Pollution burden falls on Davenport

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By Tom Saul | Wednesday, April 30, 2008 |

The good news is that transportation in the Quad-City area does not contribute enough to fine particle pollution to justify being included in any plan to reduce pollution.

But, about a three-square-mile section of Davenport could be declared in “nonattainment” under federal air-quality standards. That could eventually hinder industrial development and other economic growth there, about 80 government, economic development and business leaders were told Tuesday.

Preliminary boundaries for the nonattainment area came as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, officials acknowledged that much of the area’s fine particle

pollution blows in on the wind from larger metropolitan areas such as Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee.

“It can come from quite a ways away,” said Jim McGraw, DNR environmental program supervisor, who conducted the first of two public input meetings in Davenport on the potential designation. “It is clear we have high background pollution because of our proximity to larger metro areas.”

But that doesn’t mean that Davenport should be off the hook, McGraw said. There still are large emitters of fine particles in the Iowa Quad-Cities that add to pollution problems, according to data presented by the DNR. The area for potential designation includes hundreds of homes and many people who are ailing, elderly or children.

Those groups are especially vulnerable to the effects of that type of contamination.

“Within 200 feet of the monitoring site, there are homes that are being affected,” McGraw said of readings from a monitoring station near Blackhawk Foundry in west Davenport that has triggered the potential designation.

The monitoring station’s location near a pollution source is one of the problems with the potential designation, said Chad Daniel, of Stanley Consultants in Des Moines, who questioned the science involved in measuring and interpreting the monitor readings.

Daniel, who appeared on behalf of John Deere, Alcoa, Grain Processing Corp. and the Bi-State Regional Commission, called any designation of a nonattainment area “premature” and asked for a one-year delay in further action to let science catch up with the federal rules.

In addition to the location of the monitoring station and the presence of wind-born pollution from outside the region, the DNR has “made no concerted effort to dig into the causes of the pollution. We question what is causing the high (reading) days and whether it is appropriate to designate an area of nonattainment,” he said.

The potential designation comes as federal rules covering fine particle pollution reduced allowable amounts over extended periods in 2006 from 65 micrograms per cubic meter to 35. Of three monitoring sites in Davenport, only the Blackhawk site has exceeded the new limits. The Illinois Quad-Cities do not contribute to pollution problems in west Davenport, DNR officials said.

The potential area of nonattainment was tailored to deal only with problems found around the Blackhawk site, McGraw said, noting that it is relatively small. The area also excludes major roads on its boundaries, such as U.S. 61 and West Locust Street to avoid problems for future transportation projects.

Still, any designation would be harmful to Davenport, said Alderman Gene Meeker, At-large. He cited problems with investment and economic growth faced by Waterloo after a portion of that Iowa city was found to be in nonattainment.

“The killer is the stigma,” Meeker said.

Because of such factors as windborn pollution and the lower federal standards, no matter what is done locally to reduce the amount of fine particles in the air, “we could still face nonattainment,” said John Brimeyer, of Terracon, an environmental and construction consulting firm with offices in Bettendorf and Rock Island.

James Grafton, president and chief operating officer of Blackhawk Foundry, said the monitoring station is within 200 meters of the melting site at his plant. When the plant received its most recent emission permit in 2006, it was under previous federal standards. He was unaware that it might be out of compliance until just six weeks ago.

“If, during this process, it is found that Blackhawk needs to make change, we will do what is responsibly feasible to bring the company into compliance,” Grafton said.

In response to questions, McGraw declined to name any individual companies as sources of the pollution and told those in attendance they would face no sanctions “for at least a couple of years.” To comply with any reduction plan that is ultimately approved by federal authorities, costs could be steep.

In order to get emission permits or permission to expand, companies might have to install new pollution-control technology, regardless of the cost, McGraw said. They could also be forced to reduce emissions in other parts of their operations to accommodate expansion.

As for failure to clean the air and reach attainment of the standards once an area has been designated and a plan approved, the area could lose federal highway money and face other sanctions, McGraw said.

“There is a hammer at the end of it,” McGraw said.

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Nonattainment of particulate pollution standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency at a monitoring station in Davenport will kick off a chain of events that could result in potentially expensive requirements to reduce such emissions by industry, transportation and other sources.

By May 30 — Iowa Department of Natural Resources determines boundaries for nonattainment area.

By July 1 — Federal EPA certifies that DNR monitoring data is accurate.

By July 31 — Federal EPA accepts boundary designations and starts 120-day public comment period.

By Dec. 31 — Boundaries for nonattainment area are completed.

2012 — Deadline for creation and implementation of a plan to lower particulate pollution in the designated area to meet EPA standards.

2014 — Have area back in compliance with federal standards.

Source: Iowa DNR