EPA threatens harsher air pollution limits on Fairbanks
Published Sunday, September 21, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Fairbanks still has a few years before it sees air pollution-prevention rules that, public officials say, could impact the way borough residents heat homes, operate industry and plan construction projects across the community.
But while those measures have yet to be drafted, government agencies already disagree whether the new rules should eventually apply to rural areas, neighborhoods and small towns well outside the city limits.
Local mayors and other members from a seven-person transportation planning group last week asked the federal government for an extra year to study the air pollution problem. The request comes as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to tell pollution-prone communities — including Fairbanks and six other cities in the agency’s northwest region, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state — exactly where they should focus future prevention measures, measures those communities’ local agencies need to draft within the next three years.
“Setting an overly large boundary without meaningful data may undermine public support for the hard choices that the community will face in the future to correct and control this health problem,” Steve Titus, a state transportation director who serves as chairman of the planning organization, wrote in the official request Wednesday.
The air pollution common in Fairbanks — particulate pollution, which peaks during cold winter days — consists of airborne particles of dust and soot. The pollution is generated by inefficient combustion, and health officials say exposure to it carries long-term health risks including chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function and, for people with heart or lung disease, shorter lives.
Air-quality specialists cite a number of potential sources including inefficient wood stoves, traditional fuel heaters and — possibly the dirtiest — outdoor wood boilers, which burn wood to heat water-based household heating systems.
Despite that insight, the transportation group questioned the EPA’s suggestion that local governments should monitor air pollution emissions in Salcha, Two Rivers, Eielson Air Force Base and other areas miles away from the city of Fairbanks.
It asked the agency to wait until it completes a $2.6 million study aimed at nailing down the source of the pollution.
North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson said he was frustrated to hear that federal officials want to draw Fairbanks’ pollution-prevention boundaries before that study is complete.
“I don’t think we should be spending money on projects and be told our money is no good,” he said.
Particulate pollution
The federal government has for years regulated particulate pollution, which results from inefficient combustion. Federal officials tightened pollution standards in 2006, a move that left local leaders scrambling to wrap their arms around air quality problems and possible options.
Public officials will almost certainly need to regulate the more urban, populated areas of Fairbanks North Star Borough, including Fairbanks and North Pole. The question now revolves around whether it will need to keep its thumb on air pollution coming from homes, businesses and construction projects in and around rural areas like Fox, Salcha and Two Rivers.
Alice Edwards, who directs the state’s Division of Air Quality, said federal officials had originally sought to identify the entire 7,350-square-mile borough — an area the size of Connecticut — as the problem spot.
Local officials recommended a far smaller boundary, one that might have excluded almost everything outside the Fairbanks city limits. But Gina Bonifacino, an air quality planner with the Environmental Protection Agency’s office in Seattle, said her agency felt potential pollution sources existed outside those proposed borders and drew its own, a decision that followed a look at transportation patterns, community growth trends and population density.
Edwards told local leaders Wednesday that state officials are pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its proposed boundaries.
“We have a lot of work to do to see if we can whittle down this area,” she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to publish its pollution-prevention boundaries for Fairbanks in December, Bonifacino said. After that, the government will require local officials to submit a pollution-prevention plan in 2012 and meet the plan’s goals two years later, Bonifacino said.
Glenn Miller, who directs the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s Air Quality Division, said the broad map proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency left local officials wondering two things: How much do neighborhoods in rural areas really contribute to air pollution, and, even if they do contribute significantly, how could local agencies possibly enforce pollution-prevention measures out there?
“We certainly want to protect the citizens that live there” from air pollution, Miller said. But to include areas that might not contribute significantly to that pollution, he said, could dilute prevention specialists’ ability to effectively monitor the larger problem.
Miller said it’s too early to know what type of pollution-prevention measures will emerge. But local officials have some clues, and he pointed to communities outside Alaska that have banned the use of older, less-efficient wood stoves and set up exchange programs that encourage people to trade those stoves in for newer, cleaner heating systems.
Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker told other public officials Wednesday that local leaders stand little chance of fighting their way out of the federal government’s nationwide pollution-prevention effort.
“The fact is, we can’t get out of this,” he said.
Community Discussion
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The Feds need to put their money where their mouth is. Get us cheap narural gas. Plumb us up and we can get cleaner. This will never end, so this is the least the Feds can do to help us clean up.
Before any plan is implemented we need a 50 yr study of the effects of short term (3 months out of the year exposure *winter particulate inhalation*) as opposed to Chronic on a nearly daily basis of exposure such as places like LA and years lost as a result of.
