State Senate OKs Change in Limits on Air Pollution
By Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
Mar. 29–Environmentalists’ warnings of worsening air and increased illness didn’t stop the state Senate from passing a bill yesterday that would change pollution limits.
Industry groups and some lawmakers said the bill, which passed 26-7, should help cut the red tape and delays that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency imposes on businesses looking to locate or expand here.
The bill went to the House, where it is expected to pass today.
"This is a solid piece of legislation that will bring new business to Ohio while protecting the environment," said. Sen. Tom Niehaus, a New Richmond Republican.
However, a coalition of environmental groups, health advocates and Ohio’s regional air-pollution-control offices said the changes will create more smog and airborne soot, and worsen lung ailments such as asthma.
"This is not going to help those individuals who are trying to breathe each and every day," said Tracy Ross, interim president of the American Lung Association of Ohio.
The advocates’ concerns involve rules that make businesses buy and install the "best available" pollutioncontrol equipment. Industry leaders argue they have to wait too long for officials to write tailored pollution plans to tell them what to do.
The bill would exempt businesses that emit less than 10 tons a year of pollutants that help create smog and airborne soot. The current limit is 1.8 tons.
It also would give the Ohio EPA three years to identify the best controls for different classes of businesses that emit less than 100-ton or 250-ton annual limits, which trigger a different set of federally reviewed environmental restrictions.
Critics, including the Ohio Environmental Council, said the EPA lacks the manpower to write new equipment rules for all of the different factories and plants within three years.
Businesses that aren’t covered by rules after that deadline would still have to install pollution controls, said John Paul, supervisor of the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency in Dayton. The scrubbers, filters or baghouses they buy might not be the best available, he said.
Paul said his agency and eight others in Ohio can quickly write pollution plans. "This is not something where we are standing in the way of industry," he said.
Industry advocates, including Columbus attorney Dave Northrop, said delays pose problems. He said clearly written statewide standards would end confusion among businesses looking to make a move.
"An investor wants to know what will be required of him or her to build a plant in Ohio," Northrop said. "Right now, they don’t know."
The Ohio EPA opposed the bill but took a neutral stance once lawmakers agreed to several compromises. An industry proposal that would have revoked the state’s power to regulate more than 500 hazardous air pollutants is no longer a part of the plan, EPA Director Joe Koncelik said.
Koncelik said air pollution across Ohio will still drop under federal mandates to reduce smog and soot.
Some Senate Democrats said the bill will make it harder for Ohio to meet those mandates, because it takes several sources of pollution off the table.
"Ohio is backsliding on taking care of the air that we breathe," said Sen. Robert F. Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat.
sphunt@dispatch.com
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