Madison County air ranked among nation's worst
June 25, 2009 - 10:32 AM By DENNIS GRUBAUGH The Telegraph
EDWARDSVILLE - Madison County officials say local air is not as bad as a national health assessment concludes, but environmental advocates disagree.
County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan went on the defensive Thursday after an EPA study released Wednesday suggested the county ranked among the most at-risk areas in the country for contracting cancer.
Dunstan said the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment study overstates the air pollution levels found in Madison County.
"We do not take the issue of air quality for our residents lightly, and if we discover there are problems, we will work with the EPA to resolve them," Dunstan said. "But we do have several issues with this study."
Dunstan was quick to point out the study was based on information gathered in 2002.
"First, the study was conducted more than seven years ago and does not reflect the current quality of the air in the county," he said. "Since 2002, industrial plants in the county have spent millions of dollars and made substantial changes to reduce the pollutants released into the air.
"Secondly, after speaking with EPA officials in Washington (D.C.) and quickly reviewing the data, the only area in Madison County that had higher concentrations of air pollutants was in a very small portion of the county. The air quality in the remainder of the county - or more than 96 percent of the county - was, and is, more than acceptable."
He said EPA officials acknowledged the study used assumptions, such as the type of industry and its typical emissions. In the case of Madison County, he said, those assumptions were based on emissions from one specific area of the county near the Coke Plant, located adjacent to the Granite City Steelworks.
In 2003, U.S. Steel Corp. purchased the Granite City Steel operations and the Coke Plant and immediately initiated a program to upgrade the facilities and reduce potential harmful emissions, Dunstan said.
"U.S. Steel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring those facilities completely in line with EPA standards in the six years of its ownership," Dunstan said. "While there may have been some emission problems at the Coke Plant in 2002, any problems that existed were corrected by the current ownership. And U.S. Steel, in partnership with SunCoke Energy Inc., is currently constructing a state-of-the-art coke plant that is not only environmentally friendly, far exceeding EPA guidelines, but will utilize a heat recovery system to assist in generating electricity used at the steelworks, reducing the need for energy that is needed by our communities."
Dunstan said the county should have been given the opportunity to review and address assumptions made in the study.
"EPA scientists made assumptions - which we believe are incorrect - released the information and created a great deal of concern among county residents," he said. "County officials look forward to working with the EPA to accurately assess the air quality in Madison County, which I am confident exceeds all EPA standards."
Kathy Andria, of the American Bottom Conservancy, disagrees with the contentions by the board chairman.
"Alan Dunstan is misinformed about the air quality in Madison County. Madison County currently does not meet federal air quality standards for fine particulates, nor does it meet federal air quality standards for ozone," Andria said. "The Illinois EPA indicates that it is the U.S. Steel Granite City Works facility that is largely responsible for the entire St. Louis area being non-attainment for fine particulates and is trying to get the company to put on controls."
She noted the minutes of a May Air Quality Advisory Committee meeting of the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council in which there was lengthy discussion of excessive emissions plaguing all of the Metro East.
"U.S. Steel Granite City Works is currently in significant noncompliance with the Clean Air Act," Andria said. "It has been in significant noncompliance for 12 out of the last 12 quarters. It is categorized as a high-priority violator."
According to the study released Wednesday, millions of people living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the country are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer.
The EPA said it used 2002 data because emissions inventories from that year were the most complete and up-to-date available.
"Working with industries and states, we update our air toxics emissions inventories every three years and are now gathering and compiling 2005 data. The risk estimates assume a lifelong exposure to 2002 levels, because calculating projected exposures would be substantially more complex and uncertain," the EPA said in explaining its study.
The levels of 80 cancer-causing substances released by automobiles, factories and other sources in these areas exceed a 100-in-1 million cancer risk. That means that if 1 million people breathed air with similar concentrations over their lifetime, about 100 additional people would be expected to develop cancer because of their exposure.
The average cancer risk across the country is 36 in 1 million, according to the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment. That's a decline from the 41.5 in 1 million cancer risk the EPA found when it released the last analysis in 2006. That data covered 1999 emissions.
"If we are in between 10 in 1 million and 100 in 1 million, we want to look more deeply at that. If the risk is greater than 100 in 1 million, we don't like that at all ... we want to investigate that risk and do something about it," said Kelly Rimer, an environmental scientist with the EPA, in an interview with The Associated Press.
Parts of Los Angeles and Madison County had the highest cancer risks in the nation - 1,200 in 1 million and 1,100 in 1 million, respectively, according to the EPA data. They were followed by two neighborhoods in Allegheny County, Pa., and one in Tuscaloosa County, Ala.
People living in parts of Coconino County, Ariz., and Lyon County, Nev., had the lowest cancer risk from air toxics. The counties with the least toxic air are Kalawao County, Hawaii, and Golden Valley County, Mont.
The American Cancer Society's Metro East office forwarded a statement from Dr. Michael J. Thun, vice president emeritus of the society's Epidemiology and Surveillance Research Office in Atlanta.
"Air pollution is an important issue that affects the entire population and has adverse health effects that go well beyond cancer," Thun said. "Furthermore, it disproportionately affects certain socioeconomic and geographic subgroups of the population and may contribute to health disparities."
Air toxic risks are local, said Dave Guinnup, who leads the groups that perform the risk assessments for toxic air pollutants at EPA.
"They are a function of the sources nearest to you," he said. "If you are out in the Rocky Mountains, you are going to be closer to two in a million. If you are in an industrial area with a lot of traffic, you are going to be closer to 1,100 in 1 million."
The analysis predicts the concentrations of 124 different hazardous air pollutants that are known to cause cancer, respiratory problems and other health effects by coupling estimates of emissions from a variety of sources with models that attempt to simulate how the pollution will disperse in the air. Only 80 of the chemicals evaluated are known to cause cancer, EPA officials said.
The information is used by federal, state and local agencies to identify areas in need of more monitoring and attention.
On the Net: EPA National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA): http://www.epa.gov/nata2002
dennis_grubaugh@thetelegraph.com