Air quality in Anne Arundel County is on the mend.
“Today?s a great day for the county,” County Executive Janet Owens told The Examiner in light of Gov. Robert Ehrlich signing the Healthy Air Act. “I am as pleased as possible for all the citizens of the county.”
The law requires coal-burning power plants in state to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Two of the six power plants subject to regulation by the new law are in Anne Arundel County: the H.A. Wagner Power Plant and the Brandon Shores Power Plant, both owned by Constellation Energy Group.
Owens said she hopes the law will help reduce the county?s rising asthma rates and clean up its “nastiest air.”
However, Constellation Energy, said the new regulations fail to solve the pollution problem but create a serious cost burden to businesses that will eventually be passed on to consumers.
“The Healthy Air Act is a very stringent, Maryland-only approach that will cost far more and deliver less environmental result than a regional approach,” said Robert Gould, spokesman for Constellation Energy, in a prepared statement.
Anne Arundel is the second-most ozone-polluted county in the state, according to the 2005 State of the Air study conducted by the American Lung Association. Harford is the first.
The county also ranked 19th in the list of the 25 most-ozone polluted counties in the nation, according to that same study.
Regulating emissions from coal-burning plants in the county will absolutely improve air quality by 2010, said Brad Heavner, director of the Maryland Public Interest Research Group.
“I don?t think anyone would dispute that,” Heavner said.
Heavner also said the new regulations will have a positive economic impact on the county.
“A lot of economic investment will go into the county to upgrade the plants,” he said.
Tad Aburn, air director for the Maryland Department of the Environment, called it “the biggest emission reducing program we?ve implemented in the past 20 years.”
