EPA says it can protect residents and still grow economy COMMENTARY Shawn M. Garvin

WRITING IN this space on Aug. 3, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey presented readers with a retread of the false choice between protecting our health and the environment and growing our economy.

Like Sen. Toomey, I, too, have traveled across Pennsylvania, most recently with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to Lancaster, where we toured a dairy farm and held a roundtable discussion with local farmers and leaders. Contrary to what EPA critics would have Pennsylvanians believe, EPA is working closely with rural communities to protect air and water and the health of their residents.

That visit also gave us the chance to address common myths, like the one about spilled milk regulations. The notion that EPA intends to treat spilled milk the same way it treats spilled oil is just plain wrong. In fact, it was EPA’s work with the dairy industry that prompted the agency to call for an exemption for milk and dairy containers from the agency’s program that addresses the prevention of oil spills in quantities that might be harmful. Earlier this year, we finalized that exemption.

Another myth is the false claim that EPA is expanding regulation of dust, or coarse particulate matter, from farms. The agency has made no decision to do so. The Clean Air Act requires regular reviews of science on various pollutants, including coarse particulate matter. An independent panel is assessing that science and EPA is meeting with farmers and ranchers about their concerns.

Sen. Toomey also seemed to wonder why EPA has proposed new standards to cut pollution from cement kilns. The answer is that Portland cement manufacturing is the third-largest source of mercury air emissions in the United States. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can severely affect childhood development.

EPA’s new standards for cement kilns will cut kiln mercury pollution by 92 percent. They also will reduce particulate matter – a leading cause of asthma and premature deaths – by 92 percent. The residents of the Lehigh Valley, where Sen. Toomey notes seven cement kilns are located, should be pleased to know that their health and their children’s health is being protected by EPA. Nationwide, the health benefits are estimated to reach as high as $18 billion annually, and prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths in people with heart disease. Other serious health effects such as asthma and heart attacks will be avoided as well.

Pennsylvania is also one of the biggest beneficiaries of the recently finalized Cross State Air Pollution rule, which will protect Pennsylvania residents from air pollution emitted by facilities in upwind states. The rule will improve air quality in Pennsylvania, providing the state with important public health benefits, including up to 2,900 fewer premature deaths each year. The state’s total health benefits as a result of the final rule will be between $9.7 billion and $24 billion each year.

In these challenging economic times, Pennsylvania residents have a right to know that we can put these protections in place at the same time we grow the economy. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, alleged “job-killing” environmental regulations have sparked a homegrown environmental protection industry that employs more than 1.5 million Americans. EPA standards have cut pollution even while the number of American cars, buildings and power plants has increased.

Hard-won environmental advances, supported by both sides of the aisle, have made it so that many more Americans in communities across the country, including in Pennsylvania, are today breathing easier, relying on safer drinking water and living in healthier neighborhoods than decades ago.

A strong economy is fueled by a strong and healthy work force, and built in clean, healthy communities. The EPA is committed to working with the people of Pennsylvania and elsewhere to find solutions that strengthen their communities and their economy while protecting their health and environment. With bipartisan cooperation we can do both – just as we have done for the last 40 years.

Shawn M. Garvin is the regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mid-Atlantic Region, based in Philadelphia.

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