Until the 50 yr billion dollar study is complete or a gas line is plumbed in the FED's can just stand fast.
Better yet I would love to see the day that the State of Alaska grabs the Fed's by the boot straps and kicks them out of the state reminding them this is a state matter your input may be welcome but your mandates can go to .....
Oh and when the borough develops the rules to be handed to the Fed's they should make it clear they will be assessed a fine of a million dollars per death of everyone who dies as a result of implementing there plan to confiscate pm10 producing heating units be it fuel, or wood burning units.
First thing the Feds should do is to solve the forest fire problem. You want particulates? Tackle that one. And, it is so good to see Whitaker taking a tough stand on protecting us from this nonsense, oh yea.
Let's see, heat my house, die of freezing. I think that is a "no brainer" to me. As hairbrain said, plumb us for natural gas, hell, get a gas line to Fairbanks....then we'll talk. Otherwise, stay out of my business about how I survive in this climate.
I have commented on these laws about the nation's, Alaska's & the NSB pollution-prevention plan & it's goals & laws of 2012 & 2025 & beyond. Many commenters questioned or stated the laws did not exist or don't apply to us in Alaska or Fairbanks. These federal laws are not new but has been ignored by our elected officers for years. The impact on us will be shocking & costly. Our problem area is termed “particulate” pollution, or PM2.5 . The areas EPA go by are county or borough not by cities. Such as LA Co. not the city; the county or borough. Gina Bonifacino, an air quality planner with the Environmental Protection Agency has been warning our elected officers in the NSB for a while. The warnings have not been taken seriously & have a serious impact on us.The EPA gave us a 30-day public comment period in August on its tentative listing.
Here's examples:
EPA to put Fairbanks on air pollution problem list
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/20/ep...
Learn variations in wood heaters for maximum home heating efficiency
Thursday, August 28, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/28/le...
Pebble backers and other large mining firms finance ballot measure opposition
Monday, August 18, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/18/pe...
Burning wood doesn’t have to mean burning big amounts of money
Thursday, August 14, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/aug/14/bu...
Officials address long-term health risks of air pollution in Fairbanks
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Officials address long-term health risks of air pollution in Fairbanks
Stevens, Murkowski worried about climate change legislation
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jun/04/st...
Bush revises federal strategy on curbing greenhouse gases
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/apr/16/bu...
Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker can't fight this & win.
The list of warnings to us go on.....
These among others are guilty of not informing citizens about purchases or improvements to homes or businesses that will not meet the 2012 requirements which will cost many citizens extra to comply:
Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker
Fairbanks North Star Borough’s Air Quality Division Glenn Miller
Fairbanks Mayor Terry Strle
Steve Titus, a state transportation director
North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson
Alice Edwards, who directs the state’s Division of Air Quality
Eielson Air Force Base or Fort Wainwright fall under Military requirements not civil requirements. Remember the heat plant on Fort Wainwright and ice fog & fines & repairs a few years back to now.
EPA fined them & made them fix it.....
So will we....
Whitaker doesn't want to go against his new friends on the left. Does his latest project, coal to liquids have any bearing on his decision not to fight the EPA? I recall Governor Hickle telling the EPA to buzz off when they were making us use MTBE. I'm sure if 0bama wins this election we will have no friends in Washington except possibly Whitaker.
Bureaucrats have to have a problem in order to keep their precious government jobs. If they are so incompetent as to solve a problem the agency was tasked with solving, they have no choice but to "identify" (or create) a new problem to regulate. That's the way of the world, and has been since the dawn of so-called "civilization".
Perhaps we need some new local leaders, thanks for your leadership Mr. Mayor
The levels that where exceeded from Ft ww did not get fixed properly, they raised the levels that where acceptable on military bases thus allowing for our community to become responsible for the air quality in our area. It seems that we, being next door to a military facility that is not held to the same standards ( kind of like how a 'no smoking' section in a restaraunt magically makes a line in the air) are being asked to over compensate for the power plant that still puts steam out across the Richardson over the slough near the railroad tracks.
If the community is to be held accountable we should have jurisdiction over the air quality at the local military facilities. If not, please explain to me how we get the magic line drawn in the air to come in to account on what we need to fix. The proper amount of the bill needs to go to the correct parties and I dont see that as only the Borough residents. If no line can be drawn we should be allowed lead way that reciprocates what our neighbors have at the very least. So if our quality levels get to high just raise the standards, that is what the military has done at all their bases. That seems to work. (sarcasm intended)
10t emmendment on them!
let's just stop co-operating with the EPA entirely. we can raise taxes on oil and gas to replace federal monies lost.
