Maine misses EPA deadline to submit pollution reduction plan

Editor’s Be aware: The next story first appeared in The Maine Monitor’s free environmental publication, Local weather Monitor, that’s delivered to inboxes for each Friday morning. Join the free publication to get vital environmental information by registering at this hyperlink.

If you happen to’ve lived right here for any considerable period of time, you’ve in all probability heard Maine known as the “tailpipe of the nation.” Prevailing winds carry pollution up from the Midwest and the remainder of New England, periodically leading to smoggy, hazy days, significantly within the sizzling summer season months. On the east coast, that haze comes from energy crops, industrial boilers, industrial processes, and emissions from vehicles and vans.

“Even when we had actually nice emission requirements in Maine, the best way that the air currents work within the nation, we’re getting a lot from the Midwest anyway,” Madeleine Fenderson, an organizer with Atmosphere Maine Analysis and Coverage Heart, informed Maine Public in 2018. “To ensure that us to actually see the leads to our air high quality it must be a federal mandate.”

A lot of that smog settles in a few of our most treasured pure locations, the place residents and guests alike come to benefit from the dazzling surroundings and ample wildlife. In 1999, in an effort to protect these views, the Environmental Safety Company initiated a serious effort to enhance air high quality in nationwide parks and wilderness areas across the nation, calling it the Regional Haze Rule.

This week, the EPA despatched notices to Maine and 14 different states that missed a deadline to beneath that rule submit plans to scale back air air pollution in Acadia Nationwide Park, Roosevelt Campobello Worldwide Park, and Moosehorn Wilderness Space.

The rule requires every state to submit a State Implementation Plan (SIP) each 10-years and a 5-year Progress Report after every SIP. Maine submitted its most up-to-date progress report back to the EPA in 2016; an up to date SIP was due in July of 2021. Together with Maine, Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia additionally missed that deadline and one other 6-month prolonged deadline that adopted.

The notices issued to states are additionally the topic of a lawsuit filed by 4 environmental organizations, together with the Sierra Membership. The lawsuit argues that, by not issuing notices of violations to states that had missed the deadline, the EPA was neglecting to implement its personal rule. States issued violation notices now have two years to both submit a late plan or settle for an EPA-written plan.

“It’s as much as EPA, the company charged with defending human well being and the setting, to carry these states accountable to the legislation and guarantee our nationwide parks, rangers, guests, wildlife and surrounding communities have clear skies and clear air to breathe,” mentioned Stephanie Kodish, senior director and counsel for Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation’s Clear Air and Local weather packages, in a press release.

The Monitor was unable to achieve the Maine Division of Environmental Safety by the point this article was revealed Friday morning. A draft of a complete revision of the state’s regional haze plan dated March 1, 2021, which signifies that air high quality is enhancing and is predicted to proceed to enhance over the subsequent many years.

Air air pollution might not all the time be essentially the most seen of environmental hazards in Maine, nevertheless it nonetheless takes a toll on the well being of all of us. The state has the third highest bronchial asthma price within the nation, regardless of our small cities and a whole lot of miles of wilderness. Thirty years of air high quality monitoring have proven that Acadia receives among the highest ranges of air pollution within the northeast, in keeping with park literature, and air pollution stays “one of the vital vital environmental points dealing with the park.”

To learn the complete version of this article, see Local weather Monitor: Maine misses EPA deadline to submit air pollution discount plan.

Kate Cough covers local weather change and the setting for The Maine Monitor. Attain her by e-mail with concepts for different tales at kate@themainemonitor.org.