You may not fix every problem by throwing money at it, but it sure can help.  Maryland is getting $1.73 million in economic stimulus funds to spend on reducing harmful diesel emissions from buses, trucks, ships and construction equipment like the crane pictured above at the Port of Baltimore.

Diesel exhaust contains soot, or fine particulates, and other toxic air pollutants, which research has shown can aggravate asthma, contribute to cardiovascular disease and even cause premature death.  Millions of Americans live downwind of places where lots of diesel engines are at work, such as rail yards and ports.

Here in Maryland, the state is working on reducing those unhealthy exposures, with federal help.  The Department of the Environment will distribute the funds it's receiving from the Environmental Protection Agency to retrofit existing diesel engines.

The funds were authorized under the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide grants and loans for retrofitting diesel engines.  It hasn't been decided yet precisely how the new funds will be spent, but an EPA spokeswoman said they'll generally go to reduce emissions from ships, construction equipment, school buses and trucks.

The diesel-powered dredging equipment shown above at the Port of Baltimore was retrofitted with particulate filters (seen at right) that are supposed to reduce soot emissions by more than 90 percent.  The crane was among the retrofits paid for with a $295,000 "clean diesel" grant EPA awarded the state last year.  The federal grant - and matching state funds - also paid to retroft buses in Rockville and in Prince George's and Washington counties.

Government funds can be spent on cleaning up government-owned diesel emissions, but the privately owned oceangoing vessels that call at ports also are a significant source of harmful air pollutants.  A recent report by the EPA Inspector General's office estimated that commercial marine vessels accounted for 69 percent of the sulfur dioxide emitted at the port, and more than a quarter of the soot, or fine particulates that can get in lungs and cause health problems.

EPA announced earlier this year that it plans to reduce ship pollution within 200 miles of U.S. shores under a new international agreement. U.S. and foreign-flagged ships are to be required to use dramatically cleaner fuel and more effective pollution controls for their engines, the agency said. For more on that, go here.

(Photos supplied by Bill McAllen, Charm City Publishing)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:29 AM in air pollution | Permalink
                       

Despites some improvements over the past decade, the air most Marylanders breathe still can make them sick and even cause premature death.

That's the upshot of a new report by the American Lung Association, which after analyzing air quality readings from 2005 through 2007 finds that Baltimore city ranks 15th among U.S. counties with the worst short-term particle pollution.  

The greater Washington-Baltimore region was judged to have the 14th worst ozone pollution, with 28.8 days a year, on average, when smog reached unhealthful levels.  That's better than it used to be.  A decade ago, the region averaged 42 days a year of bad ozone.  But the short-term trend is headed in the wrong direction - the region only had 26.3 days of unhealthful ozone levels from 2004 through 2006, according to the group. 

Though fine-particle pollution is worse in the city, it's a problem elsewhere in the state as well.  Baltimore County joined the city in earning a "failing" grade from the lung association for short-term particle levels, while Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties got "D"s for having at least a handfull of days with harmful particle pollution every year.

Baltimore once ranked second only to Los Angeles for having the worst summertime ozone, or smog.  Ozone levels have improved, with fewer days of really high readings.  But that good news has been offset by research finding that air pollution is still harmful at lower levels.  In response, the Environmental Protection Agency last year tightened its standards on ozone pollution.

Of 15 counties in Maryland where air quality is monitored, all but two scored failing grades for ozone pollution from the lung association.  The only two that didn't flunk - Baltimore city and Worcester County - didn't have enough air data to analyze, the group said.

Ozone is produced when chemicals from vehicle exhaust and power plants mix in hot sunlight. It can cause a sunburn-like inflammation of lungs and bronchial passages, leading to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing.  It can worsen asthma and even cause premature death.

Particle pollution is also a silent killer.  It's a toxic mix of microscopic soot containing chemicals and metals from diesel exhaust and other forms of combustion.  Even short-term exposure to elevated levels can cause health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks and premature death.

Maryland's air picture is mirrored nationally.  Despite progress in many cities over the past decade in curbing ozone pollution, the lung association found that 60 percent of Americans still breathe harmful levels of either ozone or particle pollution.  The group wants EPA to tighten air pollution cleanup requirements even more - meanwhile, it urges people to drive less and use less electricity, avoid burning wood or trash and urge local school systems to replace old diesel buses with cleaner vehicles.

To read the ALA's latest "State of the Air" report, go here.  You can also find out how the air is in your area by typing in your Zip code.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:25 AM in air pollution | Permalink
                       

Bucking a national trend downward, Maryland businesses, factories and power plants released more toxic pollutants into the environment in 2007 than they did the year before, new data show.

According to the Toxics Release Inventory maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, all disposals and releases of hazardous pollutants in 2007 were about five percent lower than they were in 2006, the agency announced Thursday.  Releases to air declined 7 percent, while water discharges went down 5 percent.

