryland's spotty Smart Growth law.

McIntosh, who heads the House Environmental Matters Committee, acknowledged the new plan is likely to face similar opposition from at least some rural and suburban officials, as well as from builders.

"We've got a long way to go on this," she said. But she said she hoped the "roadmap," as she called it, would stop or at least curtail the spread of scattered housing across the state's remaining rural land, which critics say is both harmful to the environment and costly to taxpayers.

Conservationists praised the task force's work, which included a call for tripling the "flush fee" paid by every homeowner to raise funds for wastewater treatment plant upgrades and for projects to reduce urban and suburban storm-water pollution. The panel also agreed that wherever septic-based construction was permitted, less-polluting but more costly "best-available-technology" systems should always be required.

"We got real recognition by the task force that a different pattern of development has to occur," said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends of Maryland. "Both for environmental and economic reasons, we just can't keep funding all the schools, roads, parking lots and everything else that goes with this dispersed, low-density, poorly planned development."

There were dissenters, however, notably Republican Sen. David R. Brinkley of Frederick. The Associated Press reported that he criticized the plan as an encroachment on local officials' traditional control over development.

"I think it's an attempt by the state to micromanage what's going on at the local level," he said, according to AP.

For more on the task force and its recommendations, go here.

(Septic system for new home being built in Baltimore County. Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

That Thanksgiving dinner? Mostly from out of state

2011-11-22T15:30:30Z

As we Marylanders sit down Thursday to our Thanksgiving feasts, here's food for thought - less than half the traditional holiday meal we'll consume that day was grown locally. Not exactly what the Pilgrims had to be thankful for. And if the state's farmland keeps getting gobbled up by sprawl, even less of our sustenance will be coming from around here.

According to a survey by the land preservation group 1000 Friends of Maryland, 48 percent of our Thanksgiving staples overall are produced in-state. Just 44 percent of the turkeys eaten are raised here, 41 percent of the potatoes (that seems high to me, frankly), 32 percent of the apples, 17 percent of the sweet potatoes and only one-half of 1 percent of the carrots.

The only produce in which Maryland is self-sufficient, or nearly so, according to the group, are snap beans, squash and pumpkins. But if you think about all the pumpkin pies baked and eaten, I'll wager the vast majority of those rely on canned products raised elsewhere as well.

The geographical gap between production and consumption is not unusual. Nationally, most produce travels 1,500 miles on average before being sold, according to the group's report. And about 40% of our fruit and 9% of our red meat is imported from other countries.

Some might think relying on locally produced food is an anachronism. But there's some comfort in knowing where your food comes from, and I've found some of the tastiest fruits, vegetables and seafood I've ever eaten had the shortest trip from harvest to my mouth. This year, my family is dining on a locally raised turkey, but a lot of the farms in Maryland already had sold out by the time we started shopping for one.

]]> To produce all of our Thanksgiving foods locally, nearly 13,800 more acres of land in Maryland would need to be planted in broccoli, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples, the group says. Another 2 million 12 lbs. turkeys would have to be raised somewhere, too.

It may be tough to achieve that. Although demand for locally produced food has increased some in recent years, the ability to grow more may be compromised by the shrinking supply of farmland in the state, 1000 Friends warns. Current development trends could see the loss of 225,000 acres - about the size of Cecil County - in the next 25 years, it says.

“A strong farming community is critical for smart growth and a strong economy,” said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of 1000 Friends. “We must do more to help our farmers and protect our farmland from sprawl development."

The group advocates buying locally produced food whenever possible, eliminating the estate tax on family farms kept in farming and providing government help for farmers to diversify their businesses.

(Heritage turkey at Carriage House Farms in Stevenson, Baltimore County. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis)

Study: Cleaner gas clears MD air, helps Bay

2011-11-21T15:33:03Z

Marylanders would breathe easier if the federal government ordered a reduction in the sulfur content of gasoline, according to a new study. And the Chesapeake Bay likely would be cleaner as well.

