WBEZ | Environmental Protection Agency

EPA rolls back methane emissions from natural gas

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:25:00 -0500

In a revision to its sweeping inventory of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency scaled back its estimate for natural gas, stoking supporters’ claims that the fossil fuel could be a viable carbon reduction strategy in the short-term.

But those pushing for a ban of the controversial technique of high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, say the data are still unclear and that EPA’s revision doesn’t change the big picture.

The Illinois legislature is at a crossroads on fracking as members prepare to vote on bills that would either regulate the process or ban it entirely for at least two years.

Natural gas is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to EPA standards. Mining and distributing the gas involves some leakage, but the amount that escapes is a point of contention. Supporters contend if methane leakage is contained, the fossil fuel burns about twice as clean as coal. Some say it could serve as a bridge to an electricity grid dominated by renewable energy.

Using new data largely reported by oil and gas industry groups, EPA’s report lowered its estimate of methane emissions from natural gas between 1990 and 2010 by about 20 percent.

Previous studies, however, have calculated figures that appear to torpedo its viability as a comparatively low-carbon fuel. The EPA’s latest inventory comes ahead of work from NOAA scientists and the University of Texas at Austin studying natural gas emissions on a national scale. Their results are expected within a year.

Most of the data currently used to estimate methane leakage don’t come from field tests done at real wells, which has led some to question their worth. Hugh MacMillan, a senior researcher with Food and Water Watch, says EPA raised its estimate of 2010 emissions from fracking itself at the same time that it drastically lowered emissions from another part of the process.

"EPA is making large changes in how it’s arriving at these estimates, and that means there remain large uncertainties," MacMillan said.

Food and Water Watch, like many environmental groups, supports an outright ban on fracking.

A 2011 study by the Center for Atmospheric Research found methane leakage would have to be below 2 percent to beat coal when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Using EPA’s 2013 and 2012 data to calculate methane leakage, a new report from the World Resources Institute found the recently revised numbers produced a leakage rate roughly one third lower than the agency’s previous estimate — a figure below that 2 percent threshold.

Even if the lower methane figures prove true, MacMillan is against fracking.

"'Better than coal' is not an acceptable measure," he said. "We need to do more to fight climate change."

System failures can have effects beyond accelerating global warming. Cement well casings cracked in Dimock, Penn., where methane contaminated some nearby wells, according to the state government.

And while aquifers are separated from gas wells by thousands of feet of rock, environmentalists worry small fissures in the cement could over time cause failures and foul drinking water. During fracking, large volumes of water flow back to the surface along with the freed oil or gas, and they are laced with naturally radioactive minerals and proprietary chemicals.

Industry experts counter that wasted gas is wasted product, and that new technology will continue to tamp down leakage.

In March, Illinois legislators moved toward a vote on a regulatory bill called the Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation Act. It would set up regulations and permitting for fracking.

Negotiations over the regulatory bill hit a snag when oil and gas companies objected to natural resource extraction fees and a surprise amendment that would create a licensing board. It would require energy companies to hire a state-licensed water well driller in order to be licensed for high-volume fracking in Illinois.

Lawmakers could also back moratorium bills in the state house and senate, which call for a two-year ban on fracking so scientists and regulators have more time to study and prepare for the industry explosion that’s likely to take place.

Fracking and horizontal drilling in general are old technologies, but recent advances have allowed them to be used together and on large scales. There are already about 500,000 acres leased mainly in Wayne, Hamilton and Saline counties in southeastern Illinois. The right conditions could go as far north as Jasper and Effingham counties. Fracking grew in the U.S. by at least 48 percent per year in the last five years, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Chris Bentley writes about the environment. Follow him on Twitter at @Cementley.

Six months after Fisk and Crawford, Chicago area coal still struggling

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:00:00 -0500

The last barge carrying coal to Pilsen’s Fisk Power Plant lumbered up the Chicago canal in late August, dumping a final 1,500 tons of coal to burn in a community whose members were more than happy to see their industrial neighbor go.

