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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
www.cleveland.com
County passes emissions test for first time
Tuesday,
December 05, 2000
For
the first time in decades, soot from Cuyahoga County factories and other
polluters has reached a federally acceptable level.
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began monitoring for outdoor airborne
particles, like soot, dust and ash, in 1972. Until now, the county never has
met those standards. The improvement in air quality, announced yesterday, was
based on three years of data from eight monitoring stations in Cleveland and
Brook Park.
The
county has seen a significant decrease in emissions from Greater Cleveland’s
large industrial base through the years, said Mark Vilem, the environment
commissioner for the Cleveland Department of Public Health.
"The
air’s cleaner, so there’s a lower chance of health effects from air
pollution," he said.
The
news is good, but tenuous, said EPA environmental scientist John Summerhays.
Counties
are allowed to exceed standards one day per year. Summerhays said Cuyahoga
County exceeded the standards twice in three years.
The
EPA also has proposed stricter standards, which Summerhays is not sure
Cleveland could pass.
The
monitoring stations - boxes of filters usually perched on a roof or in a
parking lot- are near industrial areas. But the filters also pick up smaller
degrees of pollution from cars and other sources.
Cuyahoga
and Jefferson County, which borders West Virginia, were the final counties in
Ohio to meet the EPA standards.
©2000 THE PLAIN DEALER. Used with permission.
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