November 16, 2012-by John Blair valleywatch.net editor
Below is a picture I shot this morning of the atrocious air pollution in Evansville today, 11/16. It was basically the same yesterday as fine particles built up in the region. Unfortunately, IDEM nor the local EPA has any data to record what is probably an exceedance of the 24 hour fine particle standard so there is no air pollution alerts or anything to warn people of the severity of the problem.
This is what the air looked like this morning in Evansville along Riverside Drive, as fine particle pollution rose to unhealthy levels. Unfortunately, we will not know just how unhealthy since once again the official monitor for the city was “down for preventative maintenance” for this air pollution event, which started yesterday. Valley Watch has completely lost trust in both IDEM and the local EPA to provide honest assessments of air quality since it seems the monitors never work correctly when the air quality is bad. Photo: © 2012 John Blair
IDEM is supposed to maintain a near real-time data website (http://leads.idem.in.gov/cgi-bin/idem/daily_summary.pl) but for the last two days, while air quality worsened, their site shows absolutely no data using the term PMA instead of quantitative figures. IDEM defines PMA as: “PMA – Preventative maintenance. Indicates the CAMS is undergoing maintenance and data collected is not valid data.”
Sadly, what is happening today and yesterday will likely not be included in any determination of whether or not we actually meet the health based standards for fine particles since the monitor is conveniently down for “preventative” maintenance. Maybe by “preventative” they mean prevent a violation of the standard.
I am asking for permission to publish a letter a Valley Watch board member received from Evansville EPA leader, Dona Bergman and will share that when permission is received but in the meantime here are two sentences from that letter, date August 1, 2012 which was in response to data that USEPA had collected which showed EVV air quality was worse than the State and local governments were acknowledging, “For much of the period you examined, the data from the BV continuous monitor had a high bias (see for example the chart below). In fact, quite a bit of the Buena Vista monitor’s data were removed from IDEM’s websites because they were invalidated.”
It seems that every time there is an air quality problem around here there is some kind of excuse forthcoming as to why the official monitors are incorrect except on days when air quality is on the good side, then they are never wrong.
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It is like this a lot in Vevay, too. Theirs probably comes from the power plant at Ghent.
Nothing has changed in 15 or more years except a lot of us who tried to get the environment fixed got tired of beating our heads against a wall and far too many people didn’t even care to listen.
Like Churchill said in early WWII, “Never, never, never give up!”
Moving from Henderson, KY to Newburgh, IN seven years ago was a drastic mistake. The pollution from Alcoa, etc . has become unbearable. Where is the outcry?
Yes, Newburgh is loaded with toxic pollution from Alcoa, more than 5 million pounds each year. We have tried over the years to get them tho do zero emissions but they essentially have laughed at our request/demand. The person, you should complain to is named Jim Beck, he is their PR person. His number is: 812-853-4557
John, has anyone in your circle looked into the phenomenon of geoengineering? The air pollution (already bad enough in the Ohio River Valley) which has increased over the past 3-4 years substantially is due to geoengineering. The atmosphere is being blanketed with heavy metals which refract solar rays. They are primarily aluminum nano particulate matter. Check out http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/ to learn more details. This is so far beyond a few corporations. Its time the American public wake up to this. There are 17 million hits on the webpage. It will not be long before enough people realize what is being done to them. The powers that be will not be able to hide this much longer in all probability. Then the propaganda spin machine will really fire up. If you’d like to discuss in more detail please feel free to email me. Thanks.
I personally have followed the whole geoengineering controversy for more than two decades, since shortly after I read a story that quoted H Bomb engineer, Edward Teller make the suggestion that to deal with global warming, we should shroud the earth in sulfate pollution to reflect the sun’s energy back into space. I ave also personally observed the whole issue over the course of the last ten to fifteen years. I have watched videos from many sources about the whole subject and I have read lots of government denials that such a program exists. I certainly do not dismiss the plausibility of such actions on the part of our government but have been reluctant to upgrade that issue on this website doe to the clever way in which even the mention of chemtrails takes your general credibility down a notch. I guess I need more definitive proof before I will jeopardize the site’s credibility, rightly or wrongly.
I understand your concern. Please contact me and we can discuss further offline. All you have to do is look up. Again, Wigginton’s website – geoengineering watch – is the best I have ever seen. You already understand the true nature of the men who sit in position’s of power and the general disregard they have for human life. Our technology has outstripped our morality. Again, please email or call me. I have a lot to share with you. Looking forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, David
I’d be interested to know how the levels of pollution here in Evansville have changed in the years since this article was written, and whether monitors are more effective now. It’s so important for all our health that we control these levels.
Air quality over the last four decades has steadily improved as a result of a number of national initiatives to reduce emissions of Nitrogen Oxides, Sulfur Dioxide and even toxic materials. However, that is subject to real change now that a coal lobbyist is in charge of the USEPA.
Air monitoring in Evansville and surrounding environs has always been questionable. IDEM is determined to whitewash everything and way too often, from 1977 on, anytime air quality gets bad one of two things seem to occur. 1. the monitor was not working properly and that was why it showed violations, or 2. the monitor simply stopped working altogether until the air quality improved.
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Our air quality here in Monroe, LA is rated at Ozone 40 which says it’s “Good” and
Particles (PM2.5) at 53 which is “Moderate”. I wonder how that compares to your air quality there in Evansville?
Duane-I have had just hat discussion on numerous occasions with friends and colleagues.It seems that Louisiana and Indiana have lots in common when it comes to air pollution and the way it is regulated.
Hey John, ..so this has been going on for years…where the air quality monitors sometimes conveniently don’t work? What do you see as the main reasons people don’t seem to care about the air quality in their own back yard? Where we in Vand Co now have the distinction of being in the top 10 counties in the US for worst air pollution.
Thx for all you do and have done over the decades.