A report released today by a group of state air-quality regulators in New England plus New Jersey and New York finds that lowering the sulfur in gasoline would significantly reduce ozone pollution, or smog, from Virginia north to Maine.

Sulfur in gas contributes to emissions of nitrogen oxides, or NOX, in car and light truck exhaust. Those oxides are a major ingredient in the ozone pollution, or smog that fouls the summer air, and they also enable fine-particle pollution, which can affect breathing year-round.

Some of that NOX also falls out of the air, and the nitrogen in it worsens the nutrient pollution of rivers, lakes and marine ecosystems like the bay. Airborne deposition of nitrogen from cars, trucks and power plants is estimated to be nearly 20 percent of all the nitrogen affecting the Chesapeake from all sources, including sewage and farm and urban runoff.

]]> Motor vehicles are the source of 29 percent of all the NOX affecting air quality in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, estimates the report by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Management. Reducing the sulfur content of gasoline 25 percent to 10 parts per million could reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the eastern US by nearly 180,000 tons per year, or almost 500 tons per day, the group says.

Maryland alone would see an annual reduction of 5,000 tons of NOX emissions, but that's just part of the benefit the study foresees. A nationwide change in gasoline would help because up to 70 percent of the smog-forming emissions affecting Maryland waft in from out of state, according to the state Department of the Environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering proposing to lower the sulfur content of gas in conjunction with new "Tier 3" tailpipe pollution standards for new cars. But the agency is reportedly getting pushback from the oil industry, which argues that the requirement would drive up refining costs and even force some refineries to close, creating fuel shortages.

This report counters that previous reductions in sulfur content cost less than the industry forecast. It predicts that this reduction would increase fuel costs by 0.5 to 1.4 cents per gallon, or $143 million to $400 million overall. By comparison, the group projects the benefits in fewer hospitalizations, sick days and premature deaths range from $234 million to nearly $1.2 billion. And that's not counting what benefits it might have for cleaning up the bay or other waters.

(Downtown Baltimore, summer 2007. Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

MD lawmaker questions EPA air-quality science

2011-11-17T16:10:48Z

Maryland's attorney general may be pushing for tighter federal air pollution regulations (see previous post), but freshman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md, is pushing back.

Harris, chairman of the House Science committee's energy and environment subcommittee, and Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga, who heads the investigations and oversight subcommittee are challenging the scientific as well as the economic justification for new air-quality limits the Environmental Protection Agency is proposing. New rules are due by mid-December requiring tighter controls on mercury and toxic pollution emissions from power plants, which have drawn fire from the coal and utility industries, among others. The White House, at OMB's behest, postponed recently a move by EPA to tighten limits on ozone pollution, or smog, but others are still pending.

In a letter to the head of the Obama Administration's Office of Management and Budget, Harris and Broun - both physicians - accuse EPA's leadership of "press release science" in overstating the benefits and low-balling the costs of new air pollution regulations. They ask OMB head Cass Sunstein to take a critical look at the basis for EPA's air quality regulations and demand the underlying data behind studies linking soot pollution with premature deaths.

The pair contend EPA's leaders have been making "baseless and irresponsible statements" about how many lives could be saved by tightening limits on fine particle pollution, cross-state pollution and ozone pollution.

“In many cases, these required cost-benefit analyses appear designed to provide political cover for a more stringent regulatory agenda rather than objectively inform policy decisions,” Harris and Broun wrote.

Harris and Broun contend EPA is ignoring the negative health effects of regulations, which they say could increase joblessness because businesses would have to spend money on complying with them rather than hiring new workers. They also question why EPA calculates the same ecnomic benefit for every premature death prevented, noting that most of those who die from inhaling soot are elderly.

To read the letter, go here.

(Rep. Andy Harris speaking at town hall meeting in Elkton, April 2011 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)