NASA Satellite Confirms Sharp Decline in (sulfur dioxide) Pollution from U.S. Coal Power Plants

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/coal-pollution.html

NASA Satellite Confirms Sharp Decline in Pollution from U.S. Coal Power Plants

12.01.11

A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States. The pollutant, sulfur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.

The scientists, led by an Environment Canada researcher, have shown that sulfur dioxide levels in the vicinity of major coal power plants have fallen by nearly half since 2005. The new findings, the first satellite observations of this type, confirm ground-based measurements of declining sulfur dioxide levels and demonstrate that scientists can potentially measure levels of harmful emissions throughout the world, even in places where ground monitoring is not extensive or does not exist. About two-thirds of sulfur dioxide pollution in American air comes from coal power plants. Geophysical Research Letters http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011GL049402.shtml">published details of the new research this month.

The scientists attribute the decline in sulfur dioxide to the Clean Air Interstate Rule, a rule passed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 that called for deep cuts in sulfur dioxide emissions. In response to that rule, many power plants in the United States have installed desulfurization devices and taken other steps that limit the release of sulfur dioxide. The rule put a cap on emissions, but left it up to power companies to determine how to reduce emissions and allowed companies to trade pollution credits.

While scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument to observe sulfur dioxide levels within large plumes of volcanic ash and over heavily polluted parts of China in the past, this is the first time they have observed such subtle details over the United States, a region of the world that in comparison to fast-growing parts of Asia now has relatively modest sulfur dioxide emissions. Just a few decades ago, sulfur dioxide pollution was quite severe in the United States. Levels of the pollutant have dropped by about 75 percent since the 1980s due largely to the passage of the Clean Air Act.

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[NickB79]

1. That's good and bad at the same time

While any drop in coal pollution is a good thing, it also means less cooling from sulfur dioxide in the air to offset warming due to CO2 emissions.

The irony is that cleaning up our coal-fired plants might accelerate global warming.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. The cooling benefits from low-level sulfur polution are short-lived

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/04/sulphur-pollution-china-coal-climate

Sulphur from Chinese power stations 'masking' climate change

Research reveals decade of global warming from China's coal power stations has partly been offset by 'cooling' effect of sulphur pollution

Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 July 2011 17.00 EDT

The huge increase in coal-fired power stations in China has masked the impact of global warming in the last decade because of the cooling effect of their sulphur emissions, new research has revealed. But scientists warn that rapid warming is likely to resume when the short-lived sulphur pollution – which also causes acid rain – is cleaned up and the full heating effect of long-lived carbon dioxide is felt.

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Please, find some other way to cool the planet. I know of too many crystal clear (dead) mountain lakes.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8418.html

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How Acidic is Rain in New York State?

The average pH of rainfall in New York State ranges from 4.0 to 4.5, which is up to 30 times more acidic than "normal."

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How Does Acid Rain Affect the Environment?

Aquatic - Fish populations are damaged in a number of ways. Acidic water disrupts their reproductive cycle. It also leaches aluminum from the soil into the water, clogging the fish's gills and altering their blood chemistry. As a lake becomes acidified, one species after another disappears. In addition to sensitive lakes, the Adirondack region includes thousands of miles of streams and rivers also sensitive to acidic deposition. Over half of these may become acidic during spring snowmelt.

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What More Should be Done?

Based on the best available computer model projections, and assuming full implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendment on reductions in sulfur emissions, the number of acidic waters in the Adirondacks is predicted to increase rather than decrease. In other words, even with the reductions achieved under the Clean Air Act, the problem of acidic deposition in the Adirondacks will continue to worsen.

Significant additional reductions in both nitrate and sulfate deposition are needed to stabilize the acidic deposition problem in the Adirondacks. Just to return the quality of water in the Adirondacks to 1984 levels-during which time approximately 19 percent of the water was acidic already-reductions of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide must be reduced by an additional 40 to 50 percent over current requirements. The EPA admits that without such additional reductions, the percentage of acidic lakes, streams and rivers in the Adirondacks will roughly double by the year 2040, a strong indication that aggressive action is necessary now.

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[Nihil]

3. Seconded.

> Please, find some other way to cool the planet.

Speaking as someone who grew up in an industrial town and who startled his
mother by proving just how acidic the water in the rainwater butt was,
I am totally against using SO2 for any "cooling" purpose - not just in the
"interesting side-effect" type of situation of the OP but most especially
in the "let's pump SO2 into the atmosphere and hope it helps" type of
brain-dead "geoengineering" projects.

:grr:

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. FWIW

I too am against pumping sulfates into the stratosphere, however the contribution to acid rain by doing so would be relatively minor (when compared to all of the other sources of acid rain.)