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A friend from Los
Angeles came up for lunch recently and, looking out at the
Channel Islands 20 or so miles away, sighed. "Neat view,
but doesn’t it worry you to breathe air you can’t see?"
As news items go,
whether it involves the demonization of coal- and waste-burning
power plants, the use of diesel fuels in diesel engines, or
the specter of monumental dust clouds blotting out "once
pristine skies," the stuff we breathe and that holds
the rest of the universe from falling in on us makes for great
press.
So what does that
have to do with us? A lot, really. While the Southern California
Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) takes the bull by
the tail in its desire to ban the use of diesel fuel, it continues
to skirt the fact that combustion emissions of all sorts do
not add up to the major source of air pollution. Fugitive
dust is the biggest culprit. Where does this fugitive dust
come from? SCAQMD tends to be a little shy in pinning it down
other than blaming it on unpaved roads in the basin. Really?
Where?
The Los Angeles
Times on February 2 wasn’t shy when it declared what’s
causing rapidly growing Las Vegas, NV’s air-quality problems:
"The biggest mess is caused by wind-blown dust. It’s
a major component of so-called particulate pollution, which
has been linked in several studies to respiratory diseases,
including lung cancer, bronchitis and premature death."
Citing USEPA concern over explosive growth, the article went
on to finger construction for its contribution to the problem.
I mentioned the
problem to my contractor friend Jorge soon after the LA
Times article appeared. "What do they expect?"
was his hip-shot response. "You’ve got thousands of machines
churning up dirt at the same time in a dry, windy, thirsty
valley. Who needs a bunch of regulators and reporters telling
us there’s a problem?" He’s got a point, you know.
Out there in Las
Vegas and many other places, dirt has sat there for a million
or so years, getting whittled into stability by the elements
with only a few hardy, burrowing creatures to threaten the
hardpan. Then along come the civilized hordes brandishing
digging sticks, picks, shovels, plows, diskers, harrows, rippers,
breakers, punches, drills, blades, wheels, tracks, and skateboards.
These, of course, are followed in due course by new hordes
armed with rules, regulations, environmental impact reports,
and agendas, who will accept nothing less than a return to
the Garden of Eden. And when the two forces finally come into
contact, who loses? Not the lawyers, you can bet.
For all of us in
construction, it’s time to realize that the opening skirmishes
are over and the heavy artillery is about to open up. We’re
already seeing the results of hyperactive regulatory activity
in Los Angeles and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex where "to
avoid the severe enforcement consequences of continued non-compliance
with the Clean Air Act, and to ensure a healthy environment
for posterity, leaders from across the region have come together
to self-impose a broad spectrum of measures to improve air
quality." Two aspects of the State Implementation Plan
will affect construction activities directly: (1) a construction
equipment ban for 50-hp-plus diesel engines between 6 a.m.
and 10 a.m., June through October, and (2) accelerated purchase
of cleaner off-highway diesel equipment. The construction
ban takes effect in 2005, whereas the accelerated purchase
provisions take effect in 2004. True, these measures are not
aimed at dust, but how long do you expect that to go unnoticed?
Not long, I’ll bet, when it becomes apparent that the metroplex
has not been brought back into compliance by these measures.
I don’t know what
we can do about air quality—either engine emissions or fugitive
dust—but I do know that if we don’t take a hard look at our
own practices and find ways to lessen our impacts on air quality,
the public and its legions of regulators and lawyers will
turn the big guns on us…and we’re not going to like what happens
next.
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John an Email
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