After years of working to cut back on carbon monoxide emissions, the City-County Health Department announced Friday that Missoula has finally been taken off the nation's list of cities that don't meet federal carbon monoxide standards.
“I'm really excited about this,” said Shannon Therriault, an environmental health supervisor for the health department. “It's been a long time coming.”
In the 1970s, Missoula violated the carbon monoxide standard nearly 100 days a year. In 1978, the city was ordered to comply.
The bulk of the reduction in carbon monoxide emissions came when - again on orders from the federal government - Missoula added ethanol to its wintertime fuel tanks and newer-model cars, and trucks were forced to meet tougher fuel-efficiency standards nationwide.
“As many of the old cars are put to rest, that has made a gigantic difference,” Therriault said.
Since the introduction of oxygenated fuel during the winter of 1992, Missoula has not exceeded the carbon monoxide limit of 9 parts per million in an eight-hour time frame. In fact, the city is well bellow that now, at 3 parts per million, Therriault said.
In addition, Missoula regulates the use of woodstoves in the valley and prohibits them in new homes.
Between 1990 and 2000, Missoula reduced its carbon monoxide emissions by 40 percent.
Not much will change because of the delisting, Therriault said Friday. Missoula will continue to regulate the use of woodstoves, and mandate use of ethanol in wintertime fuel. And health officials will still monitor the air just as frequently as they do now.
What it does mean is that the strategy Missoula has used to clean up its air worked, she said.
Missoula health professionals worked for three years to gather information to submit a report requesting re-evaluation by the federal government. The state Department of Environmental Quality submitted it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2005. It took until this month to hear back.
The health department will undergo a review 10 years from now. If everything remains stable up to that point, only then would it be possible for Missoula to relax its monitoring routine, Therriault said. There are no further federal reviews after 10 years.
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