Particle pollution numbers rise for Carlisle area

From the Sentinel – cumberlink.com

HARRISBURG — Particle pollution continues to be a concern in Central Pennsylvania, according to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2012 report released Tuesday.

And it’s a concern that seems to only be getting worse.

The Harrisburg-Carlisle-Lebanon metro area went in the opposite direction of much of the rest of the country when its number of bad air days for particle pollution increased from 4.3 to 6.3 days per year, shifting the area’s rank from 39th worst in the country to 17th.

Read more: 
http://cumberlink.com/news/local/particle-pollution-numbers-rise-for-carlisle-area/article_a0cb738e-8e6b-11e1-a4ff-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1t4FYPUIJ

Carlisle Road Diet Wins CABBIE award

Carlisle Road Diet Wins CABBIE award

WHTM ABC new features road diet award.

Carlisle Road Diet Wins CABBIE Award

Carlisle road diet project wins second award

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Since its planning stages, Carlisle’s road diet has attracted a lot of attention – positive and negative attention.

Now that it’s done, the project is also winning awards.

The Borough of Carlisle tonight will receive an award from the Clean Air Board of Central Pennsylvania for the project, which was already honored in October with a project of the year award by the Mid-Atlantic Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Read more:
http://www.cumberlink.com/news/local/article_8a631ecc-1c0f-11e1-8679-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1fOojEyRa

PA Turnpike Opens No-Idle, Clean-Air Facility For Truckers at New Stanton Service Plaza June 4th

Pa. Turnpike Opens First No-Idle, Clean-Air Facility For Truckers at New Stanton Service Plaza Today

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Press Release

Truck Stop Electrification facility will help truckers comply with no-idling law.

Excerpt:

Truck Stop Electrification facility (Ohio Environmental Council)

NEW STANTON, PA (06/04/2010)(readMedia)– The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) had a ribbon cutting ceremony earlier today to mark the opening of a Truck Stop Electrification (TSE) facility at its New Stanton Service Plaza at milepost 77.6 off the westbound lanes of I-76 in Westmoreland County.

The TSE, developed by CabAire LLC, Enfield, Conn., is comprised of towers equipped with modules that fit into truck cab windows to provide heat, air conditioning, internet, TV and electrical power to trucks and other diesel-powered vehicles while the engine is shut off.

Cost to use a TSE module will be about the same as a gallon of diesel fuel per hour. CabAire has agreed to provide the service free of charge for 30-days, from June 4 to July 4.

“We are incredibly proud to have constructed this facility – presently the only one of its kind in the state – on the Pennsylvania Turnpike,” said Turnpike CEO Joe Brimmeier. “This TSE is designed to help reduce pollution and land-development impacts to the neighborhoods surrounding our travel plaza, and it’s just one of several steps we’re taking to provide a greener environment.”

More about how to reduce idling from the US Department of Energy Idle Reduction Portal.

CABBIE Awards 2009: Mike Hurley

Clean Air Board Bold Innovators for the Environment (CABBIE) Awards

2009

CABBIE Award presented to Mike Hurley

Mary Kay Durham, Mike Hurley and Win Cleland

March 19th, 2009 – The Clean Air Board annually presents Clean Air Board Bold Innovators for the Environment, CABBIE awards to people who are making a real difference for air quality in Central Pennsylvania. We are pleased to present Mike Hurley a CABBIE award for leading the effort to significantly reduce school bus idling in central Pennsylvania and beyond.

Mike served as President the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) in 2006-2007. With 3600 members state-wide representing 450 school districts, Mike had the opportunity to take a leadership role in promoting school bus anti-idling guidelines statewide. Last year, he was appointed to the School Committee and provided the membership with idle reduction articles and tips, including a presentation…all before we were assured that an anti-idling regulation or law would ever be passed.

Mike led the development of the first school district anti-idling guidelines in the region, provided anti-idling materials and developed a training session for District school bus drivers, installed anti-idling signs at District schools, again before the recently enacted law required anti-idling signage and invited CAB members to present to school bus drivers the health concerns of diesel particulate matter.

Presenting this award to Mike Hurley also recognizes the leadership that Mrs. Mary Kay Durham and the Carlisle Area School District has shown in making the district a model for reducing school bus idling to protect students’ health.

Plaque reads:

CABBIE Award

Clean Air Board Bold Innovators for the Environment presented on March 19, 2009 to Mike Hurley in recognition of diligent work to protect students’ health by promoting a school bus anti-idling program for Carlisle Area School District and the state of Pennsylvania.

DEP to Monitor Carlisle Area’s Air: Sentinel News

Bob Conrad, DEP chief of mobile labs, demonstrates an air monitoring unit at Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Middlesex Township. (Michael Bupp/The Sentinel)

DEP to Monitor Carlisle Area’s Air

June 14, 2006: The Sentinel News

Read Full Article

By David Blymire

Excerpt: “State officials took the first step Tuesday toward fulfilling a pledge to study air pollution in Cumberland County.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) set up a mobile air quality monitoring site in the parking lot behind Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation in Middlesex Township.

That site is one of at least four locations surrounding Carlisle where the state will gather air quality samples over the next five weeks before determining where to locate a more permanent, one-year air quality monitor.

Bob Conrad, DEP’s Bureau of Labs, said he will use a truck-based “mobile analytical unit” (MAU) to sample for carbon monoxide and a “random, broad range of compounds.”

It does not test for fine particle pollution, a source of concern recently for area doctors and a citizens’ group, but the samples will measure pollutants that often come from similar sources, offering DEP a reliable guide in deciding where to locate the one-year site.”