The swath of Wisconsin with unhealthy concentrations of ozone now extends the entirety of the state's Lake Michigan shore, from the industrial metro area to isolated Rock Island, beyond the tip of Door County.
State officials expect Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Kewaunee and Door counties to be added today to the six southeastern Wisconsin counties already designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as exceeding federal ozone standards. More than 2.1 million people live in the 10 counties, where excessive ozone pollution exacerbates respiratory diseases and limits outdoor activities on hazy summer days.
Environmental advocates view the designations as a step toward cleaner air and better health, while some officials worry that they will lead to added pollution restrictions that hinder businesses.
"I think it opens up a Pandora's box of potential problems," said Rep. Mark Green, a Republican who represents Kewaunee and Door counties in Congress. "The designation such as this can send troubling signals to companies that may consider locating here and expanding here."
Those considering the economic impacts of the EPA announcement will find some relief in word that Jefferson County, which had been included on a preliminary EPA list, is not expected to be added, said Lloyd Eagan, director of the Bureau of Air Management at the state Department of Natural Resources.
Across the United States, more than 500 counties are expected to be included in the list, covering more than half of the population and at least eight national parks. The list has grown because of new, tougher air quality standards.
The ribbon of air pollution running along Wisconsin's eastern border includes Kohler-Andrae State Park in Sheboygan County, Point Beach State Forest in Manitowoc County and Peninsula State Park in Door County.
"You have people driving to Door County to get away from it all, and they're driving to worse pollution than they left," said Brett Hulsey, senior Midwest representative for the Sierra Club.
Jerry Viste, who has spent all of his 70 years on a dairy farm near Sturgeon Bay, said the breezes blowing across the peninsula, particularly in the heat of summer, have lost their refreshing quality.
"This has been common knowledge, we're getting all of the stuff from south of here," said Viste, executive director of the Door County Environmental Council. "We're the recipient of all the ozone and other undesirable things that follow the lakeshore.
"It's good to know that somebody is finally recognizing the facts, and whether anything will come of it, that remains to be seen."
Three years to plan
The EPA will give states three years to devise plans to reduce ozone levels and up to 20 years for them to implement those plans.
The designation as non-attainment areas could be a blow to economic development efforts in counties already struggling to replace lost manufacturing jobs. The unemployment rate in Manitowoc County, for example, continues to hover around double digits. The area has not replaced 900 jobs lost when Mirro closed its cookware plant last year.
Attracting new employers will be more difficult under the pollution restrictions, said Jeff Schoepke, director of environmental policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. Instead of paying more for pollution offsets or emission-cutting technology, businesses would find it cheaper to locate in areas that have clean air and fewer restrictions, he said.
Manufacturers looking to build new plants or expand their operations in the areas with excessive ozone will likely be required to offset any new emissions with matching reductions in pollution, Eagan said. Those businesses and utilities also will be required to use the best-available technology to limit emissions.
Eagan said it was unlikely that reformulated gas and emissions testing would be expanded to the additional four counties. Cleaner-burning fuels should be available to reduce auto emissions by the time the state imposes restrictions, she said.
The difficulty for pollution-heavy areas along the lakefront will be to find ways to reduce pollution that originates elsewhere.
Much of the nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds cooking into ozone over the lake and fouling northern counties originate in the coal-burning power plants, the manufacturing plants and automobiles operating in northwestern Indiana, the Chicago area and southeast Wisconsin.
"The federal government needs to take that into consideration," Green said. "Don't punish the families and businesses in places like Door and Kewaunee County for less-than-the-highest-quality actions in the big cities outside the state."
Without more aggressive federal action, emissions from throughout the Midwest will continue to create unhealthy conditions in eastern Wisconsin, said Hulsey, of the Sierra Club.
Measuring ozone in wheezes
Ozone, which hangs low in the atmosphere, damages lung tissue and exacerbates the symptoms of asthma, emphysema, bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. On days when ozone levels are highest, public health officials warn residents to avoid outdoor exertions and urge those with respiratory ailments to remain indoors.
Christine Gonzalez, a mother of three who lives in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood, knows when ozone levels are high, not from the hazy air, but the wheezing sounds of her 8-year-old son, Michael.
"When he wakes up and if I hear him wheezing, then I know it's going to be a bad day," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez's mother, Ramona Puente, said it was difficult to watch her grandson struggle on those days.
"Most boys that age are playful and energetic," she said. "Michael has a tendency when the air quality changes, he slows down, and he breathes so horrible."
Ozone levels in Milwaukee County have exceeded the previous federal standard, based on one-hour peak measures, since the late 1970s, said Larry Bruss, the chief of the regional pollutant and mobile source section of the DNR.
Businesses in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine and Kenosha counties have been under pollution restrictions for more than a decade as part of the ozone non-attainment area. Motorists have been buying reformulated gas and having their auto emissions tested as part of the ozone reduction efforts in those six counties.
While those steps reduced ozone pollution, new studies have found that lower levels of the pollutant damage lung tissue and present a public health hazard, prompting revised federal standards, based on concentrations measured over eight-hour segments. The four counties added to the EPA list have ozone levels that exceeded those tougher standards.
"The standards are health-based standards, necessary to protect citizens from breathing unsafe air," said Marc Looze, clean air campaign director for the non-profit group Clean Wisconsin. "Residents who live and work in those designated counties feel a disproportionate burden of air pollution and negative health impacts."
Looze said a consultant's study showed that nearly 1,000 asthma attacks could be eliminated each year in Milwaukee County if ozone were reduced to meet the federal standard.