Demand Clean Air in Dallas
- by: Lynn Hamilton
- recipient: United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy
Coal is dug and processed in east Texas, but the pollution it generates is felt all the way over in Dallas and Fort Worth. Dallas County is so desperate for clean air that the county's commissioners have defied the state's Commission on Environmental Quality and asked the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene.
Dallas commissioners believe, along with two Congress Members, that more needs to be done to mitigate the poor air quality caused by coal plants in the east of the state. In a letter to the EPA, Congress Members Bernice Johnson and Marc Veasey note that 77 deaths and 165 hospital admissions could be prevented by a reduction in the ozone levels of the ten counties that make up the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Please join me in asking the Environmental Protection Agency to reject the state's clean air plan and ask for nitrogen oxide pollution controls on 5 DFW-area coal power plants.
Dear Gina McCarthy:
I was surprised to hear that Dallas commissioners are so worried about their air quality that they have asked your agency to intervene. It seems that the extraction and processing of coal in the east of the state has caused so much damage to air quality that desperate measures are being taken. Every year, people in the Dallas and Fort Worth area are hospitalized because of health issues related to poor air quality. And 77 people die of lung and heart disease. You have the opportunity to make an improvement in the lives of Texans. Please reject the state's clean air plan and demand nitrogen oxide pollution controls on 5 DFW-area coal power plants.
