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Latest Posts

ENVIRONMENT

Boycott BP for Eco-trocity Brands in WA include Arco, am/pm, Safeway gas, and Castrol Backbone Campaign, with photo by Mark Early (June 2, 2010)
A Cartoon Look at the Oil Spill art by Dan McConnell (June 6, 2010)

MILITARY

Soldiers Treated as Disposable Commodities Racial discrimination suspected in WA Army base G.I. Voice (June 5, 2010)

POLITICS

What Color Is Your -Ism? American reactions "socialism" and "capitalism" are changing; too bad we don't have either Doug Collins, cartoons by John Ambrosavage (June 5, 2010)

ELECTIONS

Third-Party Candidates Face Long Odds Americans want a change, but change is rarely elected in WA or elsewhere National Institute on Money in State Politics (June 1, 2010)

ENERGY

Cutting the Cost of Cooling Creative conservation for air conditioning and refrigeration Martin Nix (June 1, 2010)

LAW

Prison Profiteering WA taxpayers pay a million to imprison a man who stole $151 Kathleen Murphy, cartoon by John Jonik (May 31, 2010)
Kagan in Context: Shafting Progressive Values Obama's Supreme Court nominee is a defender of the Bush-era "Enemy Combatant" designation Norman Solomon, cartoons by John Jonik and Dan McConnell (May 13, 2010)

WORKPLACE

Teenage Microsoft Sweatshop 15-hour shifts under poor conditions at Chinese factory from the National Labor Committee (May 16, 2010)

IMMIGRATION

Why US Immigration Policy Needs Tweaking Bill Costello, cartoon by David Logan (May 16, 2010)
Arizona Immigration Brouhaha Various opinions from near and far, cartoons by Logan and McConnell (May 2, 2010)

TRANSPORTATION

The Coming Microcar Revolution Martin Nix (May 16, 2010)

ECONOMY

What the Doomsayers Haven't Been Telling You About Greece Neocons use Europe as a punching bag Steven Hill (May 13, 2010)

AROUND WASHINGTON

WA Sin Taxes, Harum's Helicopters, more on Crescent Bar featuring cartoons by Dan McConnell (May 8, 2010)

POETRY

A Poetic Look at Tacoma Glass Art Museum; a limer-ICK Gerald McBreen (Mar 28, 2010)
Fall Is For Falling Out Of Love, etc. three poems Bob Markey (Mar 29, 2010)

MEDICINE

Zero Public Option + One Mandate = Disaster Progressive critics of the new healthcare law have been demonized Norman Solomon, cartoon by John Jonik (Mar 27, 2010)

BUSINESS

Who Rules America? Corporate conglomeration is leading to neofeudalism Don Monkerud, cartoon by John Jonik (Mar 27, 2010)

EDUCATION

South Korean Teachers Reach for the SKY Class size doesn't matter as much as teacher quality Bill Costello (Mar 27, 2010)

HEALTH

California Dental Association Says No Fluoridated Water for Infants fluorosis is affecting most children from NYSCOF, art by David Dees (Mar 27, 2010)

WAR

McDermott Sole WA Supporter of Anti-War Resolution Doug Collins (Mar 26, 2010)

CULTURE

Delete the Meat One might become a vegetarian account by John F. Baker, poem by Steve Hood, and cartoon by John Jonik (Feb 22, 2010)
Anvils: An Appreciation essay and photos by Robert Pavlik (Jan 24, 2010)

TECHNOLOGY

Reinventing Fire The story of Solar Smelters International Martin Nix (Feb 21, 2010)

HISTORY

History of International Women's Day The first celebration was a century ago this year Megan Cornish (Feb 21, 2010)

MILITARY

Why I Do It Resisting Trident for Love and Life Lynne Greenwald (Feb 20, 2010)

TRUTH

Architects and Engineers Ask for New Look at 9/11 Doug Collins (Feb 20, 2010)

MEDIA

Is Olympic Coverage Sexist? Media coverage rarely gives women equal treatment Univ. of Alberta (Jan 24, 2010)

RIGHT BRAIN

Why I Don't Come at Christmas Anymore not-so-jolly Saint Nick (Dec 18, 2009) Santa Gets Political art by Ambrosavage, Lande, and Dees (Dec 17, 2009)

