Memo to Federal and State Highway Agencies: Keep CMAQ Funds On Track to Cut Pollution

Congress included an innovative program in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) that for over 20 years has helped clean up the environment by providing funds for transportation projects designed to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) funds are provided to states based on the population of local areas in “non-compliance” or those “seeking to maintain compliance” with strict national standards for ozone and carbon monoxide set up under the landmark Clean Air Act. In the first 10 years of the program the number of person days of unhealthy air quality declined by 38 percent nationally with California leading the pack for spending funds and accounting for 97 percent of that improvement.
But MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), passed by Congress June 29th, included a number of provisions that put CMAQ funds in immediate jeopardy and could siphon as much as half of the program’s annual $3.3 billion funding away from regions facing public health threats due to air pollution by providing “flexibility” to states on how the money is spent.

Such implementation would eviscerate CMAQ as an important tool for preserving public health, diverting investments in projects that reduce pollution from tailpipes through technologies such as new rail cars and buses as well as diesel vehicle retrofit projects. CMAQ funds have gone towards improved public transit, traffic signalization and other traffic flow improvements, trip reduction and ride-sharing initiatives, and bicycle facilities.

Thankfully, federal and state highway administrations can stay the course towards cleaner air, and guidance from the U.S. Transportation Department can make sure we the public know what is happening with our tax dollars. In this spirit earlier this week the NRDC, along with seven other organizations, sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging him to implement the law to maximize CMAQ’s effectiveness and to direct his staff to ensure states continue to use CMAQ for projects that actually clean the air and improve public health for the sake of our communities and environment. We recommended that:
State highway agencies be required to hold a 30-day comment period before diverting funding from regions with significant air pollution since accountability and transparency is the least taxpayers deserve in exchange for the additional latitude the new law provides; andFHWA issue a special rule allowing substantial flexibility in determining what sources localities and states can use to provide the newly required local match. Under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, CMAQ funds did not need to be matched.
When the EPA established new ground-level ozone standards in 2008 they mapped areas that have met or not met (attainment vs. nonattainment) the standards. The map is splattered with nonattainment areas from coast-to-coast, putting millions of Americans, especially those in major metropolitan areas, at risk from breathing air that contains ozone, a component of smog pollution that can trigger a variety of respiratory-related health problems, and is especially dangerous to people with lung disease, asthmatics, children, older adults and people who are active outdoors.

Ground-level ozone also damages vegetation and ecosystems, leads to reduced agricultural crop and commercial forest yields, reduced growth and survivability of tree seedlings, and increased susceptibility to diseases, pests and other stresses such as harsh weather. The science is also clear that particulate matter or soot, especially fine particles, can cause severe health damage as well which explains a laudable change to CMAQ -- 25 percent of the money must be used to reduce such pollution in states challenged by it.
EPA’s Final Nonattainment Areas for the 2008 Ozone Standards

I urge lawmakers to continue putting every penny of available CMAQ funds into improving our air quality, the original intent of the program. Those of us who breathe air can't afford the environmental or health-related consequences of not doing so.

NASA Helps Air Pollution With a Map From Space

Air pollution has been a problem since the dawn of the industrial era, but until recently scientists did not know with certainty, how dirty was the air in most parts of the world.

The new maps paths using computer models and satellite images are giving, finally, researchers a clearer view of the overall problem of air pollution. These maps illustrate the spread of small particles throughout the world. The problem of these particles is that they are impossible to see in a simple way, but in large quantities, the dust can enter our lungs and reach the bloodstream (causing serious health problems such as asthma and cardiovascular diseases). According to the American Heart Association in the United States they produce about 60,000 deaths a year because of this microscopic dust.

These new maps are not based simply on the satellite images. It should bear in mind that when you look down in the atmosphere, from the perspective of a satellite, comes to be something as well as a look through a glass of dirty water. The only satellite take a picture of what you see at the top. Then, the researchers used computer models to calculate the amount of total matter to be asenta in the air we all breathe.

"Now, with this map and the dataset that represents, epidemiologists can begin to look more closely at how the long term exposure to these particles in little-studied parts of the world - such as the cities of rapid growth of Asia or areas in North Africa with large amounts of dust in the air - impact on human health." NASA writes on its website.

Until now, developing countries had not had the right tools to measure the levels of air pollution. New information can also be useful in some parts of the United States or Western Europe. At present, the quality of the air is measured with a small number of surface monitors. NASA hopes that the maps will be a good first step to help better understand the dynamics of particles in the air and its impact on our health.

Worried About Air Pollution? Don't Hide Indoors

You need to get out more. Whether it's smog or tiny particles of pollution, Americans face the bulk of their health risks from bad air inside. Why? We spend most of our time indoors.