Maryland, however, saw a 27 percent increase in its total releases of toxic substances, from 39.9 million pounds in 2006 to 50.5 million pounds in 2007.   Total air emissions grew by 28 percent, while discharges to water grew by 5 percent in that time.

Dawn Stoltzfus, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the state's increase in toxic releases in 2007 came almost completely from Constellation Energy's Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner power plants in Pasadena.  The plants, pictured above, reported releasing an additional 9.5 million pounds of hydrochloric acid in 2007, she said, which the company attributed to burning coal that year with a higher chloride content.

That acidic release should be reduced by next year, Stoltzfus said, when Constellation finishes building new air pollution "scrubbers" for its Brandon Shores burners.

For whatever reason, the rise in toxic chemical releases this year breaks a downward trend of at least three years for the state.  Nationally, there also are some upticks in toxic pollution amid the overall downward trend - increase reported in "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic" chemicals like lead, dioxin, mercury and PCBs.

You can read EPA's release on the nationwide toxic release trends here.  If you want to dig into Maryland's situation, the 2007 fact sheet is here, and the 2006 summary here.

(2006 photo by Kim Hairston of the Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:43 AM | Permalink
                       

People living in metropolitan areas with the worst ozone pollution, aka smog, face at least a 30 percent greater chance of dying from respiratory illnesses than residents of the least polluted cities, a new study has found.

The study, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, is the first nationwide look at the long-term health effects of exposure to ozone, and the first to distinguish ozone's impact from the harmful effects of inhaling fine particulate matter, the tiny particles of pollutants emitted by factories, cars, and power plants. You need a subscription to read the report, but can read the abstract here. 

Researchers looked at nearly a half million people over 18 years.  They found that in Riverside, California, the city with the worst smog levels in the country through 2000, the chances of dying from lung disease were as much as 50 percent greater than if you lived in a place with no ozone pollution.  Los Angeles came in a close second, with a 43 percent higher risk.

Here in the Northeast, where smog is not as bad, the risk of dying from lung disease was 27 percent higher in the Washington area and 25 percent higher around New York City.  For some reason, the study didn't look at Baltimore separately, though the summer air here has tended to be as bad or even a bit worse than in the DC environs.  While you may wonder why that is, given the heavier traffic around the nation's capital, the pollutants that form ozone from vehicle exhaust, power plants and the like tend to drift to the northeast. 

You can check this list kept by the Environmental Protection Agency to see how Baltimore stacks up among metro areas with chronic summertime ozone pollution.

The EPA has set health-based standards for ozone pollution based on eight-hour average exposures, but as the Los Angeles Times notes, more than 300 counties where more than 100 million people live are out of compliance.  Though EPA tightened its smog standards slightly last year, it ignored urgings from experts to set even more protective standards.  This study could add pressure on EPA to revisit that decision.

(Photo of Los Angeles skyline: Getty Images)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:32 AM in air pollution | Permalink | Comments (2)
                       

I had a story yesterday about environmental groups urging Maryland to act to reduce mercury emissions from a cement plant in Carroll County (pictured at right) and from a paper mill in western Maryland.

Those aren't the only sources of the toxic metal getting into the air, water and food chain. Nor are they the only ones over which there are disputes about the adequacy of government protections. 

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to review an appellate court ruling overturning its proposed rule governing mercury emissions from power plants.  According to a New York Times report, the Environmental Protection Agency had proposed reducing emissions 70 percent by 2018 using a "cap-and-trade" approach that environmental groups and several states successfully challenged, arguing that it could lead to increased exposure to the toxic metal in some areas while not reducing the overall exposure quickly enough.  But the appellate court rejected that, saying it was out of line with the Clean Air Act.

With federal action on that front tied up in court, Maryland lawmakers approved state action to curb a variety of emissions from power plants in 2006.

EPA also has been sued over its approach to regulating mercury emissions from cement kilns. The agency adopted a rule in 2006 limiting emissions from new plants, but not existing plants.  EarthJustice and the Environmental Integrity Project produced a study earlier this year contending that cement kilns release roughly twice as much mercury into the air as EPA had originally estimated in sparing existing plants tougher limits.

Under threat of more legal pressure, EPA now is committed to proposing a rule by March of next year that would limit mercury from existing cement operations. But Eric Schaeffer, head of the Environmental Integrity Project, says  the agency earlier had promised to propose new rules by this fall, only to push that back.

Assuming EPA meets its latest self-enforced deadline, Schaeffer said it still could be "a year or so before the proposal becomes final, and another three years to comply (which is standard for these rules)." 

All told, he says, "any federal requirements might not take effect for another five years. So we’ll keep pushing Maryland."

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:30 AM in air pollution | Permalink