Ontario protests U.S. pollution

TORONTO, ONTARIO - An American plan to relax pollution controls on coal-fired power plants will spew even more smog into Ontario, charges Environment Minister Laurel Broten.

As Washington moves to lift some emissions restrictions on the plants within the next three to six months, Broten says the province is taking "a hard line" against the Americans.

Broten lodged a formal 34-page objection with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over proposed legislative changes.

Broten said she is very worried that the easing of pollution standards in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and other states will further damage Ontario's air quality.

Last year, there were 53 smog days in Ontario.

There are 693 U.S. coal-fired plants sending smog to Ontario — 238 of them are more than 50 years old and 26 date back to World War II.

In June 2005, a major provincial study found that imported air pollution costs the Ontario economy $9.6 billion in damages, including $6.6 billion for health care, and causes 56 per cent of smog deaths here.

That report — entitled "Transboundary Air Pollution in Ontario" and cited by Broten y— used data collected over the past 30 years to show airborne pollutants arrive here in prevailing winds from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

The minister warned that changes being pushed by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration to allow coal plants to operate longer hours, therefore polluting more, "are bad news for the health of people living anywhere in our shared air shed no matter if you've got a postal code or a zip code."

Eleven American states — New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and New Mexico — also filed similarly worded rebukes at the EPA.

"Now more than ever we need to work with other states and provinces to address this common threat," said Broten, who ruled out, for the time being, joining lawsuits under way against big polluters.

Broten said Ontario would likely have to wait until it closes the last of its coal plants in 2009 before joining any litigation.

Greg Flynn, president of the Ontario Medical Association, said it is important the province take its concerns stateside.

"Smog does not respect international borders, neither do the ill effects," said Flynn, noting smog contributes directly to cardiac and respiratory illnesses.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton, however, accused the government of "talking out of both sides of their mouth."

"On the one hand they blame American coal-fired stations, but on the other hand the McGuinty government has become the biggest purchaser of American electricity from dirty coal-fired stations," Hampton said.