PM 2.5

A new compound found in Fairbanks’s winter air might reveal new strategies for fighting air pollution. Researchers at University of Alaska Fairbanks have started a three-year study to track the new compound that is a big part of the fine-particle pollution that causes health problems in the Interior.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has submitted a new fine particulate pollution control plan for the Fairbanks-North Pole area, to the Environmental Protection Agency. As KUAC’s Dan Bross reports, the updated plan is required because the area has failed to meet a federal Clean Air Act standard for the health damaging fine particulates, known as “P.M. 2 point 5”, produced by burning wood, coal, and oil.

The state has released a new plan to reduce Fairbanks wintertime fine particulate pollution. The updated plan is federally required because, areas of Fairbanks and North Pole continue to fall below Clean Air Act standards, when cold air inversions trap emissions form wood, coal and oil burning. KUAC’s Dan Bross reports.

The controversial air-quality regulations that state officials have proposed for the Fairbanks-area residents are aimed at reducing pollution from wood-burning heating systems. They do not apply to coal-fired systems, which are becoming increasingly popular because coal is even cheaper than wood. That worries local and state officials, because burning coal releases many of the same pollutants as wood.