All of this based on three sensors , all located within a few blocks of each other in downtown Fairbanks. What happen to the borough funded report from the University regarding the nature of the emissions. Wasn't it due sometime this month.
After all these years and millions of dollars, they still can not answer the simple question. Where are the pollutants coming from. When all is done, how much you want to bet it will be oil burners and the inversion factor.
Don't ever forget, Whitaker when the IM program was on the line, brought in the State and threaten the people in this community with blocking access to 2nd Ave and the State imposing God knows what on the citizens. Whitaker, Miller and the borough assembly has a great deal of explaining to do to this community. But like everything else, they will avoid any public discussion or explanations.
Until Natural Gas is plumbed to my house.... EPA threats are full of hot air... I will continue to burn wood, til oil is affordable again or Natural Gas is readily availabe throughout the borough and plumbed for free. Almost considered moving into Fairbanks, till was told how much it was going to cost me to have Natural Gas lines run to the house, then. Forget it..especially with Natural Gas in Fairbanks is almost triple the cost compared to Anchorage. As far as money from Fed's oh well, the state needs to cover the different since the oil taxes it already receives is bursting the coffers.
I will burn whatever is cheapest to heat my house. The leadership of the borough needs to get a pair. What next, armed EPA stove police?
Is second that internationa. When dirty heating oil costs 400% more than wood it does not take much thought to what I'm going to be burning.
Here is the FNSB plan that we need to submit to the feds.
"The borough residents will switch to clean burning natural gas within 10 years when the gasline is built. End of story."
The high-sulfur heating oil is just as bad a polluter as wood smoke and until we have a reasonable alliterative there is not a darn thing any government agency can do. I know that I will not have much incentive to be cutting firewood when my natural gas bill for the year is $1,000 like Anchorage.
How many actually believe considering what is happening to the economy and banks, the cost of metal etc; that we will see a natural gas pipeline in ten years? Here's an idea, let the EPA buy out the home owners in the polluted areas, just like the people in flood zones were bought out. Any takers out there.
Exactly what we need, a Seattle-based firm telling us in Fairbanks what we should be doing. I'll draw you a boundary line, Ms. Bonifacino...it starts at the border and goes all the way around Washington State. Keep out of our business!
If Mayor Whitaker and other state/local officials could read the CONSTITUTION of the United States, they would tell the federal EPA bureacrats to go to hell. Nowhere in Article 1 Section 8, is the federal government given the power to dictate how people can heat their homes. Under the 10th Amendment, local/state issues are to be locally determined, period!
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html...
The EPA has a list of clean burning outside wood boilers here:
http://www.epa.gov/woodheaters/models.ht...
A cabin was lost this last spring in Fox due to improper installation of a wood stove. The Steese volunteer fire dept responded to smoke showing, after checking with command, the right side of highway 2 is a non-fire service area, drove back to the barn. The particulates were released into the atmosphere as the structure was engulfed in flames, a total loss. Burning wood in Fox, damned if you do, damned if you don't. As the price of wood increases expect more 'U-cut' operations. Many areas could sustain an every other tree harvest policy. The owner tags the tree, a pickup driver with a chainsaw goes to work and agrees to clean up the debris, branches through a wood chipper. The truck drives off with a load of prime birch and spruce.
The fire in Fox could have been extinguished with a hand line.
The wind that day was light from the north.
Yet it carried the uncontrolled poison of combustion to town.
I was an active member of the Juneau/Douglas volunteer dept.
We should have had a natural gas line following the TransAlaskan Pipeline route years ago. It is not enough to say eventually anymore. Mayor Whitakers words and actions tell me that the man is at his wits end dealing with the gridlock in his own party, the mind boggling apathy of Alaska's citizens, and the collusion of our oil lease owners. Enough to question that we will EVER have a gas line through Fairbanks. The man is right. Being a leader and a realist he is trying the best that he can. It will take real support by all of us - yes us the people - to make the gas line for us happen. The time is now, not later. You can stand back and throw barbs at the guy while he stands virtually alone working his ass off for us, OR we can get behind him en masse and get something accomplished.
Well, as far as I am concerned, the EPA can place their rules where the light does not shine, at least relating to what it takes to stay warm at my home. However, if they decided to pay for every penny of my heating cost, then they can send me a copy of the rules.
If the EPA's really cares about "clean air" they can pass a regulation STOPPING forest fires and pay our cost of electric heat!
EPA put your money where your mouth is!!!
Also they can prove any all "permits" for geothermal, hrydo, wind, coal, tidal, solar" using what is left of their budget after we fund "free health care equal to [what] congress receives"
We can clear cut the forests to make fuel oil, and use whale, polar bear and seal oil.
