Tag: pollution

The US military really needs to look at this because the fine dust in Korea is horrible for servicemembers to breathing in considering the amount of time many of them spend outside:

With much of South Korea smothered in record levels of fine dust, the streets are full of people wearing masks as protection from the punishing air pollution.
Most American soldiers don’t have that option — at least when they’re in uniform. The Air Force permits masks when pollution hits a certain level.
Army regulations bar soldiers from wearing the masks, which cover noses and mouths, unless they have a certified medical condition that merits an exception.
That has caused concern among many soldiers and their loved ones as much of South Korea has endured several days of dense pollution that irritates eyes and makes breathing difficult.
“I feel like my husband should be able to wear a mask. I really don’t like that,” Army wife Alexandra Jackson said as she waited for dinner at the Yongsan Garrison food court.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Once again reality continues to hit countries trying to go away from both coal and nuclear power generation like South Korea is trying to do:

With fine dust at choking levels, there are calls for a reduction in power plants fueled by coal and a hike in taxes on diesel fuel to discourage dirty methods of transportation. 

But such measures could backfire.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced Wednesday it will close six aging coal power plants by 2022, three years earlier than originally planned. It will also expand the range of coal plants that will have their operations curtailed when the government issues a fine dust warning. The list, which originally affected 40 plants, was extended to all 60 plants in the country Wednesday. 

Coal plants will conduct more maintenance operations in spring to reduce their hours when fine dust levels are at their highest during the year. 

Yet coal power plants are the largest sources of Korea’s power. Unlike solar and wind-powered plants, coal plants are unaffected by weather conditions in generating electricity (as are nuclear plants).

Korea’s coal power plants currently have the capacity to generate 36,031 megawatts per year, which accounts for 28.6 percent of all power generated in the country. That figure is projected to reach 40,241 megawatts by 2022. 

Its proportion is set to decrease. Coal power plants actually accounted for 45.3 percent of total output in 2017 when several nuclear plants were not in operation. The projection for 2030 is 36.1 percent.

But even then, coal is also expected to remain the country’s biggest energy production source.

The government wants to replace coal plants with liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered plants to reduce fine dust emission levels. But LNG plants are not as efficient and will lead to higher electricity bills. It is uncertain whether the public would accept paying higher electric fees in exchange for less coal power.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This reeks of “were doing something” when the Moon administration knows as long as China continues to pump out pollution there is really nothing they can do:

President Moon Jae-in ordered the government on Tuesday to take extraordinary measures to fight fine dust pollution that has choked the country for days.
Moon received an urgent briefing from Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae on particulate matter problems for about 50 minutes, a presidential spokesman said.
Moon called for interagency efforts to curb the pollution and reduce damage, including the installation of high-capacity air purifiers in more daycare centers and schools.
“The government should respond immediately, rather than clinging to long-term responses, to people’s demand when it explosively increases,” he was quoted as saying by spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the measures include having more government meetings to discuss the problem and asking China to please stop polluting. Good luck with that.

No shocker here:

The thick smog that blanketed most of the country over the weekend was largely from pollutants from China, the JoongAng Ilbo reported exclusively Thursday after analyzing the Korean and Chinese governments’ data on fine dust movements in the atmosphere.

The paper analyzed the Air Quality Index (AQI) in cities and regions in China put out by the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the PM2.5 fine dust levels across Korea put out by the Korean Ministry of Environment’s National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER).

It found that rises and falls in the AQI in China were mirrored in the levels of PM2.5 in the atmosphere over Korea last week.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how the fine dust particles from China has now become a year around problem for South Korea:

Anti-pollution masks are strongly advised as fine dust levels across the country are expected to hit “bad” levels Monday, induced by industrial particles blown from China’s east coast.

The National Institute of Environmental Research said the capital area of the peninsula, northeastern province of Gangwon, central province of Chungcheong, southwestern province of Jeolla, southeastern province of Gyeongsang will all suffer “bad” levels of PM 2.5 dust, which range at around 35 micrograms of fine dust particles per cubic meter.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

Here is what one man said he saw happening at a closed USFK base in the Western Corridor:

A dump truck pulled into view ahead, coming up from the back gate down to the front gate, both of which had been left wide open. Maybe it was just taking a shortcut?

As I followed it down, a few minutes later I heard another truck behind me. I jumped into the brush again. But this truck stopped at a corner, engine idling. I heard what sounded like someone dumping out fluids from containers onto the ground.

Finally, after at least 10 minutes, a door slammed and the truck pulled out. I hugged the brush as the truck trundled past me on its way downhill.

