Press Releases

Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will be holding a field briefing on May 1, 2018 on the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan campus. The subject of the briefing will be pollutants, ozone standards and the impact on local jobs, with a focus on the national one-size-fits-all ozone standard imposed on Sheboygan County.

“The EPA’s application of the Clean Air Act’s ambient air quality standards have, for years, been devastating to businesses and motorists in Sheboygan County.”

“The reason Sheboygan County has been saddled with restrictive air quality standards for years is due to the placement of a sensor in its air monitor network that logs ozone pollution from other areas as pollution from Sheboygan County.”

“More industrial areas on Lake Michigan, such as Chicago, create ozone pollution, which is blown over the lake and into Sheboygan County. The result is higher readings for the sensors placed along the lake. The subsequent regulations imposed on Sheboygan County because of these readings do not reduce pollutants created elsewhere.”

“The readings on these particular sensors are inconsistent with those in the rest of the state and you only need to go a few miles inland to see this.”

“The most devastating consequence of this is the direct limitation on economic growth. Companies are required to jump through unnecessary hoops in order to expand, discouraging many to do so.”

Background

Who: Congressman Glenn Grothman and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

What: Congressional briefing on pollutants, ozone standards and the impact on local jobs

Where: UW-Sheboygan (Wombat Room), 1 University Drive, Sheboygan, WI 53081

When: Tuesday, May 1, 2018 at 10 a.m.

Why: For nearly twenty years the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allowed a poorly placed compliance monitor to hold Sheboygan County accountable for pollution that is almost entirely generated elsewhere.

Federal law fails to adequately account for the impact of pollutants generated from outside the County, including from outside the state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) observed “Wisconsin’s lakeshore air quality is heavily impacted by ozone precursors originating from out of state. Sheboygan County, in particular, has long suffered the consequences of diminished air quality and resulting nonattainment due to emissions originating beyond Wisconsin’s borders.” This is supported by air flow modeling showing pollutants are blown up from Illinois and Indiana, “cooked” over Lake Michigan, and then blown along the shoreline of Wisconsin.

There are two air quality monitors in Sheboygan County. The Kohler-Andrae monitor is upwind from the key sources of ozone in the County and therefore detects ozone from major sources to the south, such as Chicago, Indiana, Michigan and other counties. The Haven monitor is downwind from the key ozone sources and therefore detects the actual ozone levels in Sheboygan County.

A closer look at the data collected from both of the air monitors located within Sheboygan County supports the argument that reliance on the Haven monitor – the monitor downwind from Sheboygan actually collecting emissions data from Sheboygan businesses – would place the County within attainment. The decision by the EPA to rely on the Kohler-Andrae monitor results in the County failing to maintain acceptable attainment standards, in the process triggering devastating regulations.

-30-