WORKPLACE

No DIME for the Dems WA Labor Council leadership accepts activist platform for economic recovery. Will they follow through? Steve Hoffman (Nov 6, 2009)

WORLD

The First-ever Frisbee Club of Limbe Joel Hanson (Nov 4, 2009)

RIGHTS

Puyallup Bans Door-to-door Religious Speech ACLU of WA (Oct 16, 2009)

LETTERS

Single-Payer Health; Toilet-Paper Tax READER MAIL with cartoons by Jonik and McConnell (Oct 16, 2009)

SUBSTANCES

FDA Cigarette Regulation is Bad News John Jonik (posted Aug 28, 2009)
A Dose of Reality: Drug Legalization Megan Cornish (posted Aug 28, 2009)

SPORTS

A People's History of Sports BOOK REVIEW Doreen McGrath (posted July 24, 2009)

CLIMATE

Cashing In On Earth's Cycles: Part 3 Alan Cheetham & Richard Kirby (posted July 24, 2009)
Obama: How Serious About Climate Change? Doug Collins (posted July 24, 2009)


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posted Nov. 2, 2009 Bookmark and Share



The purple border outlines the portion of Pierce County cited for pollution. It includes Tacoma, Puyallup, Fife, Milton, Lakewood, Edgewood, University Place, Steilacoom, as well as unincorporated areas.


Tacoma and NW Pierce Slapped for Particulate Pollution

Among five areas in the Northwest targeted by the EPA

by Doug Collins, including news release information from the EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in October designated five areas in the Pacific Northwest as “nonattainment” for fine particle air pollution, including Tacoma and northwest Pierce County (see map).

“Nonattainment” means that these areas do not meet federal standards for clean air.

EPA based the designations on air quality monitoring data from 2006 to 2008.

The five areas are:

• Part of Pierce County, Washington (including Tacoma and surrounding cities)
• Part of Klamath County, OR (Klamath Falls)
• Part of Lane County, OR (Oakridge)
• Part of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK (Fairbanks)
• Part of Franklin County, ID (Franklin)

Across the nation, 31 such nonattainment areas were designated.

According to Rick Albright, head of EPA’s air quality program in Seattle, these communities will need to develop their plans for reducing pollution by 2012 and demonstrate that they are meeting federal standards and are in “attainment” by fall of 2014.

The main culprit behind Pierce County pollution, according to the EPA, is home wood burning. “Mobile Sources” means emissions from motor vehicles. “Other sources” includes industrial emissions.


“Research shows that fine particle pollution damages our lungs and compromises public health,” Albright said. “EPA is committed to assisting these communities so that they can get to work immediately to target the sources of pollution and safeguard public health.”

Regional EPA spokesperson Krishna Viswanathan says that a typical mitigation effort for an urban area like Tacoma involves the conversion of older wood stoves to modern, cleaner ones, as well as use of lower-sulfur fuels, but specific plans will be based on a detailed survey which has yet to be completed.

It should be noted that in the EPA’s ultimate analysis of the region, King and Snohomish counties also scored relatively high for particulate pollutants, roughly 75% the level of Pierce, but apparently not high enough to reach nonattainment status. According to Viswanathan, the EPA figures even take into account the pollution from SeaTac airport, which is generated in King County.

The five nonattainment areas in the Northwest and Alaska all have more air pollution problems in the winter from home heating sources including older wood stoves and oil furnaces.

In some areas of Tacoma and vicinity, there are more than 100 households per square mile that primarily use wood for heating. It can be a very economical source of heat if one has a cheap or free source of firewood. Pierce County may have to develop incentives for households to use cleaner burning equipment.


In addition, during stagnant weather conditions with cold temperatures and limited air movement, pollution may “pool” in an area rather than dissipate. In some areas, vehicles and industrial sources also contribute to high wintertime particulate matter levels.

Visitors to summer campgrounds have undoubtedly noticed huge amounts of localized particulate pollution from dozens of bonfires on any busy evening, but EPA has apparently not taken any official look at this.

According to Viswanathan, EPA in most cases does not have direct enforcement authority over air pollution, but acts as an overseer of local programs to ensure compliance with the federal Clean Air Act.

EPA strengthened the 24-hour fine particle standard in 2006 to protect public health from harmful levels.



For more information about fine particulate pollution designations refer to http://www.epa.gov/pmdesignations

For the complete EPA report on Pierce County, click here.


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