Tag Archives: Air Quality

President Touts His Alternative Fuels Plan

From The New York Times, Wednesday, Februrary 3, 2010:

President Obama moved on Wednesday to bolster the nation’s production of corn-based ethanol and other alternative liquid fuels and ordered the rapid development of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal.

The president is trying to expand the portfolio of American energy sources to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, a factor in global warming, and spur advances in alternative technologies. Last week he expressed support in his State of the Union address for increased generation of nuclear power and offshore drilling for oil and gas.

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Chimney fire threat grows with wet wood

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Thursday, February 4, 2010:

Check your chimney or have someone else do it.

Charlie Whitaker, who has cleaned chimneys for 25 years, sent me three photos of chimneys he cleaned this week.

During his career in Fairbanks, Whitaker has peered into 10,000 chimneys, but never has he seen a bigger problem with creosote. 

He believes this is largely a function of people burning wet wood and failing to check their chimneys. 

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Phone survey seeks home heating information

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, January 26, 2010:

A telephone survey aims to find out how residents of the Fairbanks North Star Borough go about heating their homes.

Borough officials want to use the information to help develop a pollution control plan for PM 2.5, tiny particulates known to embed in the lungs and cause health problems. Wood smoke is believed to be the biggest contributor to the PM 2.5 problem.

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More sunlight equals cleaner Fairbanks air

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, January 19, 2010:

Increasing sunlight has helped improve particulate pollution in Fairbanks, according to borough air quality specialist Jim Conner.

The average particulate pollution level in Fairbanks on Monday was 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air, making the air unhealthy for sensitive groups, Conner said.

Earlier this month, daily averages were reaching nearly 100 micrograms of pollution, which made the air unhealthy for everyone.

What changed?

Conner said weather fronts have been more active and there’s more sunlight. Both help diffuse temperature inversions, when a mass of warm air sits on top of cold air, trapping fine particulate pollution known as PM 2.5, which can embed in the lungs and make people sick.

“When the sun comes up, usually the concentrations (of PM 2.5) drop dramatically,” Conner said. “When the sun goes down, the numbers will go up.”

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Trio of communities might offer insight into Fairbanks’ air pollution problem

From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Sunday, January 17, 2010:

The tiny town of Pinehurst, Idaho, sits in a valley and needed to do something about the pollution being caused by smoke from wood stoves.

So the federal government helped Pinehurst residents buy cleaner-burning wood stoves. The state government asked people to hold back voluntarily on wood burning when the air was dirty. The state also started promoting clean wood-burning practices.

The effort started about two years ago.

The result? The city reduced its air pollution enough to come into compliance with federal standards for the allowable level of microscopic particles known as PM 2.5.

Fairbanks continues to look for a solution to its air quality problem, caused in large part by the burning of wood to heat homes.

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Wood-burning blamed for poor air in Fairbanks

From The Associated Press, Wednesday, January 13, 2010:

On winter days when the air is still and Fairbanks area residents fire up their wood stoves and outdoor boilers, Alaska’s second largest city becomes entombed in a shroud of pollution.

The problem is due in part to wood stoves and outdoor boilers that belch out small particles, forcing residents to breathe some of the unhealthiest air in the nation. The borough’s air problem can become acute during a temperature inversion, when cold air near the ground is trapped by warmer air on top.

“It traps everything near the ground,” said Glenn Miller, transportation director for the Fairbanks North Star Borough who oversees air quality.

The state’s lack of affordable heat has forced residents to pay $5,000 to $10,000 to heat their homes, so many turned to the old standby – wood heat.

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Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly to debate air quality agreement

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, January 12, 2010:

An air quality agreement between the state and borough goes before the Borough Assembly for approval on Thursday.

The agreement provides little detail on how the borough will reduce air pollution but paves the way for an air quality plan led by the municipality instead of the state.

The federal government has put the Fairbanks North Star Borough on notice that levels of a pollutant known as PM 2.5 must be brought down by 2014. Studies show too much exposure to the pollutant can make people sick.

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E.P.A. Seeks Stricter Rules to Curb Smog

From The New York Times, Thursday, January 7, 2010:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed a stricter standard for smog-causing pollutants that would bring substantial health benefits to millions of Americans while imposing large costs on industry and local governments.

The standard would replace one set by the Bush administration in March 2008, which has been challenged in court by state officials and environmental advocates as too weak to adequately protect human health and the environment.

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Fairbanks' vehicle pollution control program ends

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Sunday, January 3, 2010:

An unpopular government program aimed at diminishing toxic vehicle emissions ended on Dec. 31, 2009, after 25 years.

No longer must vehicles in the Fairbanks North Star Borough undergo inspections and emissions tests at a biennial cost to the owner of up to $125. And that was for clean-running vehicles. Motorists whose vehicles failed the tests often had to pay for repairs.

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