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BOARDMAN, Ore. -- Researchers may have pinpointed two contributors to the rising pollution and acid fog levels in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area: an aging Portland General Electric coal-burning power plant and an Eastern Oregon dairy complex that houses 52,300 cows.
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The PGE coal plant, constructed 30 years ago, does not have to comply with federal Clean Air Act rules that would apply to more recently-built plants. It received an exemption from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1975 two weeks before stiffer regulations went into effect, an exemption that the EPA later admitted had been a mistake.
The power plant is now among the dirtiest in the region, lacking scrubbers that are typically standard on such plants built today, according to a report in The Oregonian newspaper.
The nearby dairy, Threemile Canyon, has expanded rapidly over the last five years and remains exempt from Oregon state air regulation because it is considered an agricultural enterprise. The dairy's decomposing manure, however, emits more ammonia than the combined releases reported by regulated industrial sources in Oregon, federal figures show.
State officials say they are concerned, but that there may not be much they can do to regulate the situation because of the exemptions.
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