Lawsuit filed vs. coal-fired plant

The first coal-fired power plant to be built in Georgia in two decades faces a lawsuit. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports the Sierra Club, GreenLaw, and Friends of the Chattahoochee are teaming up in the suit. They claim mercury emissions from the Longleaf Energy Station would be built near Columbus would violate the Clean Air Act.

Carbon monoxide poisoning case in court

The Georgia Supreme Court will hear a case today to determine if carbon monoxide is a pollutant.

A Griffin woman says she was poisoned by carbon monoxide at her rental home in 2002 and now suffers permanent damage.

She has sued her landlord. His insurance company refuses to pay, citing the policy doesn’t include bodily injury caused by pollutants.

The insurance company says the federal Clean Air Act specifically designates carbon monoxide as a pollutant, thereby releasing them of responsibility.

Georgia's air pollution levels high

Smog season starts today. The American Lung Association released its annual State of the Air report, and the good news is that ozone levels are down across the country.

The bad news? Georgia has two of the most polluted cities in the country.

It’s no surprise to see Atlanta ranked number thirteen on the list of cities with the worst air pollution.

But to find tiny Rome number 24 on the list of Metropolitan Areas Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution, tied with Philadelphia and Hagerstown, Maryland, came as a shock to some residents.

Eric Lindberg, the county’s environmental service director, questions whether the air pollution here is as bad as it seems:

We know that the monitoring site is actually in a spot you would choose if you wanted to find the worst air, and that’s sort of led to some questions about the quality of the data.

Floyd County has been in non-attainment with the Clean Air Act for the past two years after the Environmental Protection Agency passed more stringent air quality guidelines.

Lindberg said he hopes more bio-diesel-powered school buses and new smoke stacks at a Georgia Power coal-fired power plant will knock Rome off the list next year.