EPA ruling leaves loophole to reverse decision

Even before Monday's (12/22) designation of Scott, Rock Island and Muscatine counties as "non-attainment" for fine particulate pollution, Iowa and Illinois environmental agencies were hard at work analyzing 2008 air quality data to challenge the decision.

A loophole in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) non-attainment filing allows states to submit "complete, quality assured, certified 2008 data" prior to the effective date of the EPA rulemaking, Feb. 20, 2009, to obtain a reversal of the designation. Normally, states don't submit annual data until April, and certification of the data isn't required until July of the following year.

Air quality officials in Iowa have argued in earlier EPA submissions the 2005-2007 monitoring data used to determine non-attainment was skewed because of unusually hot weather, which affects formation of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers.

"If any state submits complete, quality assured, certified 2008 data to EPA by Feb. 20, 2009 that suggest a change of designation status is appropriate for any area within that state, and if EPA agrees that a change of designation is appropriate, then we will withdraw the designation announced in this action for such area and issue an alternate designation that reflects the inclusion of 2008 data," according to the EPA filing published in the Federal Register.

"We emphasize that we will conduct this process only for those states that submit the necessary, complete, quality assured, certified data by the deadline and in those instances where we can complete our analysis and effect the change of designation status before the original effective date established by this final action," the EPA filing states.

"If inclusion of 2008 data causes an area to change from nonattainment to attainment, EPA will change the designation if every monitor in the area boundary is not monitoring a violation of the standards, and if the area is not contributing to a violation of the standards in another nearby area," the ruling said.

The loophold appears written to address Iowa and Illinois Quad Cities concerns that violations of the PM 2.5 air standards occurred at only one location, near Black Hawk Foundry in Davenport. The other monitor, which exceeded the PM 2.5 standard, is located near Grain Processing Corp. in Muscatine. Both facilities have promised to improve their pollution control equipment to lower PM 2.5 emissions.

Both state and federal officials, however, say the existing "background" levels of PM 2.5 in eastern Iowa are high, one reason it was expected the EPA would choose to designate a larger area as non-attainment than narrow the designation, as urged by local and state officials, to the vicinity of Grain Processing and Black Hawk Foundry.

Bi-State Regional Commission officials also say a "sponsored research" project by two University of Iowa researchers will be submitted to the EPA in February. The $40,000 project is being paid for by taxpayer money from the cities of Bettendorf, Davenport, Muscatine, Scott County and the Iowa Department of Economic Development, along with private funds from Alcoa, Blackhawk Foundry, Grain Processing Corporation, Muscatine Power and Water and IPSCO Steel.