Industrial Air Pollution Battle Set to Move Beyond Smokestacks

Advocates and communities pushing for increased air pollution monitoring at industrial facilities are stretching the limits of long-standing emission control requirements that have largely stopped at smokestacks.

Fenceline air monitoring tracks ambient air at the boundary lines of a facility’s operations, and the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with proposals that could start mandating the trending technology for coke ovens that heat coal and chemicals such as ethylene oxide.

But companies and industry argue such mandates go beyond the technology that is currently required under air statute.

“This is a battle over the role of fenceline monitoring under the ...