In today’s Press Gazette there was a front page headline that read “Pollution problem still hovers over Green Bay.” Anyone who lives downtown, like I do, realizes this is true. It is definitely an issue that has to be dealt with.
These headlines are bad for business and bad for Green Bay’s image. I am worried that some of our leaders may want to solve the problem by eliminating the headlines and not by eliminating the pollution. At times, they seem to be more worried about image than about our quality of life.
In a very positive step for Green Bay, Mayor Schmitt recently formed a Sustainable Green Bay Task Force. One of the working subcommittees is going to be dealing with air and water issues. Hopefully, as difficult a challenge as it may be, they will be dealing with this issue. If Green Bay is truly to be a sustainable community that cares about the environment and has people living and working in an exciting downtown, our air quality has to be a major concern.
If you read between the lines of the article, the major source of the problem is still coming from the burning of coal for energy at several factories. Energy use is at the heart of our air problems. We have to start producing clean and renewable energy. Still, there is no excuse for the non-energy toxic load being dumped into our air, and there is definitely no excuse for the problems described at Western Lime Corporation.
The article also mentions that the city struggles to comply with state standards for particulate and ozone production caused by cars and trucks. From what I see as I walk around town, pollution from vehicles is a MAJOR problem.
The city and state should not wait for the federal government to solve our air problems. That would take forever, especially with our current federal government. We can address our air quality with locally produced solutions.
So how DO we solve our air pollution problem? The article seemed to leave this out. I have some ideas.
Conserve energy.
Use clean and renewable energy supplies.
Make sure all local factories are not breaking any current air pollution laws and continue to make examples of the ones who are.
Make our sate and local laws the toughest in the country.
Work with local companies to find and attract the engineers they need to solve their waste problems.
Make every effort to attract sustainable and non-polluting businesses to our downtown.
Continue the effort to revitalize downtown to make it a place where people want to live and work so that they can walk to work and walk for services.
Make Green Bay more walkable and bikeable so that people don’t have to drive every day.
Austin, TX, cleaned up its air by forming a municipal energy utility and focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Seattle slashed its particulate pollution by focusing on reducing pollution from its own fleet of heavy-duty diesel vehicles and creating “urban villages” that cluster offices, stores, and homes in walkable villages. Green Bay could do the same thing.
The news is not all bad. The article did point out that our air is much cleaner than it was twenty years ago. Maybe that should have been the headline. However, we can’t stop focusing on this issue. Our quality of life, health, and economy depend on it.
eddy out,
rich
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Green Bay's best air in 20 years
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Be Our Voice - 9/21 7pm
Are candidates talking about the conservation values that you care about? Would you like to develop better relationships with your elected officials?
With 15,000 lakes, 1000 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, and beautiful national forests, it's no wonder that we, in Wisconsin, feel a deep connection to our natural resources.
Unfortunately, we have seen many of our conservation values rolled back in recent years, as with the passage of the Dirty Air Bill and the threats to the Stewardship Fund.
Why? Because we've lost a critical connection: the one between a voter and his or her representative.
Over the next few months, the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute will be working with citizens across Wisconsin to educate candidates running for office about key conservation issues in Wisconsin. Wisconsin is Our Land, Our Water, and Our Future , so we need to ask all candidates to Be Our Voice and represent our values in the halls of the Capitol .
Come to the Be Our Voice community meeting to find out more information about key issues, like protecting the Great Lakes, keeping manure out of drinking water, and keeping Illinois' trash out of Wisconsin, and find out how you can get involved in these critical months while candidates are campaigning!
Thursday, September 21st at 7pm
Central Library 515 Pine St , Green Bay
Contact: Laura Westwood
920.429.9008 - laura@conservationvoters.org
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Volunteer for Conservation
Join with the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute
to make sure your voice is heard this fall.
Come to an informal information session this Thursday at 5pm at Kavarna Cafe on Broadway.
Kickoff meeting, Wednesday, Sept 20th, 6:30pm, De Pere public library (Kress family library).
All are welcome!
For more information, contact Laura at 920,429.9008 or email laura@conservationvoters.org
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Schaber: "Destroy the PCBs"
Permanently destroy as many PCBs as possible
By Dale Schaber
There are no easy answers to the question of how to deal with toxic or hazardous waste, other than to avoid creating the waste in the first place.
When it comes to dealing with the Fox River sediments, the Sierra Club supports the use of safe treatment technologies that permanently destroy the toxic chemicals in contaminated sediments, especially when sediments are contaminated with persistent, bioaccumulative toxics such as
PCBs. Permanent destruction offers a better alternative than disposal options such as landfilling that do not permanently destroy contaminants.
In particular, we believe that the glass aggregate process called vitrification has significant potential and ought to be seriously considered as a viable treatment option, particularly for the most contaminated Fox River sediments. We believe that its few negatives — minimal air emissions, high consumption of natural gas, somewhat uncertain cost — are far outweighed by its ability to permanently destroy the contaminants.