Now researchers have found chemicals from indoor air someplace we might not want it: our blood. The research is in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

A variety of the chemicals used to make everything from carpets to couches resist stains showed up in the serum of 31 Boston office workers. The researchers found the highest levels of these chemicals in the air inside new buildings and, subsequently, in the blood of those who worked there. The office workers even had traces in their blood of one of these compounds withdrawn from use roughly a decade ago.

It could be worse. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year from soot from the indoor fires they use to cook or heat their homes. And the health impacts of these chemicals in humans remain unclear—though in animals they affect the liver, the immune system and reproduction.

So crack the window from time to time. Open the door. Get some fresh air.

Control of pollution

These tasks not only must be carried out at the time in that wing activity is underway, but that should be taken before, during and after each venture, although of course is, practice makes us see that it does not always happen as it has been planned.

While often used as a synonym, pollution control is not the same as environmental management, but that is part of proper planning of it, comprising a series of basic controls that must be repeated for a time unknown, until eventually the problem (in case of be a temporary problem) or shaped permanentIf it is assigned to the control of a given space.

Basically, it consists in the control of emissions and effluents that are emitted during a specific activity, releasing these substances to different media, and thus responsible for the following areas:

The implementation of pollution controls on a regular basis is of great importance in the industrial and economic activities in general, as they tend to be invasive for the use of raw materials from nature, requiring a hierarchy of controls, most important being the following:

Pollution prevention: taking into account all the preventive measures to take to prevent the emission of these toxic to the environment. Waste minimization: accompanied by a reduction in emissions, assign new life cycles to waste through a correct treatment also helps to reduce the environmental impact of the economic activity undertaken.

These measures depend exclusively on Clean agent to treat, as we have seen many times, every toxic has no specific treatment, appropriate to their physico-chemical conditions storage and then depending on this the measures to take.

The important thing about the Control measures is in education and personal initiative that each must take, to face the consequences of each action and noticing that each residue discarded improperly can generate irreparable damage within a variable time.

Pollution and Andalusia

Begins a new year, and he initiated a large number of measures that will have the difficult task of reducing the various forms of pollution, something which is basically generate different customs, forming an awareness social, accompanied by some regulations to accompany the project.

There are different types of pollution that has been the eye in the early days of the year, projecting for the current year, and looking for reductions in the various indexes.

Much of this has seen in recent days on the Board of Andalusia, who has among its various agencies to Andalusian emissions compensation scheme (SACE) who recently has formed an alliance with Grenadine Confederation of entrepreneurs (CGE) to active participation against the climate change, where industries have a great responsibility.

Although at this early stage joining this project will be on a voluntary basis, is expected there are different rules to give a binding, in the coming years demonstrating a clear interest for environmental care. Those who adhere to this, must perform three fundamental tasks: audit the quantity of gaseous pollutants emitted; Take measures to reduce this amount; Offset emissions generated periodically.

In addition, future, seeks to also take not only accession in the industrial sector, but also in different branches of the trade, from tourism to transportation.

This theme, there is even a chapter on The Simpsons where seeks to raise awareness about what is, but however, there are very few measures that seek to alleviate this situation, so what has made the Junta de Andalucía in recent days has been remarkable.

First, they announced various campaigns of awareness which aim not only to the replacement of conventional light bulbs by the use of lamps low consumption, which will be endorsed by the regulation for the protection of the quality of the sky to light pollution, voted in the last month of August and came into full force on the first day of this year.

Of the Counseling of the Board, has announced they will seek to reduce the energy consumption of different luminaires and public facilities in up to 11%, with a lighting analysis for this purpose.

Other forms of pollution will be combated in Andalusia, which first will be an analysis of the various populations in the Bay of Algeciras, carried out by the Doñana biological station and under the technical supervision of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) who will be making a dolphin census, inquiring about their distribution in a given space, and various hazards to which they are being subjected.

This will be supplemented Moreover the measure taken against emissions, encouraging a commitment by industries (treated sewage waters) and also by the port activity, often with little or no control of the waste they generate.

Pollution water Spain

Following the posts related to pollution in Spain, I decided to comment on the contamination of water in Spain. I take also to remind, that in previous posts we've talked about light in Spain pollution, noise pollution in Spain and air pollution in Spain.

Water pollution or water, is mainly in the action or the effect of introducing some material or induce conditions on water involving, directly or indirectly, as a harmful alteration of its quality in relation to their subsequent uses or their environmental services.The sea is often receive a large amount of waste a year. But in recent years, is has been noticing as they were filled our waters from pollutants, resulting products all of our consumer society. A society ever more sick burn spotlight is where littering. Sites like the sea, that sooner or later we will make pay the consequences. Spain pollution is concentrated mainly on the coast. Being surrounded by water and thanks to tourism, our country is able to withstand tons of rubbish in their costs.Fisiosanitaria pollution is very important that affects seriously our countries very important to know that this type of pollution is also much in the agricultural sector mainly due to the used pesticides which are entered in the land and seep into the water.

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