Before they shut down, the Fisk and Crawford coal plants were among the state’s largest emitters of toxic chemicals. In 2010, the latest year of data available in the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, the power plants were among the leading sources of barium compounds, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, mercury compounds and sulfuric acid. A 2002 Harvard School of Public Health study linked the plants to 41 premature deaths and 2,800 asthma attacks annually.

It has been a little more than six months since the plants closed, and recent tests by the EPA showed particulate matter concentrations and radiation levels typical for Chicago in the area around Fisk. The readings came from four stationary sensors and a mobile unit mounted to a baby carriage to make sure no odd winds swept pollution between the reach of the monitors.

“Overall it’s not unreasonable to expect some air quality improvement since the plants closed,” said the state EPA’s Andrew Mason.

There is considerable lag time in analyzing air quality data, and on a regional basis it is difficult to single out individual sources, Mason said, so a definitive breakdown of just what impact the plant closures had on Chicago’s air quality doesn’t exist.

But anecdotal evidence abounds. Sulfur oxides can smell like rotting eggs — an aroma residents are happy to report no longer lingers over their neighborhood. Those compounds, along with nitrogen oxides, also contribute to smog and haze.

The recent tests seemed to confirm the shuttered coal plants were no longer an air quality concern for neighborhood, but coal is not the only source of particulate matter pollution.

A new study in the European Respiratory Journal found 14 percent of chronic asthma in kids is caused by car exhaust — in the same range as the 4 to 18 percent bracket of childhood asthma cases resulting from exposure to second-hand smoke, per World Health Organization estimates. It was the first time they estimated the percentage of cases that might not have occurred if Europeans had not been exposed to road traffic pollution.

Around the region, coal plants are struggling to compete with low natural gas prices and tightening EPA restrictions. Dominion Energy, which recently sold off some Chicago area holdings, just settled to the tune of more than $13 million to resolve Clean Air Act violations. The settlement required Dominion to spend $9.75 million of that on environmental projects, including land acquisition and restoration near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

But two coal plants in Will County are not among the more than 100 coal plants shuttered nationwide in recent years. A Romeoville plant emitted more than six million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2012, according to the EPA’s greenhouse gas inventory, making it the biggest carbon polluter in the Chicago area. Midwest Generation, which owns three operational coal-fired power plants in the area, last week won a two-year reprieve from new sulfur dioxide emissions standards in light of its December bankruptcy filing.

While coal’s share of the U.S. electricity mix has fallen markedly in recent years, it remains a major source of electricity. Coal-fired power plants collectively produce more pollution than any other source in the country.

Chicago's recent decision to aggregate electricity purchases gave coal the boot from the city's fuel mix, in a nod not only to the decades of environmental concerns that sped the closures of Fisk and Crawford, but to the flagging economic profile of the fuel source whose command of the country's electricity portfolio is beginning to wane.

Sequester would cut funding for environment and energy

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:00:00 -0600

A White House report detailing the impacts of cuts scheduled to take effect March 1 if Congress does not avert the sequester (part of the "fiscal cliff") named environmental funding among the hardest hit in Illinois:

“Illinois would lose about $6.4 million in environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality, as well as prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Illinois could lose another $974,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.”

Illinois EPA declined to comment on the looming budget reductions.

Congress appears unlikely to strike deal that would avoid the mandatory spending cuts totaling $85 billion, to say nothing of the second, albeit much smaller, cuts scheduled for March 27. The cuts are meant to help close a $4 trillion budget deficit.

While the belt-tightening measures on track to begin Friday amount in aggregate to roughly 2.5 percent of all federal spending, a report released Tuesday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out that the sequester will slash more than twice that proportion (5.1 percent) from discretionary non-military programs. (Defense programs actually have it worse, looking at about 7.7 percent cutbacks.)

Nationwide environmental programs will take a big hit. The National Science Foundation will issue almost 1,000 fewer research grants, and several thousand research personnel could lose their jobs as a result of cuts to The National Institutes of Health. Many national parks will face partial or full closures.

The sequester would slow down oil and gas permitting, due to cutbacks at the Department of the Interior and other agencies with a hand in that process. Permitting for solar and wind power plants on federal lands could also slow down.

The cuts would affect energy efficiency, too, perhaps counting 1,200 home weatherization professionals among those laid off as a result of the sequester.

