Report: Arkansas air pollution declined in 2016

LITTLE ROCK—The level of air pollutants in the Arkansas declined in 2016, according to a new report by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The report evaluated

ground-level ozone concentrations and concentrations of other pollutants that are regulated by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards program. It noted declines from 2005 to 2016 in places where the state has monitors in ground-level ozone.

Arkansas is one of 12 states that meets all federal air quality standards, though it was not meeting ozone standards a few years ago, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette .

Stuart Spencer, an associate

director for the Department of Environmental Quaility who leads the Office of Air Quality, has said that he believes the downward trend of certain air pollutants was attributable to both regulatory and nonregulatory efforts.

Spencer said that trading

emissions credits through the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule has helped reduce pollutants.

The Arkansas chapter of the Sierra Club said air quality improvements can also be

attributed to less use of coalfired power plants. States are now opting to use more natural gas plants, which emit fewer pollutants.

“Coal-burning plants spew millions of tons of pollutants into our air each year, contributing to unsafe levels of ozone and sulfur dioxide,” chapter Director Glen Hooks said.

Hooks said Arkansas’ air quality will improve even more when “we finally retire Entergy’s White Bluff and Independence coal plants—

two giant facilities that lack

modern pollution controls and are annually among the largest sulfur dioxide emitters in the nation.”