Once it was out of sight, I hiked up to where it had parked, but couldn’t find any trace of whatever was dumped out. So I escaped before a third truck could come.

Heading downhill, the front gate was still wide open and several dump trucks were parked in front.

Months earlier, the Seoul City Government tested the soil and groundwater around six USFK sites in the city, searching for signs of contamination by U.S. forces. One site was the Eighth U.S. Army Religious Retreat compound, which would’ve been used for weddings, not storing Agent Orange or formaldehyde.

The contamination tests in Seoul didn’t reveal anything too scandalous, but even if they had, I’d remember that U.S. base that once stood proudly between Seoul and North Korea, turned into a toxic waste dump.  [Korea Times via a reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but local nationals illegally dumping is something I have seen plenty of times before in Korea from mechanics dumping oil into storm drains and septic trucks pumping their waste directly into a stream.

It looks like some apartment complexes in South Korea are having mountains of recyclable waste building up around them as private companies are having a harder time making money from recycling the waste:

As the confusion over recyclables continues in apartment complexes in Seoul and Gyeonggi, the Ministry of Environment on Thursday began an emergency round of checkups to find out which private companies are refusing to retrieve plastic and Styrofoam waste.

Forty-eight private recycling companies announced last week they would no longer retrieve plastic and foam waste because they could no longer make a profit from it. Paper collection was not affected.

The announcement threw people into confusion over how to discard their recyclables until Monday, when the Environment Ministry said in a statement that after negotiations, all 48 waste disposal companies agreed to resume regular services.

But the agreement may not have been as final as the ministry thought.

According to the Gyeonggi provincial government on Wednesday, 20 out of 31 local governments in the province said the companies were collecting recyclables the same way as before.

The rest are “in the process of negotiating.”

“We are in the process of negotiating to resume regular services, but some apartment complexes may experience inconveniences for a while,” said an official from the Resource Recirculation Division of the Gyeonggi provincial government. “We will try to reach agreement as soon as possible, and if we cannot, then we will have the city governments and county offices provide the services instead.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but the main issue appears to be the decision by China to cut the import of many types of recyclable waste.  China had been taking the waste and making solid fuel pellets for it to burn in factories or heat homes, but to decrease air pollution they have cut the import of the recyclables.

Considering that the vast majority of the pollution is coming from China I doubt banning cars will make much of difference while highly inconveniencing the public:

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said Sunday that his government would seek the power to ban vehicles based on license plate number during days with bad air pollution to reduce the number of cars running on city roads.The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to request an amendment to the enforcement ordinance of the Clean Air Conservation Act that will allow city mayors and provincial governors to issue a directive that bans cars with even- or odd-numbered license plate numbers from operating on certain days with bad pollution.

The request will be sent to the Ministry of Environment, which has the authority to amend the enforcement ordinance.

“The ban will, in effect, be carried out by the local governments of Seoul and surrounding areas,” said Lee Byung-chul, head of the Seoul government’s air quality policy team. “It cannot be carried out by Seoul alone. We have yet to determine the exact system of how we would enforce the ban, such as having checkpoints to stop odd- or even-numbered license plates from entering the capital area, or whether to utilize police and CCTV cameras to enforce the ban.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The city’s on-post soil analysis of Yongsan Garrison did not show contamination above safe levels.  This may be an indication that the off-post soil contamination may not be from the base as claimed.  However, the results are not going to matter to South Korean leftists who have been using this issue to create tension in the US-ROK alliance:

The result of Seoul City’s probe into soil and groundwater in areas near a US military base in central Seoul over alleged oil leaks came out Tuesday, showing below average levels of contamination in the samples from six of nine sites around the military base in Yongsan.

In August, the Seoul city government conducted its own survey on soil and water near the US base for possible contamination with toxic chemicals, amid growing calls for the disclosure of pollution levels in the area.

According to the analysis of samples released Tuesday, all six areas had soil and water contamination below average levels, based on the Soil Environment Conservation Act here.

However, two spots, the main post and the transportation office, will be reinvestigated next month, the city said, as samples from there were close to the average level.

Officials said that levels of total petroleum hydrocarbon detected from these sites were close to exceeding the standard level of 500 milligrams per kilogram. The detected amount was 471 milligrams per kilogram.

“Although there were no significant traces of contamination found from the probe this time, we are still concerned about areas where contamination levels were close to the standard, while the source of the pollutants near the US military base remains unknown,” said Kwon Ki-wook, chief of the city’s water circulation safety bureau.   [Korea Herald via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.