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Air Pollution

Air Pollution

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PostOct 08, 2019#1

If you work in the Downtown/Soulard area you might have noticed a general stench that occurs with increasing frequency, especially in the evenings and early mornings.
Today, it is particularly bad. We live in Soulard and had to close our windows given how unbearable it was.
Apparently it is coming from the Veolia Sauget plant, and the EPA is actively reducing restrictions to emissions 
https://www.kmov.com/news/soulard-resid ... d91b4.html

As someone who lives in Soulard and works Downtown, I am pretty much exposed to this 24/7. I wonder if there are any long-term health implications.

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PostOct 08, 2019#2

It was rough this morning for sure. The fire dept and Spire were at my apartment checking things out because someone had called thinking it was a gas leak. 

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PostOct 08, 2019#3

I am sitting in my downtown office, in an air-conditioned building, and can still smell it

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PostOct 08, 2019#4

I am in the same boat - live in Soulard and work Downtown. This smell is out of control. 

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PostOct 08, 2019#5

bUT GuyS, THInk of aLL oF The JObs THeSE REgulATIonS WEre kiLliNG!!

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PostOct 08, 2019#6

Massive new study links pollution to assaults and domestic violence
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/massi ... =rss&rss=1

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PostOct 08, 2019#7

If it really is Veolia Sauget, then I would suggest people start calling them directly, reach out to them via social media, or even reaching out to local media to see if they are looking into it as a story to push for a fix.  

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PostOct 08, 2019#8

https://echo.epa.gov/report-environmental-violations 

I submitted this, not sure if that will do anything!

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PostOct 08, 2019#9

It was stanking again today on East Cherokee

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PostOct 09, 2019#10

If Veolia isn't breaking any EPA regulations (at least until the EPA gets back to actually protecting the environment) with this plant, can anything realistically be done?  

There always is the possibility of public outcry, but that has limitations.  Even if Krewson or someone else did make a stink about the stank, why would the governing body of Sauget be at all motivated to do anything?

Edit: Been doing some reading on Sauget.  I always knew it existed across the river, but I had no idea it was such a pit.  https://beltmag.com/a-short-way-to-hell ... an-profit/

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PostOct 09, 2019#11

Sauget was literally founded as a city to evade environmental and tax regulations in other municipalities so yes, I doubt that anything can be realistically done.

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PostOct 09, 2019#12

Soulard/downtown folks maybe could follow up with Kmov if it hasn't been getting better or is worsening since their report in June.

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PostOct 10, 2019#13

A Benton Park resident posted the following on Nextdoor:
I got a call back from the folks at DNR on this today. A very quick response i must say. He said that he drove around to most of the permitted sites and reported that the smell we are getting is more than likely not coming from the Missouri side as there is nothing here that should be producing any smell like that. He said the strongest culprit is something on the east side and is very likely Violia, which operates a waste incinerator in sauget though he said there are many chemical companies over there that could produce that smell, which is something i think we all knew. He said we need to call the Illinois EPA and report it. He also stated that he made initial contact with them but it was only as a courtesy to us since they don't have jurisdiction there. He also informed me that there were 6 calls that day for the smell. Which is great...but also way fewer than the number of people who get to live with that nasty smell. The number for the Illinois EPA is 217-782-3397.

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PostOct 21, 2019#14

pollution from sauget has long plagued the near southside/downtown but it's beyond ridiculous that this is getting WORSE. time to tighten the social pressure/media screws on veolia regardless of the EPA. this is absurd.

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PostNov 20, 2019#15

KSDK just had a short segment about Veolia being investigated due to resident complaints about pollution. Not sure if odor was a piece of the complaints or not, but at least it’s being looked at for possible violations.

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PostNov 22, 2019#16

I drive route 3 in Sauget 3-5x/week and it's by far gotten worse.  Literally gagged a few times.

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PostNov 29, 2021#17

I don't think how polluted the city was gets commensurate credit for its role in encouraging the spreading out of the region.

Stltoday - Nov. 28 1939: The day 'Black Tuesday' rolled into St. Louis

https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/ ... 630c4.html

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PostNov 29, 2021#18

The coronavirus spreads faster in areas with poor air quality, according to new research from Washington University.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2021-10-26/air-pollution-in-st-louis-helps-fuel-coronavirus-spread-especially-in-communities-of-color

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PostMar 09, 2023#19

Revealed: the 10 worst places to live in US for air pollution
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/08/10-most-air-polluted-places-to-live-us

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PostMar 09, 2023#20

It would be interesting to know the sources contributing to the amount of PM2.5. There's local ones like vehicle tires and brakes, a smokestack and nearby ones like coal power plants and far away ones like forest fires.
Stl PM25 Map.jpg (237.08KiB)

PostMar 18, 2023#21

Stltoday - Missouri pollution is so bad it hurts other states. Power plants ordered to cut emissions

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/sta ... 76a73.html

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PostMar 18, 2023#22

The air quality piece from the Guardian doesn't make sense to me. I'm not an expert by any means, but I check air quality meters with somewhat regularity, mainly because I don't want to go for a bike ride by the north riverfront industries on a polluted day. We don't have that many bad air quality days.

If you go here and hover over a site, it'll show a color-coded last 365 days of PM2.5 pollution, and it's mostly green.
https://aqicn.org/map/usa/missouri/branch-street/

You can download data for PM2.5 from the EPA here.
https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality ... daily-data

If I grab the 2022 Forest Park data and average it, I get a way lower number (~8). The vast majority of daily readings are well below what the Guardian says is the average.

Does someone here have enough understanding of the subject to make sense of this?

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PostMar 18, 2023#23

An AQI of 50 equals 12 ug/m^3. Annoyingly the scale isn't linear. The Guardian is much stricter as to what constitutes "good"
AQI for PM25.png (360.86KiB)

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PostMar 27, 2023#24


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PostMar 27, 2023#25

Ugh. MoLeg - local control when we say so.

"The legislation prohibits local governments from imposing regulations on air and water that are more restrictive than the state."

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