March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Pollution traced to Northeast

DOVER, N.H. — Although the New England states blame coal-fired Midwestern power plants for air pollution that causes acid rain, most of the day-to-day smog in Maine and New Hampshire comes from the Northeast, experts say.

On some days, New Hampshire’s and Maine’s air pollution can be traced to rush hour in and around Boston, meteorologists say.

“Most of Maine’s air pollution is not from the Ohio River Valley,” said Cliff Michaelsen, a meteorologist with Maine’s air quality bureau. “Our pipeline is the New England corridor.”

Studies have shown that of the pollution in Maine’s air, the amount from Ohio — home to many coal-fired power plants that do not have to meet stringent clean air standards — ranges from 2 percent to 10 percent, Michaelsen said.

Neither Maine nor New Hampshire produces enough pollution to violate federal air quality standards. The smog clogging the airways here largely comes from the more congested cities to the south, Michaelsen said.

When it comes to ozone violations in southeastern New Hampshire and southern Maine, “most of our problem comes from the Greater Boston-New York metropolitan area,” said New Hampshire state Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, who heads the Science, Technology and Energy Committee.

“As the day goes along and factories get cranked up, the emissions form a soup that flows up the coastline,” he said.

The smog sits offshore being heated by the sun until late afternoon, when the wind turns and pushes it back over land just in time for rush hour, creating smog levels that violate federal air quality standards.

“Nobody is saying it’s Ohio alone,” said Ken Colburn, director of New Hampshire’s Air Resources Division.

However, the congested Northeastern states already have had to take strict steps to curb emissions by utilities, industry and cars, due to poor air quality.

Power plants in Ohio and West Virginia have not had to cut emissions to the same degree, even though they export some pollution to New England by funneling emissions up tall smokestacks and into the prevailing air current.

The difference exists because current Environmental Protection Agency standards call for more severe restrictions in areas with more pollution at ground level.

Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which contribute to smog and acid rain, can travel 500-600 miles at most before settling to ground level, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

While sulfur emissions have been capped, most of the Midwestern coal-fired plants were grandfathered under the Clean Air Act and do not have to meet stricter controls on nitrogen oxide emissions that lead to smog.

However, the federal government is considering tighter standards that would require all utilities to cut way back on emissions.


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