Atlanta Region Commission Fiddles While Our Lungs Burn
by Bryan Hager, Director, Georgia Challenge to Sprawl Campaign
The Sierra Club continues to push local, regional and state agencies to clean the air in the Atlanta region. The Atlanta region has the dirtiest air in the Southeast. Literally thousands of people each year get sick from air pollution. Dozens may die. The deadly mix of ozone, particulates and toxics is spreading over a larger area as sprawl carries more cars into once rural communities.
During the fall of 1999 the Georgia Environmental Protection Division proposed a plan to reduce pollution in the Atlanta region and help bring it into attainment of the one-hour ozone standard. The plan made significant commitments to reduce pollution from industries and power plants. It would also require cleaner burning gasoline. The state clean air implementation plan(SIP) did not require any other reductions from cars and trucks, the largest source of air pollution in the non-attainment area. The plan held the promise to make the air around Atlanta healthier.
Unfortunately, the SIP relied on data from the Atlanta Regional Commission(ARC) on the pollution from cars and trucks. The Sierra Club and several other organizations were very concerned by the ARC analysis. We hired a consultant to review the ARC data. The consultant found that ARC was underestimating the speeds driven on Atlanta area roads, was using old data the actual number and type of vehicles and was using very inadequate modeling techniques. The ARC plan was also proposing to use funds for transit that may not be provided by local, state and federal agencies. And the ARC plan assumed major changes in where people live and work, changes which local governments may not support.
Jim Chapman, with Georgians for Transportation Alternatives, wrote detailed critique of the ARC. This critique generated a lot of public controversy and forced the Federal Highway Administration to make a similar critique of the ARC plan. The Sierra Club, Georgians for Transportation alternatives, Southern Environmental Law Center, Southern Organizing Committee, and Georgia Coalition for a People's Agenda filed suit in federal court to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from approving the budget for pollution from cars and trucks. Because of problems with the ARC plan we do not believe the Georgia SIP can show attainment of the clean air standards. These same organizations have also notified the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority that we will sue them if GRTA approves the ARC plan without major changes.
To say the very least, we are frustrated that local, regional and state agencies are not putting a high enough priority on protecting the public health. If thousands of people were going to the hospital and dozens dying each year due to a communicable disease we would call it an epidemic. We would declare a public health emergency and take drastic action to protect the well being of the citizens of this region.
The number one problem we face is the effort by local and state politicians to get funds flowing again for sprawl inducing highways. The politicians have made promises to developers and others to widen certain roads. They are now trying to deliver on those promises. We know that widening roads does not relieve congestion or reduce air pollution. In fact, road widening generate more traffic and more emissions from cars and trucks. It is way past time to redirect the funds from road widenings to transit, safety and air quality improving projects. We need safe places for our children to walk, we need viable transit options and we need to repair unsafe bridges and intersections.
Please let Governor Barnes and your other state and local elected officials know that you support clean air and transportation options.We have suffered with polluted air for long enough.
Bryan Hager, Director
Georgia Challenge to Sprawl Campaign
Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club
1401 Peachtree Street Suite 345
Atlanta, Georgia, 30309
404/607-1262x226 or 404/876-5260fax
bhager@mindspring.com
Last updated: 12 Aug 00