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The Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement drew criticism from a top state air official, who warned it could hurt economic development and do little to improve air quality.
The EPA said its review found Brown, Columbia, Dane, Racine, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties have unacceptable levels of fine particulate matter in the air or contribute to problems in neighboring areas.
The pollution is largely caused by coal-fired power plants and diesel engines and creates health problems such as asthma, lung disease and heart problems. The EPA estimates tens of thousands of premature deaths are linked to sooty air every year.
The six Wisconsin counties are among 215 in 25 states that the EPA says do not meet the new standard designed to protect the public from tiny particles and should be designated non-attainment areas. The agency is gathering additional comments from the states and plans to make final decisions by the end of this year.
The areas would be forced to develop plans to reduce pollution. Common steps would be to require new companies to find ways to offset their pollution and to build plants with stringent emission controls. All that adds up to higher costs for business and, some say, encourages companies to build new plants or expand elsewhere.
Gov. Jim Doyle asked the agency last year to declare the entire state in attainment. He acknowledged then three counties were not in compliance but projected they would be by 2015 without additional regulations.
The EPA rejected that recommendation, saying all areas currently not in compliance must be designated non-attainment. It also said the state’s projection might no longer be accurate because a federal clean air rule it relied on had been struck down in the courts.
The state also did not acknowledge that Dane County was not in compliance and that Columbia County was contributing to problems there, the agency said.
Al Shea, an air official with the Department of Natural Resources, said the state would try to persuade the EPA to reverse its decision. Wisconsin is already taking steps to reduce pollution, including a pending rule that would significantly reduce mercury emissions, that make more regulations unnecessary, he said.
“Non-attainment designations do in fact inhibit business growth and development, and that’s not good for the state of Wisconsin,” Shea said. “We think that sort of burden on the state’s businesses is unnecessary. It would be another thing if the state hadn’t been moving forward with regulations that significantly limit air emissions in the state, but we have.”
The Sierra Club, an environmental group, had argued the state’s recommendation put business concerns ahead of public health. A group spokeswoman, Jennifer Feyerherm, praised the EPA for basing its findings on sound science.
“It is frustrating that Governor Doyle and the state agency in charge of protecting our air quality ignored the science before them and made a political recommendation,” she said. “But we’ve got EPA watching our backs here. We are now on track to start reducing fine particulate pollution and making our air healthier to breathe.”
In Madison, city and county officials noted they had already taken major steps to improve air quality. Doyle recently announced the state will no longer burn coal at Madison plants that power the Capitol and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A utility also has announced plans to phase out coal at a downtown plant by 2011.
“We expect any non-attainment designation to be short-lived,” said David Merritt, coordinator of the Dane County Clean Air Coalition.
