Analog
Lifer
Reagan claimed ? wrongly ? that trees produce more pollution than cars.
But right now, the biggest single source of air pollution in Washington isn't a power plant, pulp mill or anything else created by man.
It's a volcano.
Since Mount St. Helens started erupting in early October, it has been pumping out between 50 and 250 tons a day of sulfur dioxide, the lung-stinging gas that causes acid rain and contributes to haze.
Those emissions are so high that if the volcano was a new factory, it probably couldn't get a permit to operate, said Clint Bowman, an atmospheric physicist for the Washington Department of Ecology.
All of the state's industries combined produce about 120 tons a day of the noxious gas.
The volcano has even pulled ahead of the coal-fired power plant near Centralia that is normally the state's top air polluter. In the mid-1990s, when the facility's emission rate was about 200 tons a day, regulators pressed for $250 million in pollution controls to bring it down to today's level of 27 tons.
Government doesn't wield much power over a volcano, though.
"You can't put a cork in it," said Greg Nothstein, of the Washington Energy Policy Office.
Because the area around St. Helens is so sparsely populated, officials say they haven't heard complaints about respiratory problems linked to the emissions. But if the volcano were right next to Seattle or Portland, some of the most sensitive residents would probably feel the effects, said Bob Elliott, executive director of the Southwest Clean Air Agency in Vancouver.
"We are very fortunate, in terms of the impact on human health, that Mount St. Helens is pretty remote."
Italy's Mount Etna can produce 100 times more sulfur dioxide than Mount St. Helens ? and sits in the middle of a heavily populated area. The volcano spawns acid rain and a type of bluish smog that volcanologists call vog, which can affect large swaths of Europe, said Terry Gerlach, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who studies volcanic gases.
Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island churns out 2,000 tons a day of sulfur dioxide when it's erupting, creating an acid fog that damages local crops. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew out so much of the gas that the resulting haze spread around the globe and lowered average surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere by nearly one degree.
Some localized impacts are probably occurring on a much smaller scale near St. Helens' crater, Gerlach said.
"If you were to go and collect rainwater just downwind of the volcano, I suspect you would see some acid rain."
Worldwide, sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes add up to about 15 million tons a year, compared to the 200 million tons produced by power plants and other human activities.
While the fraction due to volcanoes is small, it can have an impact, Gerlach said.
"You can't call it trivial, compared with human activity."
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But right now, the biggest single source of air pollution in Washington isn't a power plant, pulp mill or anything else created by man.
It's a volcano.
Since Mount St. Helens started erupting in early October, it has been pumping out between 50 and 250 tons a day of sulfur dioxide, the lung-stinging gas that causes acid rain and contributes to haze.
Those emissions are so high that if the volcano was a new factory, it probably couldn't get a permit to operate, said Clint Bowman, an atmospheric physicist for the Washington Department of Ecology.
All of the state's industries combined produce about 120 tons a day of the noxious gas.
The volcano has even pulled ahead of the coal-fired power plant near Centralia that is normally the state's top air polluter. In the mid-1990s, when the facility's emission rate was about 200 tons a day, regulators pressed for $250 million in pollution controls to bring it down to today's level of 27 tons.
Government doesn't wield much power over a volcano, though.
"You can't put a cork in it," said Greg Nothstein, of the Washington Energy Policy Office.
Because the area around St. Helens is so sparsely populated, officials say they haven't heard complaints about respiratory problems linked to the emissions. But if the volcano were right next to Seattle or Portland, some of the most sensitive residents would probably feel the effects, said Bob Elliott, executive director of the Southwest Clean Air Agency in Vancouver.
"We are very fortunate, in terms of the impact on human health, that Mount St. Helens is pretty remote."
Italy's Mount Etna can produce 100 times more sulfur dioxide than Mount St. Helens ? and sits in the middle of a heavily populated area. The volcano spawns acid rain and a type of bluish smog that volcanologists call vog, which can affect large swaths of Europe, said Terry Gerlach, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who studies volcanic gases.
Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island churns out 2,000 tons a day of sulfur dioxide when it's erupting, creating an acid fog that damages local crops. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew out so much of the gas that the resulting haze spread around the globe and lowered average surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere by nearly one degree.
Some localized impacts are probably occurring on a much smaller scale near St. Helens' crater, Gerlach said.
"If you were to go and collect rainwater just downwind of the volcano, I suspect you would see some acid rain."
Worldwide, sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes add up to about 15 million tons a year, compared to the 200 million tons produced by power plants and other human activities.
While the fraction due to volcanoes is small, it can have an impact, Gerlach said.
"You can't call it trivial, compared with human activity."
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