A year ago, Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission officials and a group of local politicians - including Moline Mayor Don Welvaert - flew to Washington to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to designate the two-state area as "non-attainment" for fine particulate pollution.
Today, as the issue of leaf-burning - a major generator of such pollution - rages in Moline, Bi-State and its air quality task force have yet to find their way to the Moline City Council chambers to urge an end to the practice.
Bi-State chief Denise Bulat says the commission provided the city with information on the issue last year and is "hopeful" Moline aldermen will vote to end open burning of leaves this year.
Many residents of Moline and other QCA communities also have been "hopeful" Moline would end the smokey, polluting practice. The reality, however, has been a dozen years of city aldermen failing to act to stop the leaf-burning.
[Editor's note: The Moline City Council Sept. 8 approved the final reading of an ordinance banning the open burning of leaves on a 5-3 vote. The ordinance is to go into effect 10 days from the council's action.]
Bi-State and its air quality task force have put considerable time and money in efforts to hold off a non-attainment designation from the EPA. Attending a couple meetings to explain why continued open burning will hurt the area's attainment efforts (as well as harming the quality of air we breath) seems only logical and reasonable.
If Bi-State and its air quality task force are to be taken seriously in current and future air quality discussions, they can't sit in the back of the room and hope for change on such issues. And, taxpayers who indirectly fund the groups, should ask why they should support organizations that choose to ignore the elephant in room.