Toxic releases by Illinois industries rise in 2010

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:56:00 -0600

Toxic emissions from Illinois industry increased more than 10 percent in 2010 over the year before, but pollution has still been trending downward over the last decade.

Illinois companies emitted more than 100 million pounds of poisonous gasses, heavy metals and other chemicals. That’s a jump over the prior year, but still much less than any of the seven years before.

And many of those toxins were disposed of properly – the amount that actually escaped into the air remained near a nine-year low.

Still, Environment Illinois’s Bruce Ratain says the state should be doing better.

“It’s easy to say, oh we’ve done so much in Illinois to promote clean energy, to clean up dirty coal plants,” said Ratain, a clean energy associate with Environment Illinois. “It’s less a question of, is it marginally higher than it was last year, and more, wait a minute, it’s pretty surprising that it’s still as high as it is.”

The United States Environmental Protection Agency released the new data yesterday as part of its Toxic Release Inventory. A spokesman for the Illinois EPA cautions that the numbers have some limitations, as the totals are based on self-reporting. They might also be affected by the recession.

Feds okay Chicago River cleanup

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:28:00 -0600

After months of back and forth, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has approved Illinois' new water quality standards for several Chicago area waterways. For more than a year, the EPA has encouraged Illinois to make the Chicago and Calumet Rivers clean enough to swim in.

Former Mayor Richard Daley responded to federal regulators by telling them to "go swim in the Potomac."

Chicago is one of the few big cities in the country that doesn't disinfect sewage before discharging it. But this past May, the EPA's encouragement became a demand. After overcoming political opposition from local water officials, the Illinois government was forced to change its quality standards. Local water officials will now have to disinfect water discharged into the river system.

The approved standards will apply to the North and South Branches of the Chicago River, the North Shore Channel, the Cal-Sag Channel and the Little Calumet River.

An EPA official says the new standards will transform the Chicago River from a sewage canal to a recreational and economic asset.

Chicago Park District gets over $1 million for lake clean-up

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:09:00 -0500

The Chicago Park District has received over $1 million in federal grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help clean up Lake Michigan. The grants are part of the EPA's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that awards funds to agencies or groups around the region to help restore and protect the Great Lakes.

The EPA awarded nine grants to groups in Illinois Monday, totalling over $2.6 million dollars. Susan Hedman, program manager for the Great Lakes National Program, said in Chicago, the $1.1 million dollars will be used to help keep the beaches open.

"Often, beaches in the city are closed because of contamination, and last year EPA funded some projects to help notify people when beaches were closed and to make determinations about when they should be closed. This year we're funding projects that will help to clean up those beaches and prevent beach closures," Hedman said.

Park District spokeswoman Zvez Kubat said the money will fund many projects ranging from cleaning equiptment to dogs that chase geese off the beaches to reach this end.

"We were very excited right off the bat, the grant will help us be aggressive beach managers and continue to communicate to public, letting them know if the water is safe and clean," Kubat said.

The EPA awarded 70 grants totalling nearly $30 million dollars to groups across the Great Lakes Region to aid in cleanup and restoration efforts. Illinois recieved nine of those grants, bringing more than $2.6 million dollars to agencies across the state.

The Great Lakes Restoration initiative grants are a part of a five-year plan developed by the Obama administration.

EPA hears testimony on coal power pollution

Wed, 25 May 2011 22:12:00 -0500

Coal power plants in Illinois might have to reduce emissions to meet new federal standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Midwesterners who testified at a public hearing in Chicago Tuesday afternoon were overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed EPA plan. Chicago area resident Margaret Nelson voiced her approval through singing a song.

"What in ignorance we have damaged, we will work now to repair," she sang. "To the coming generations, leave an earth that's green and fair."

The proposed rule would require reduced emissions of heavy metals including mercury, arsenic and acidic gases, among others.

Studies by the Harvard School of Public Health have linked pollution from Chicago's Fisk and Crawford coal plants to 40 deaths and 2,800 asthma attacks annually. The plants are located on Chicago's Southwest Side and still use generating units built between 1958-1961.

More EPA hearings are taking place this week in Philadelphia and Atlanta.