ALERT! Do you think you breathe clean air? Think again. Check out the American Lung Association's State of the Air and enter in your county. http://www.stateoftheair.org/ The results might surprise you! Read below to find out more about how GreenLaw works to improve these results!
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What GreenLaw Does to prevent air pollution
According to the World Health Organization, approximately two million people die prematurely every year of illnesses related to air pollution – one of the 10 main causes of death on the planet. In Georgia, more than half of our state population lives in areas where it is unsafe to breathe because of high levels of smog and other harmful pollutants, and twenty-seven Georgia counties currently fail federal standards for fine particulates. In fact, the metropolitan Atlanta area has never met the federally mandated air quality standards enacted over thirty years ago and, in 2010 both Atlanta and Augusta, were listed among the top ten Asthma Capitals in the US, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. The American Lung Association ranks Atlanta 19th in its ranking of the 25 Most Ozone-Polluted Cities.
Georgia has two of the top three dirtiest fossil-fuel electric plants in the U.S. Georgia’s booming population creates increasing demand for electricity and coal-fired plants are being proposed across the country, including here in Georgia. The state continues to be lax in requiring existing and new power plants to comply with standards under the Clean Air Act. Adding insult to injury, the state has put little effort into encouraging the development of renewable sources of energy. As a result, almost all of our state electricity comes from dirty coal plants and dangerous nuclear reactors with few prospects for meaningful change.
In response to these serious concerns, GreenLaw launched The Georgia Clean Air Project in November 2000. The project aims to clean up the dirtiest coal-fired power plants, prevent construction of new coal-fired power plants and encourage the development of renewable energy in Georgia. By forcing industrial polluters to pay for the environmental costs of energy production, we can create a cost-competitive market for renewable energy.
Since its inception, the Georgia Clean Air Project has:
- Led efforts to stop the construction of three coal-fired power plants proposed for Early County, Washington County and Ben Hill County. Combined, these plants would emit over 23 million tons of carbon dioxide each year in addition to the thousands of tons of other pollutants known to cause respiratory illnesses, heart attacks, birth defects and premature death. Visit our home page for the status of GreenLaw's efforts on each of the three proposed coal plants.
- Helped found the Georgians for Smart Energy coalition comprised of local, state and national organizations committed to ensuring that Georgia has a sustainable energy future.
- Launched a landmark case to reduce emissions from two of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation – located here in Georgia.
- Prevented a major industrial facility, located in the metro-Atlanta nonattainment area, from increasing emissions of sulfur dioxide without any public input and in violation of other requirements that do not allow for increases of emissions in areas that are not meeting health-based air quality standards.
- Investigated citizen reports of dichlorobenzene emissions in close proximity to a playground. Dichlorobenzene is a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) and known carcinogen. GreenLaw was able to have expert review of monitoring data to ensure that the community was not at risk.
- Represented a local community concerned about a fiberglass plant that sought to expand its emissions in a predominantly African-American community. The plant sought to expand its emissions without using technologies that are required at similar plants in other states.
- Established new precedent to reduce the amount of emissions from power plants that has already resulted in the reduction of more than 1,200 tons of smog-causing pollutants.
- Established legal precedent that will prevent utilities across the country from building new plants until their existing plants fully comply with existing CAA health-based standards
- Prevented the operation of old dirty diesel fired combustion turbines during the summer when air quality is most hazardous.
Why What We Do Matters
Currently, 154,348, or approximately 6% of Georgia's children have asthma, according to the State of the Air report by American Lung Association. The health of Georgia’s citizens is also threatened by the layer of smog that reduces visibility and creates an unpleasant haze. Ozone "continues to be the most pervasive air pollutant." Ground level ozone, also known as smog, poses serious risk to human health. It can cause acute respiratory ailments, aggravate or cause asthma, decrease lung capacity by 15 to 20 percent, weaken the immune system and cause birth defects. The inhalation of fine particles in smog has been linked to increased incidence of heartbeat irregularities and premature death. When smog is at its highest levels in the summer months, children playing outside breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than adults.
The American Lung Association State of the Air Report is issued each year and ranks cities and counties in terms of air quality health. Georgia cities and counties do not fare well. For example, Georgia is home to two cities which are on the list of the country's most polluted cities (metro-Atlanta and Augusta) and many of Georgia's counties -- even in smaller cities such as Columbus and rural areas such as Chattooga -- do not receive even passing grades for air quality. Check out the full report here: http://www.stateoftheair.org/.
Georgians have a special responsibility to reduce emissions that cause global warming. Georgia's CO2 emissions are greater than the emissions of most countries. If Georgia were a nation, it would rank 21st in the world for CO2 emissions (2007). Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee combined would rank 7th in the world in terms of CO2 emissions.
Georgia is a lead importer of Mountaintop Removal Coal. Georgia leads the nation in Mountaintop Removal coal consumption, as one of the top two importers of this coal.
Georgia is the most coal dependent state in the country. The Union of Concerned Scientists published a report in May 2010 entitled, Burning Coal, Burning Cash: Ranking the States that Import the Most Coal. In the report they ranked states dependence on coal in six categories. They found that Georgia ranks in the top ten in all six categories and is the only state to do so. At $2.6 billion, Georgia spent the most on total net imports of coal, importing 39.4 million tons of coal in 2008.
Georgia is threatened by massive coal ash ponds. Georgia is among the top five states storing the most coal ash in liquid waste ponds. There are 28 coal ash ponds in Georgia at currently-operating coal plants with a total area of 2401 acres or 3.75 square miles. Currently, 50,094,280 cubic yards of coal ash are being stored in Georgia ponds. This is about 10.1 billion gallons. This equates to a spill capacity ten times greater than the TVA Kingston Plant spill in 2008, which originated from a 40-acre pond, reported to only have a capacity of 2.6 million cubic yards, but actually spilled 5.4 million cubic yards or 1.1 billion gallons. Georgia currently has 13 ponds that are larger than the Kingston pond.
GreenLaw uses the tools provided by Congress when it enacted the federal Clean Air Act, which was passed to protect public health and the environment to protect Georgia's citizens from these threats. GreenLaw gives Georgia’s air and those who breath it their day in court by requiring polluters to obey the law.
