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DNR briefed board on ozone nonattainment along Lake Michigan shoreline and wildfire-smoke advisories
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Summary
DNR air management staff updated the Natural Resources Board on ozone nonattainment areas along the Lake Michigan shoreline, describing interstate transport, monitoring, advisory communications and resource limits in responding to new federal requirements.
Department of Natural Resources air management staff on June 25 briefed the Natural Resources Board on ozone and particulate matter issues, emphasizing that southeastern Wisconsin remains designated nonattainment for the 2015 ozone standard and is affected by pollution transport from states to the south.
Gail Good, director of the Air Management Bureau, explained EPA sets primary standards for criteria pollutants and that Wisconsin meets most standards but not the 2015 ozone standard in parts of the Lake Michigan shoreline. Good said meteorology and the lake-driven ozone formation process combine with transported emissions to make attainment difficult. Staff noted modeling shows Wisconsin sources account for a small share of the ozone measured in the state and that mobile sources account for roughly 40% of ozone-precursor emissions attributed to the state.
Good said nonattainment classifications carry regulatory and economic consequences for permitting and compliance. In areas reclassified as "serious," major-source thresholds are lower, new and expanding sources must offset emissions at higher ratios, and permit review becomes more complex. She said federal monitoring and modeling programs and adequate federal staffing and funding are central to implementing and resolving nonattainment.
Communications director Andy Sedlaczek described how the department notifies the public of air-quality advisories: the DNR uses forecasting tools, posts advisories to its web map, sends email notices via GovDelivery lists, and increasingly uses neighborhood-targeted Nextdoor posts. Sedlaczek said Nextdoor posts reached far more impressions during recent wildfire-smoke events than the department's historical Twitter/X posts, and that local health departments and media frequently amplify DNR advisories.
Board members and staff discussed the need for federal action on interstate transport, the resource limits of DNR's monitoring network and the ongoing need for funding to support permitting and compliance assistance.
