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County joins local leaders in effort to reduce environmental damage
By: Katrina Segers, staff writer
Johnson County has joined the metro area’s Sustainable Skylines initiative.
Sustainable Skylines allots $225,000 to the Kansas City area from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce air pollution.
“It’s a combination of people from both sides of the state line and then there are five or six projects and the idea is to reduce mostly air pollution, but there are a few things on there that are just pollution in general,” Mike Boothe, Johnson County environmental compliance manager for air quality, said.
The Bush administration ordered the EPA to update air quality rules to keep air safe to breathe and protect health under the Clean Air Act.
“There’s a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Ozone,” Chrissy Wolfersberger, EPA environmental protection specialist, said. “There’s six pollutants under that that are kind of common pollutants and they set national standards for that.”
The Kansas City area violated the air quality standard last summer, Wolfersberger said.
A three-year average is used to calculate whether a city is over the limit or at nonattainment, she said.
“If you get a cool summer like in 2004, then that would make it easier for you to be in compliance because when it gets hotter it kind of cooks the pollutants that form ozone and that’s what makes it form,” Wolfersberger said. “It’s a secondary pollutant. It’s not something that is emitted out of a smokestack. It’s other pollutants that are emitted and form ozone.”
Wolfersberger said the stricter ozone standards can be good or bad depending on the perspective.
“We have to set the standards based on human health in the environment. You’re going to see less respiratory illness, less asthma, things like that,” she said. “If you’re in an industry perspective that means additional limits on your processes. So, that means it’s probably going to cost more money and there’s a lot of industry that would say that the standard is right where it should be.”
The new standard became effective March 7.
Wolfersberger said the violation last summer did not immediately put Kansas City at nonattainment.
“What complicates it is the whole new standard that comes out and then you have to look at what areas are nonattainment,” she said. “The metro area could be designated nonattainment. That happens to a lot of major cities because a lot of the pollutants from driving are the ones that cause ozone.”
One project under Sustainable Skylines is KC Idle Free. Booth said he and individuals from Wyandotte County, Kansas City health departments in Kansas and Missouri, and the EPA make up the group, which will work to reduce the number of idling diesel trucks.
“What we’re going to try and do is approach places like warehouses, people that have fleets and talk to them about getting them to try to reduce idling, just shut them off when they don’t need to have them,” Boothe said. “They can idle every so often, but there is just a lot of idling that is not necessary.”
He said the group will contact warehouses, fleets and trucking companies and offer them signs to post to remind drivers not to idle. He said the group hopes to have some industries on board within a few months.
Boothe said the advantage of Sustainable Skylines is “everybody working together for the same goal all over the metro area.”
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Sustainable Skylines allots $225,000 to the Kansas City area from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce air pollution.
“It’s a combination of people from both sides of the state line and then there are five or six projects and the idea is to reduce mostly air pollution, but there are a few things on there that are just pollution in general,” Mike Boothe, Johnson County environmental compliance manager for air quality, said.
The Bush administration ordered the EPA to update air quality rules to keep air safe to breathe and protect health under the Clean Air Act.
“There’s a National Ambient Air Quality Standard for Ozone,” Chrissy Wolfersberger, EPA environmental protection specialist, said. “There’s six pollutants under that that are kind of common pollutants and they set national standards for that.”
The Kansas City area violated the air quality standard last summer, Wolfersberger said.
A three-year average is used to calculate whether a city is over the limit or at nonattainment, she said.
“If you get a cool summer like in 2004, then that would make it easier for you to be in compliance because when it gets hotter it kind of cooks the pollutants that form ozone and that’s what makes it form,” Wolfersberger said. “It’s a secondary pollutant. It’s not something that is emitted out of a smokestack. It’s other pollutants that are emitted and form ozone.”
Wolfersberger said the stricter ozone standards can be good or bad depending on the perspective.
“We have to set the standards based on human health in the environment. You’re going to see less respiratory illness, less asthma, things like that,” she said. “If you’re in an industry perspective that means additional limits on your processes. So, that means it’s probably going to cost more money and there’s a lot of industry that would say that the standard is right where it should be.”
The new standard became effective March 7.
Wolfersberger said the violation last summer did not immediately put Kansas City at nonattainment.
“What complicates it is the whole new standard that comes out and then you have to look at what areas are nonattainment,” she said. “The metro area could be designated nonattainment. That happens to a lot of major cities because a lot of the pollutants from driving are the ones that cause ozone.”
One project under Sustainable Skylines is KC Idle Free. Booth said he and individuals from Wyandotte County, Kansas City health departments in Kansas and Missouri, and the EPA make up the group, which will work to reduce the number of idling diesel trucks.
“What we’re going to try and do is approach places like warehouses, people that have fleets and talk to them about getting them to try to reduce idling, just shut them off when they don’t need to have them,” Boothe said. “They can idle every so often, but there is just a lot of idling that is not necessary.”
He said the group will contact warehouses, fleets and trucking companies and offer them signs to post to remind drivers not to idle. He said the group hopes to have some industries on board within a few months.
Boothe said the advantage of Sustainable Skylines is “everybody working together for the same goal all over the metro area.”