State officials said Wisconsin is moving forward on environmental protection Friday, with Gov. Jim Doyle urging federal authorities to remove the Madison area from a list of polluting counties.
Doyle said in a statement he contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency to remove Brown, Columbia and Dane counties from a list of areas that have too much fine particulate air pollution.
""The state of Wisconsin takes air pollution very seriously and this is great news for the public and businesses,"" Doyle said.
According to data from the state Department of Natural Resources, Dane County and the other areas now fall below the federal standards, even lower than the stricter rules the EPA revised in August of 2008.
Fine particle air pollution is often linked to increased risks of lung disease, asthma attacks and heart disease, according to information from the Dane County Clean Air coalition. In the past month, Dane County experienced three days of above-average air pollution.
""[We] have made tremendous progress toward improving the quality of air we breathe in Dane County, but there is more work to be done,"" Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk said in a release. ""Our proactive, preventative effort is important for our health, our environment and our economy.""
Major sources of air pollution in the area include diesel trucks, electric power generators and cars. Environmental groups recently celebrated the announcement that another source of air pollution, the coal-burning Charter Street Heating Plant on campus, would be converted to instead use biomass fuels.
