In the News: Society for Amateur Scientists Member Forrest Mims Makes Major Progress on Major Air Pollution Issues

AACOG spells out concerns in letter to EPA

Bryan Kirk

SAN ANTONIO — The crusade of a single man against the federal government manifested Wednesday in a letter that will be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency from the Alamo Area Council of Governments.

Since 1998, Guadalupe County resident Forrest Mims, who sits on the AACOG AIR Technical Committee, has been petitioning the EPA and AACOG, urging them to recognize the transportation of bad air into the AACOG region.

“We know this has been an issue on your mind for a couple of years,” AACOG's Air Improvement Resources Executive Committee Chairman Jay Milikin told Mims.

AACOG's Air Improvements Resources Executive Committee approved a letter to Richard Greene, the regional director for the EPA, addressing the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) published by the EPA in March, and expressing concern about the effects air quality has on public health.

“This letter was drafted by Mr. Mims,” said Renee Green, chairperson for AACOG's AIR Technical Committee. “Some transport issues were discussed, and you all directed us to go ahead and draft the letter to the EPA.”

The letter asks the EPA to consider several issues including transport when violations of the eight-hour ozone standard are violated in the AACOG region, implementing plans to reduce international transport, using satellite data to to gauge the impact of pollutants from foreign countries and plans to reduce transport that originate from agricultural burning outside Texas.

Mims has long said that while San Antonio and the AACOG region produces its share of pollution, the smoke and other pollutants that most affect the ozone readings in the area do not originate in San Antonio, but are transported into the area on air current.

During Wednesday's meeting, Mims provided committee members with a brief presentation that addressed sulfate pollutants that originated on the East Coast affecting the ozone readings in San Antonio.

“The EPA now recognizes that our problem is caused by that pollution,” Mims said

Mims praised the efforts of the EPA through the implementation of CAIR, but expressed his desire to see the EPA take notice and even more importantly, take action regarding transport issues.

“We are no longer in non-attainment after CAIR goes into effect. That is tacit admission by the EPA that our problem is not caused by us, it's caused by transported air pollution from other states,” Mims said.

Published by the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise on 28 April 2005. Copyright by the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.