State officials are writing the toughest regulations in more than 15 years - that are designed to crack down on emissions from coal-burning power plants and other industrial sources...
The new limits will affect a suite of pollutants that are responsible for everything from respiratory illnesses to making fish unhealthy to eat.
Ironically, the changes come as Wisconsin's air is getting cleaner. Measures of most major pollutants have fallen over the last 20 years, DNR figures show, because of regulations now in place.
But even though the emissions picture is improving, state and federal officials insist Wisconsin's air must get cleaner.
"We are not there yet, but we are so close," "There is a human health cost to living with polluted air," Henry Anderson recently told a group being briefed on the regulations.
Environmentalists say the regulations are overdue, and they are pressing the Department of Natural Resources for greater reductions, especially from the state's fleet of coal-burning power plants.
"Whatever problem we are trying to fix, a lot of it is attributable to coal plants,"
The new regulations should make air easier to breathe, especially in southeastern Wisconsin. Air quality is improving in the region, but it continues to violate federal ozone standards. Ozone creates smog and poses serious health risks.
Wisconsin is required to meet federal ozone standards by summer of 2009, but the DNR is mulling whether to ask federal regulators to push back that date.
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