Air and water problems mainly make headlines these days when extraordinary pulses of pollution surge in places like Beijing and Shanghai. But there are still enormous, if largely hidden, health and environmental costs in many parts of the United States that have failed to meet the goals set decades ago under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act (e.g., see Muller, Mendelsohn, Nordhaus, 2011). Sometimes the issue is visible. I visited Houston briefly this week and snapped the photo above on the airport approach. Not pretty.
Read on for excerpts from two relevant articles. The first, from the Allegheny Front, explores how lessons learned in trying to cut pollution from natural gas facilities in Houston can be applied in Pennsylvania's fracking zone. The second, by my Pace University colleague and longtime water analyst John Cronin, digs in on the gap between Environmental Protection Agency statements on water pollution and the results in America's waterways.
Here's "Houston Air Pollution: Preview for Pennsylvania?" It's the second article in a planned four-part series, "The Coming Chemical Boom," that was in part paid for by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
HOUSTON – The largest chemical hub in the Americas courses through this city in a seemingly unending line of plants that produce about a quarter of the country's petrochemicals.
These plants have helped fuel the city's economic rise. But they also have added to its poor air quality, with emissions that have been linked to asthma, cancer, and heart attacks.
In recent years, Houston has found ways to reduce air pollution, in part by zeroing in on chemical plant emissions. Experts say Houston's experience may show others how to keep chemical emissions down, even as the industry expands along the Gulf Coast, and possibly into Pennsylvania. [Read the rest here.]
[There's a valuable update below related to Pennsylvania's air pollution issues.]
Here's a short excerpt from "Has E.P.A. Given U.p on Clean Water?" — John Cronin's Earth Desk critique of the federal government's water plan:
Most revealing about the national water strategy announced by recently appointed E.P.A. Administrator Gina McCarthy is its contrast with her "reputation as a straight shooter," the defining quality President Obama praised at her nomination.
E.P.A.'s Themes – Meeting the Challenge Ahead, published on the agency website, offers small hope she will reverse the failed water policies of previous administrations or cure the pervasive contamination that has threatened the nation's human and ecological health for decades….
Administrator McCarthy's plan is timid, its voice feeble. Soft vocabulary such as, "focus," "paradigm," "coordinate," "reduce uncertainty" and "locally driven" are red flags that a meaningful national plan for clean water is not likely during the remaining years of Barack Obama's presidency.
For example, where are the policy proposals for:
- A major research and development program to innovate treatment and monitoring technologies and management practices.
- Economic incentives to induce polluters to perform beyond the minimum requirements of the law.
- The addition of public health objectives to the Clean Water Act.
- Priority emphasis on polluted waterways in economically disadvantaged communities.
- New target dates for achieving fishable, swimmable waters, and eliminating the discharge of pollutants.
- Massive public funding for upgrading, not just repairing, the nation's water and wastewater treatment and delivery infrastructure.
- Development of real-time monitoring technologies that protect water consumers and recreational users in real-time.
- Increased enforcement
- Aggressive oversight of states where discharge permit standards are no longer being improved.
- Mandatory monitoring for emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, hormones and synthetic musks.
- A national crackdown on "outlier" polluters such as CAFOs [concentrated animal feeding operations], fish-killing power plants, and industries that discharge toxins through public wastewater treatment facilities.
- A National Clean Water Commission of blue-ribbon experts in law, engineering, sciences, health, technology, finance and economics to recommend new national goals to replace the tired and expired goals of current federal water laws, and a policy and business plan to implement them.
Admittedly, President Obama and Administrator McCarthy should not bear the full burden of blame when much of what needs fixing requires amendment of four-decade old laws that were not written with the 21st century in mind. Where are the House and Senate when the major objectives of our two most important environmental statutes fail year after year? If they are aimlessly embattled and hopelessly paralyzed, where then is the voice of the straight shooter the president promised?
Administrator McCarthy, it is not too late for you to lead the conversation. The nation's water laws are badly in need of overhaul. Say so. [Read the rest here.]
Postscript, 12:55 p.m. | When I asked on Twitter whether Pennsylvania can learn from Houston's issues and responses, John Quigley, the former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, responded with two valuable links:
@Revkin Not unless PA's approach to regulation changes: http://t.co/tBvYTQPmZJ and http://t.co/oeNJ2lgQRn
— John Quigley (@JohnHQuigley) 25 Oct 13
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