They are all carbon neutral and will save the plant from global warming!
Indoor wood stove EPA listing (about 3 megs pdf)
http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/resources/...
Some of these emit less than 1/6 grams/hr vs the outdoor units.
I looked around FBX.. all the indoor stoves had EPA certification tag. Meaning those owners comply?
Brian McCarthy - There are house fires all over Fairbanks every winter, what does the one in fox have to do with this? The fire department followed the law/regulations, as unfortunate as the situation was.
I agree with the general consensus that the EPA can shove it. Unless they are going to subsidize the replacement of fireplaces, wood burning furnaces etc then what are they going to expect people to do?
I, for one, am sick of breathing in the smoke and ash from all the fireplaces and woodburning stoves in my neighborhood. Some days it's as bad as the forest fire smoke a couple summers ago. If people won't voluntarily clean it up, the EPA is supposed to come in and protect those who are adversely effected by our inconsiderate neighbors. I wish they'd outlaw leaf burning, too. It was such a nice summer. No forest fire smoke all summer. Then my neighbor burned leaves and brush everyday for a week. The wind blew the smoke right to my house. I saw him sitting there next to his fire, upwind of it, watching the rancid thick smoke from the wet leaves blowing down the street toward all of his neighbors every evening on my way home. I don't much like government regualation, but it is needed in this case.
It is the EPA's job to protect American citizens from pollution. You may not want to be an American citizen, but you are. You could always move to Siberia; I hear they get to do pretty much whatever they want there. I don't think I should have to breath in fumes from some idiot's poorly maintained car or inefficient heater or wood stove. I'm glad the government is going to take it upon themselves to make those people fly straight. Burn whatever you want, whenever you want, but be ready to pay the fine.
You know, I may be able to understand the EPA and EPA supporters attitudes if we had a lot of industry that was creating all the pollution, but it's people trying to keep their homes warm.
If you have a problem with your neighbor burning while it's windy and blowing towards your house, take it up with your neighbor.
There are already non-essential burn bans put into effect when the air quality is poor, and they aren't going to be able to ban all wood burning unless they are going to do something that will help people replace their wood burning systems with cleaner burning ones. The most they can do is put bans on the sale of new woodstoves, wood burning furnaces etc. There is no way that they are going to get approval for a retroactive implementation of any ban.
We already have the IM program to "save" people from poorly maintained cars, if you want more efficient cars, sue the car companies, don't go after the people who buy whats available.
The EPA isn't about protection, it's about control.
We need elected officials who will do the right thing, not the easy thing.
I can see the following article someday:
Alaska State Troopers and EPA Agents report arresting Mr. Smith off of Chena Hot Springs Road for burning leaves. Troopers and EPA Agents had received numerous complaints from a new resident living next to Mr. Smith about his senceless acts of leaf burning. Unnamed sources from EPA enforcement say, "quality of life in the Tanana Valley has become intollerable with leaf burning and family BBQs. A Trooper was reported to have stated, "we need to nip this in the bud". Comments from the neighbor included, "I moved from Perfects Ville for a better life and this is what I have to live with. This is just not acceptable". Mr. Smith had little to say to this reporter other than, "It scared the hell out of me when the Troopers and EPA Agents decended on my property from the helicopters". Fines and punishment Mr. Smith is facing are $10.000. and or a year in Federal Prison.
We already have spent $150 million on the Susitina Dam project. Let's build it. No particulates, no carbon dioxide, no air pollution. We can heat our homes for just pennies per kilowatt hour.
We've also already build the "pipeline" to bring the power to Fairbanks. The inter-tie is running far, far below capacity. It's already built. What are we waiting for.
We already have the electric appliances and power lines to our homes.
Fairbanks don't need no stinking GAS, or the cost, the ice fog, and carbon dioxide burning it would produce.
Marie Barr--the one thing I have learned about complaining to an Alaskan about their unneighborly acitons is this...it's a good way to get your vehicles shot full of holes, get your dog shot, and otherwise make your life a living hell. The cops have warned me more than once about confronting neighbors about unpleasant issues. Especially ones who tend to drink a bit too much. It is considered un-Alaskan to question an Alaskan about why they are doing something that is unpleasant or inconvenient to others. As I am sure you have read many times on the DNM threads, the usual response is "if you don't like it, move to the lower 48."
---THE FEDS ARE COMING!!! THE FEDS ARE COMING!!! Cried chicken little. Anyone that thinks that local politicians especialy Jim Whitaker are above fear mongering live in a fantasy world. I haven't burned wood for 4 or 5 years, only because I'm lazy. But this winter I will. The only thing I can say is you better put some theeth in those regulations, I wont take it lieing down.
