GreenStep City Best Practices: Environmental Management
Local Air Quality {BP No. 23}
Prevent generation of local air contaminants so as to improve community health.
Best Practice
Best Practice Actions
a. Indoor and outdoor wood burning behavior, to ensure that wood burning is only done with seasoned wood and in a manner that lessens the impact on neighbors.
b. Indoor wood burning technology, to result in community members upgrading from inefficient/more polluting fireplaces and wood stoves to pellet/gas/biogas devices, air source heat pumps, or the most efficient certified wood stoves.
c. Smoker cars - older model/high polluting vehicles, to result in repairs spurred by repair vouchers.
a. Recreational burning.
b. Outdoor residential wood boilers.
c. Burning of Emerald Ash Borer wood.
a. Decreased vehicle idling, business trucking emissions, pollutants/noise from stationary engines/back-up generators.
b. Participation in the Air Aware Employers program.
c. Adoption of a smoking-free policy at one or more multi-unit housing buildings, private or public.
d. Replacement of gasoline-powered small equipment with lower polluting equipment.
e. Increased sales by retail stores of low and no-VOC household products.
Optional Best Practice for Step 3 Recognition
Category A cities: implement this best practice by completing any two actions.
Category B and C cities: implement this best practice by completing any one action.
Summary
Through implementation of GreenStep City land use and transportation best practices, cities can shape physical development patterns and the actions of community members such that vehicle miles traveled are decreased, and thus air pollution from vehicles is decreased. Air pollution from other sources - businesses and local power plants - can be cut through implementation of actions in the GreenStep business assistance and renewable energy best practices.
In addition to these actions, cities can take additional measures to support the actions of community members that result in lower outdoor and indoor air pollution, improved public health and decreased health care costs. Several of these actions have cities conducting, or assisting others to conduct, education campaigns tied to making it easier/cheaper for citizens and businesses to adopt behaviors or equipment that prevent or reduce the generation of air pollutants.
Greenstep Advisor
Megan Kuhl-Stennes, Neighborhood Air Pollution Lead, MN Pollution Control Agency: 651/757-2455, Megan.KuhlStennes@state.mn.us
Connection to State Policy
While Minnesota cities have overall air pollution levels that typically fall under state/national standards, local air quality can be compromised by a variety of specific conditions, which cities can address by targeted actions.
Benefits
- Launched in 2015, Be Air Aware from the MN Pollution Control Agency and its partners is a new resource for community members, cities, and businesses concerned about health and air quality. The site distills and simplifies information about all major air pollutants in Minnesota — both outdoor air and indoor air - and covers research, current air quality across the state, and actions to improve air quality. The latest 2019 research, for example, estimates the overall public health burden of air pollution by MN county and estimates that 5-10% of all deaths in Minnesota, or between 2,000-4,000 deaths every year, are attributable to air pollution. Employers - city government and businesses - can sign-up to become an Air Aware Employers and alert their staff during air quality alerts with messages about actions to cut air pollutants.
- Explore interactive maps to see statewide and local air pollution modeling showing the cumulative impacts of fine particles and air toxic pollutants and consequent risks to human health (using a risk-screening tool called MNrisks). This MPCA tool allows users to (1) identify primary sources of air pollution in your city, (2) view the impact of busy roads, and (3) understand related health risks. A MN Dept. of Health web site shows the percentage of residents living within 300 meters of busy roads, where air pollution from motor vehicle traffic is highest.
- Vehicles with diesel engines represent only 10% of traffic on Minnesota roads, but contribute a significant amount of the air pollution generated by vehicles in the state. According to EPA estimates, for every dollar spent on diesel emission reductions there are $13 dollars in health benefits.
- Outdoor wood boilers can emit 1,000 times more pollution than traditional indoor gas and oil furnaces and warrant attention if they emit more than allowed under EPA's Step 1 fine particle emission standards. These boilers exacerbate health risks when located in more densely populated areas, in areas with steep topography, and when near large water bodies.
- Air pollution levels in homes are often two to five times higher than outdoors, according to EPA studies. Many years of attention to indoor smoking has improved indoor air quality, but now widely available non-toxic paints, cleaners, furnishings, options to avoid fragrance chemicals, and other home products make further improvements possible.
- Residential wood smoke contains fine particles and toxic air pollutants, some of which are probable human carcinogens. If all of the old wood stoves in the U.S. were changed out to cleaner burning hearth appliances, estimates are that at least $35 billion in health benefits per year could be realized from eliminating premature deaths, non-fatal heart attacks, chronic bronchitis, and asthma attacks. EPA-certified wood stoves, though much cleaner than uncertified stoves and fireplaces, still create roughly 150 times more harmful fine particles than a gas furnace.