Vitrification destroys virtually all the polychlorinated biphenyls in contaminated sediments while encapsulating heavy metals in the
finished product, and wet scrubbers can significantly minimize air emissions. Given the available options, we feel that a vitrification process with the use of wet scrubbers offers the safest method of disposing of Fox River sediments.
Vitrification uses a glass furnace to treat contaminated sediments. The furnace is designed to destroy PCBs and all other organic chemicals at 2900 degrees and has air pollution control equipment to trap any vaporized metals. The sediment melts into a smooth, molten lava, is immediately doused in water and becomes a black, glass-like product that traps metals and other non-combustible pollutants. The material can be used to make a variety of useful products including shingles and roads.
Vitrification costs are estimated to be comparable to those of landfilling, and it is less expensive than shipping Fox River sediments to the toxic waste landfill in Michigan. While we are not opposed to the landfilling of Fox River sediments, since the costs are comparable and vitrification offers a permanent solution, we ask that as much Fox River sediment be vitrified as possible.
We recognize that it may not be possible to treat all of the dredged material, particularly materials with relatively low concentrations of PCBs. Any contaminated dredged material that cannot be treated at the time of cleanup should be placed in a segregated cell in a TSCA approved landfill.
As stated in a recent Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial (July 19, 2006) "it's time to get on with the river cleanup." Let's build an on-site vitrification plant near the high level PCB contaminated sediments and get this stuff permanently removed and out of every NIMBY's ("Not In My Back Yard") backyard. This would permanently clean up the PCB contamination in the Fox River and provide for the economic and environmental health of the region.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
free backpack!!
Monday, June 19, 2006
DO SOMETHING: Wal-Mart
Attend a public hearing to voice concerns about the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Green Bay's east side. The meeting will be THIS Tuesday, June 20, at 7:00 PM in room 203 at City Hall, 100 S. Jefferson St.
BACKGROUND
The Clean Water Action Council, Midwest Environmental Advocates, and The Fox Valley Sierra Club have taken a stand AGAINST this proposal. This type of development causes many environmental problems that include: increased run-off and pollution, local flooding, airpollution, lights, noise, traffic congestion, loss of habitat farmland and woodlots, and because WalMart outsources it jobs and production, it contributes to environmental deregulation and degradation in other countries.
Other problems with WalMart include: outsourcing of American jobs, slave labor in other countries, extremely low below poverty level wages that force their workers to use taxpayer funded services such as housing assistance and heath care, and negative tax revenue due to high infrastructure costs. Also, studies have conclusively shown that WalMart destroys locally owned and unique small business that already exist in host towns. If this retail space really is necessary, and that is doubtful, it should be developed locally by locally owned and unique businesses.
For more info go to:
http://www.midwestadvocates.org/advocacy/Sustaining%20Communities/index.htm
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Air Quality Health Advisory Again!
Air Quality Health Advisory issued for Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Brown Counties
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is issuing an air quality health advisory for Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Brown Counties in eastern Wisconsin effective from 1:00 p.m., today Thursday, March 30, 2006 until 12:00 p.m., Friday, March 31, 2006. The advisory is being issued because of persistent elevated levels of fine particles in the air. These fine particles come primarily from combustion sources, such as power plants, factories and other industrial sources, vehicle exhaust, and outdoor fires. Current weather conditions leading to this advisory are the presence of low level clouds and light winds trapping pollutants near the ground. Air quality is expected to gradually improve for the affected area beginning Friday morning.
The Air Quality Index is currently in the orange level, which is considered unhealthy for people in sensitive groups and others, including people who are not in sensitive groups but who are engaged in strenuous activities or exposed for prolonged periods of time. People in those sensitive groups include those with heart or lung disease, asthma, older adults and children. When an air quality health advisory is issued, people in those groups are advised to reschedule or cut back on strenuous activities.
People with lung diseases such as asthma and bronchitis and heart disease should pay attention to cardiac symptoms like chest pain and shortness of breath or respiratory symptoms like coughing, wheezing and discomfort when taking a breath, and consult with their physician if they have concerns or are experiencing symptoms. To receive air quality health advisories by e-mail, visit http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/air/health/listserv.html.
There are several actions the public can take to reduce their contributions to this regional air quality problem.
-Reduce driving when possible and don’t leave vehicle engines idling.
-Postpone activities that use small gasoline and diesel engines.
-Avoid burning leaves, brush, grass or wood. Composting is preferred, but if you must burn and your community allows it, do not burn on an air quality health advisory day.
-Never burn household garbage, plastic, rubber, painted wood or other materials that must be recycled or landfilled and cannot be legally burned.
-Practice electrical energy conservation.
For more information:
-Federal interagency air quality web site, for information on the Air Quality Index and nationwide air quality forecasts and air quality conditions, http://airnow.gov
-DNR’s statewide air quality monitoring web page, http://maps.dnr.state.wi.us/wisards
-For local DNR air management program contacts, http://dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/air/staff/regions.htm
