If the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has its way, only the city of Muscatine and not the entire county of Muscatine would be designated as in non-attainment for sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA has proposed designating the entire county in non-attainment, which would bring tougher regulations on new and existing businesses to lower SO2 emissions in Muscatine County. The IDNR and the governor had tried unsuccessfully to avoid any non-attainment designation two years ago, suggesting to the EPA the county be designated as "unclassifiable."
Under the non-attainment designation proposed by the EPA, existing SO2 pollution sources in the county could be required to reduce their emissions, and new sources that emit sulfur dioxide above certain levels would be required to be built with air pollution controls having the lowest sulfur dioxide emissions technically possible.
The 75 parts per billion (PPB) standard set by the EPA in June 2010 is designed to protect against high short-term SO2 exposures, which can be particularly harmful to children, the elderly and those individuals with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and other lung and heart diseases.
In its response to Branstad's letter seeking to avoid non-attainment designation, EPA Regional Administrator Karl Brooks outlined the reasons for the federal non-attainment action, pointing out that even assigning a zero emission level to disputed readings from an air monitor at Musser Park, the result was a sulfur dioxide level of 123 PPB, or 150 percent of the National Ambient Air Quality standard.
EPA has given the state until April 8 to provide it with additional information for consideration prior to EPA finalizing the non-attainment recommendation. EPA intends to finalize the non-attainment designation in June.
The much smaller non-attainment area put forward by the Iowa DNR was outlined at meetings in Muscatine March 28.
Muscatine's SO2 pollution levels have caused numerous exceedances of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in the past three years. In 2012, 35 of 39 NAAQS exceedances in Muscatine County were from high SO2 levels.
CLICK HERE to download the full IDNR presentation/proposed non-attainment boundary area.
