Whether it
involves the demonization of coal- and waste-burning power plants, the use of
diesel fuels in diesel engines, or the specter of monumental dust clouds
blotting out “once pristine skies,” the stuff we breathe and that holds the rest
of the universe from falling in on us, as news items go, air quality makes for
great press. OK, but what does that have to do with construction?
A lot, really.
While the Southern California Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) takes the
bull by the tail in its desire to ban the use of diesel fuel, it continues to
skirt the fact that combustion emissions of all sorts do not add up to the major
source of air pollution. Fugitive dust is the biggest culprit. Where does this
fugitive dust come from? SCAQMD tends to be a little shy in pinning it down,
other than blaming it on unpaved roads in the basin. Really?
Where?
A while back,
the Los Angeles Times wasn’t shy when
it declared what’s causing rapidly growing Las Vegas, NV’s air-quality problems:
“The biggest mess is caused by wind-blown dust. It’s a major component of
so-called particulate pollution, which has been linked in several studies to
respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, bronchitis, and premature death.”
Citing USEPA concern over explosive growth, the article went on to finger
construction for its contribution to the problem.
I mentioned
the problem to my contractor friend Jorge soon after the LA Times article
appeared. “What do they expect?” was his hip-shot response. “You’ve got
thousands of machines churning up dirt at the same time in a dry, windy, thirsty
valley. Who needs a bunch of regulators and reporters telling us there’s a
problem?” He's got a point, you know.
Out there in
Las Vegas and many other places, dirt has sat there for a million or so years,
getting whittled into stability by the elements with only a few hardy, burrowing
creatures to threaten the hardpan. Then along come the civilized hordes,
brandishing digging sticks, picks, shovels, plows, diskers, harrows, rippers,
breakers, punches, drills, blades, wheels, tracks, and skateboards. These, of
course, are followed in due course by new hordes armed with rules, regulations,
environmental impact reports, and agendas, who will accept nothing less than a
return to the Garden of Eden. And when the two forces finally come into contact,
who loses? Not the lawyers, you can bet.
For all of us
in construction, it’s time to realize that the opening skirmishes are over and
the heavy artillery is about to open up. We’re already seeing the results of
hyperactive regulatory activity in Los Angeles and the Dallas/Fort Worth
Metroplex where “to avoid the severe enforcement consequences of continued
noncompliance with the Clean Air Act, and to ensure a healthy environment for
posterity, leaders from across the region have come together to self-impose a
broad spectrum of measures to improve air quality.” True, these measures are not
aimed at dust, but how long do you expect that to go unnoticed? Not long, I'll
bet, when it becomes apparent that the metroplex has not been brought back into
compliance by these measures.
I don’t know
what we can do about air quality—either engine emissions or fugitive dust—but I
do know that if we don’t take a hard look at our own practices and find ways to
lessen our impacts on air quality, the public and its legions of regulators and
lawyers will turn the big guns on us. And we’re not going to like what happens
next.