AKbychoice-- Why is that your choice, since you seem to have a very deep hatred for Alaskans?
I love the place, and most of the people, but there are those who feel like the world revolves around them and no one has any right to question them or their actions. Unfortunately one of them lives close to me.
Isn't this great! We have an energy crisis on our hands and therefore many people are converting to wood heat. So now the feds might tell us we can't use wood heat. One thing for sure, if Obama wins the election you can guarantee that the environmentalists will be coming out of the woodwork and they will do their thing. If Obama wins we can also expect Fort Greely to close since Obama said in his own words that he will stop the "unproven" missile defense system. At the next base closure cycle we can also count on Obama shutting down Eielson AFB, especially since it looks like we might be losing Senator Stevens. So with the EPA getting strong support from the Democrats, and major cuts in defense spending pending if obama is elected, why does our liberal and biased News-Miner keep supporting Obama the way it does so profoundly? It couldn't be because it is not locally owned?
with the price of oil i might be forced into burning wood again but i figured the epa will pass a law outlawing it. rember the gasoline additive the feds mandate we use then decided it caused cancer so they changed their mind. i live out of fairbanks and if i choose to burn wood all i can say to the epa is you are not welcome on my property and take your rules and put them where the sun doesent shine.
There is one huge problem with the Susitna Dam Project. The same problem that existed and was known about while the state was making some politically connected business people rich spending money like water on the original surveys and drilling programs( Arlliss Sturgelewski owner of Denali Drilling at the time was one}. It is the Denali Fault. Sometime when it is a nice sunny clear day and you are on the opposite side of the plane from Mckinley have a look see at that giant chasm/crack in the earth down there running for miles. Believe me it is an attention getter and you wont be thinking about Dam Projects in the region any more.
What was the air problem 25 years ago? Not outdoor furnaces. Outdoor furnaces make up very little of the overall problem (how many of these are actually in the community less then 700?), remember "dust" is also an issue. Therefore driving itself is a pollutant due to the dust kicked up while driving, not to also mention: mowing the lawn, street sweeping, raking leaves, gravel or dirt roads, new construction sites, etc. Even having dust/silt blowing in off the Tanana River is to be considered a pollutant!
While were at it these other activities are of concern that should be eliminated before someone is told to stop heating their home: Prescribed burns, Forest fires not fought, BBQ's (even Commercial one's at the Fair or Midnight Sun), leaf burning, brush burning, lawn burning, berm burning, bon fires (UAF & High Schools), camp fires, Fireworks, etc.
In the past 10 years smoking has moved outside, what has that done to the air quality? Ever pull up next to someone at a stop light on a summer day and have someone pull up next to you smoking and the wind blows it into your car? Or walk down the street and have the same thing happen?
Anyone aware of the natural asbestos deposit on the Yukon River that when the wind blows correctly we exceed the EPA standards for Asbestos!
How much pollutants do we get from China & Russia? Remember the sand storm & wildfires from the Far East that made our Spring Sunsets red?
My outdoor furnace will run less then your fireplace or wood stove due to it having a thermostat activated damper with a high & low setting. The outside Boilers do not run continually as do wood stoves or fireplaces, therefore should be polluting less these wood stoves.
Did you have your furnace turned this year, or just the fact it is 15 years old and also now does not meet EPA Standards, this could also be a problem. Better cough up $6,000 and have it replaced.
sosorry: The earthquake hazard to the Susitna Dam was addressed in a 1980's study by Woodward Clyde.
The conclusion was that the were five major fault areas that border the dam project. Denali to the north, Totschunda to the east, Castle Mt. to the south, a complex system to the west that extends along the trend of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula and lastly the subduction zone created by the underthrusting of the Pacific plate beneath the continent. The maximum credible earthquake along these zones were found not to be a threat to a properly constructed dam. Largely because of their distance, tens of miles, from the dams
Since then, the Denali Fault earthquake of November 3, 2002 occurred. This was essentially the maximum credible earthquake forecast by the Woodward-Clyde study. This quake also ruptured the Totschunda to the east.
There were also thirteen lineamentsin the vicinity of the dams. Each was studied and determined not to be currently active faults.
I have looked at the study. Bottom line is that earthquakes are not a threat to a properly constructed Susitina Dam.
Look who wants their cake and eat it too, join the freaking club!! I use my wood fireplace, safely as do most of my neighbors. And until another alternative to high fuel prices is available, thats how its going to be.
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