Chesapeake Bay Study Shows Effect Of Air Pollution From Midwest Coal-Fired Power Plants
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- Maryland officials are hoping science might stop a rollback of Clean Air Act regulations by the Trump Administration.
Maryland produces its share of air pollution from tailpipes to the smokestacks of power plants.
But, coal-fired plants in the Midwest produce far more -- and a lot of it is blowing into Maryland.
The state's Department of Environment secretary Ben Grumbles wants the Environmental Protection Agency to limit that pollution.
"We're pushing the EPA to follow through on the Clean Air Act promise of good neighbors upwind of us following the Clean Air standards for interstate smog," Grumbles said.
Maryland is suing the Trump Administration to do just that, while out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay on Hart-Miller Island, researchers from NASA and the stat are tracking a weird kind of air pollution.
According to NASA scientist Dr. Barry Lefler, "in the morning some of the pollution from the land gets transported out over the water and during the day it cooks and makes secondary pollutants like ozone, and then comes back in the afternoon. It's very strange."
"This could be a health issue for many people," said fellow NASA researcher John Sullivan. "Metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Baltimore -- a lot of places up in the Northeast -- experience this issue."
Measuring the pollution over the Bay, coupled with the impact other states have on the build-up of harmful ozone, could provide Maryland with ammunition in court.
"And that will underscore our legal position," Grumbles added.
Even if science is not a high flyer in the Trump Administration, it may still soar in a courtroom.
Maryland wants their EPA to force 19 coal-fired plants in five states to run pollution control systems every day in the summer, not just selected days.
Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
