Air quality in Iowa: New law may put Linn County efforts to improve air at risk, officials warn

CEDAR RAPIDS — As drifting smoke from ongoing wildfires across Canada create curtains of haze causing unhealthy air quality throughout Iowa and the Midwest, environmental activists and Democratic lawmakers worry local efforts to regulate and improve air quality could be at risk under a new state law.

“We’ve had ozone problems the last two days, and if we have special problems causing ongoing concerns, and then you have external issue like the Canadian wildfires, it may make sense for local communities to say to their local industries, ‘Hey, let’s do something different’” so as not to not exacerbate, or add to, impaired air quality, Pam Mackey-Taylor, director of the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, said Wednesday.

A provision in a budget bill passed by lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds that takes effect Saturday repeals a portion of Iowa Code that allows counties’ air pollution control regulations to be more strict than those of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Senate File 558 provides funding to the Iowa DNR and the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The budget bill removes language that allowed local communities to have ordinances, rules and standards “more strict than” rules and standards adopted by the state. Lawmakers, in the same budget bill, also restricted funding for water quality monitoring and open space maintenance.

The change could affect local efforts in Linn and Polk counties to improve air quality. They are the only two counties in Iowa that have been given delegation by the Iowa DNR to conduct air pollution programs in their jurisdictions. The local programs are focused on air quality monitoring, permitting and enforcement of emission limits.

Linn County has operated an air quality program since the 1960s, which predated the Iowa DNR. “We were commissioned by the- (now-defunct) State of Iowa Department of Environmental Quality in August of 1974,” said Wanda Reiter Kintz, air quality branch manger with the Linn County Public Health.

The Air Quality Branch operates a network of air monitors throughout Linn County. The monitors continuously measure pollutants in the outdoor air to track pollution trends over time, show whether outdoor air meets federal air quality standards and help county officials determine if the air is healthy to breathe.

The branch also conducts permitting and compliance checks of county businesses and industries and construction operations, and issues fines for violations. County officials also regulate and issue permits and fines for violations of open and agricultural burning.

Kintz said county officials still are assessing how the new law will affect the county’s air quality program. She said county officials plan to meet with Iowa DNR representatives in August to discuss the new law and Linn County’s operations.

  Buy Photo

However, Kintz said county officials are concerned the change could restrict some of its permitting and enforcement activities.

For example, like the Iowa DNR, Linn County reviews and approves preconstruction air permitting in Iowa. New facilities must be designed to meet emissions standards and not result in a violation of ambient air quality standards. Facilities meeting state and federal requirements are issued construction permits, which also include operating requirements to assure continued compliance. That includes the use of generators, “where the state may not have regulations.”

Like the state, Linn County also regulates the open burning of yard waste, garbage and debris, but imposes fines for first, second and subsequent violations that are not spelled out in state law.

“It could affect our ability to issue certain permits and conduct investigations and enforcement activities, which ultimately could affect our air quality here in Linn County,” Kintz said. “We want to improve and make sure the air quality is acceptable for everyone, including those with respiratory ailments like asthma and COPD so they can breathe clean air as well. That’s the whole impetus behind these regulations.”

State Rep. Norlin Mommsen, a Republican from DeWitt who floor managed the bill in the Iowa House, said the change arose from a desire to “create uniformity across the state” in how air quality regulations are handled. He compared it with previous legislation signed into law in the state that prevents cities and counties from enacting a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags, and preventing cities and counties from enacting local minimum wage hikes that exceed the statewide minimum wage.

Mommsen said the issue arose when a manufacturer moved from a neighboring county into Polk County and began building a new facility, only to find out after construction began that Polk County had more stringent air quality standards. Mommsen said he could not recall the name of the business or the particulars of issues that arose over construction of the facility, other than issues were eventually resolved.

A Polk County air quality official could not be reached for comment.

Mommsen also disputed possible concerns that the change to Iowa Code would prevent Linn County from continuing to issue fines for violations of open burning.

“I think they should still be able to do that,” he told The Gazette. “We’re trying to create consistency for the business world across the state. It’s as simple as that.”

Local Linn County Democrats, including Reps. Art Staed and Sami Scheetz, objected to the provision.

“It effectively prevents them from (enforcing) many ordinances in references to fires and open burning in the county outside of the Cedar Rapids area,” Staed asserted. “They couldn’t restrict burning … particularly when there is air quality issues” such as with the current smoke from the Canadian wildfires wafting over Eastern Iowa.

  Buy Photo

Air quality in Cedar Rapids deteriorated from “moderate” to “unhealthy” in recent days, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Fire and Smoke Map.

“If they don’t feel the DNR policies are strict enough, then we need to look at the state as a whole for all Iowans,” Mommsen said.

Mackey-Taylor, with the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, argues a one-size-fits-all approach hinders cities and counties from being able to respond to their unique needs and circumstances in their communities to address air quality issues.

“The collection of businesses and industries may be different,” requiring different responses and solutions, Mackey-Taylor said. “So it really ties the hands of Linn County and Polk County to be aggressive in improving air quality. ‘If you want consistency across Iowa, then don’t allow the counties to have their own programs. But it makes sense to have local entities being able to do their own regulations, because they know best what’s on the ground for their local communities. … Maybe the state is lax and we need something better in Linn County, and we should be able to do that.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com