Litchfield County fails to meet EPA air quality standards
By Leila Javitch

A century ago, Norfolk was renowned for its pure and seasonally
bracing air. Many people who eventually settled here came first as
visitors to “take the air”. Even now, most of us who are justifiably
proud of Norfolk’s natural resources would include air quality as
part of Norfolk’s appeal.
It comes as some surprise therefore, that since the end of 2004,
Litchfield County’s air quality has not met the Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) standards for ground-level ozone
pollution.
Ozone is formed when man-made pollutants chemically react in
the presence of sunlight. There is “good” ozone, which protects us
from the ultraviolet rays of the sun, but that same chemical
substance is “bad” at near ground-level.
Ozone’s other oddity is that because it is formed by the interaction
of primary pollutants, concentrations of ozone tend to be higher
outside the industrial centers where those pollutants are present.
Air trajectory analyses show that a significant amount of the ozone
in Litchfield County is blown in from states to the south and west;
however, the EPA’s Clean Air Interstate Rule of 2005 significantly
lowered ozone pollution in Connecticut by dramatically reducing
emissions of nitrogen dioxide in neighboring states.
Not all the air pollution in Litchfield County drifts in from
faraway. Our state also produces emissions from vehicular traffic,
power plants and municipal waste combustors, among other
sources.
Other than ozone, there are three significant pollutants present in
Litchfield County (although not in hazardous amounts). These
pollutants are regulated as a result of the Clean Air Act and

include: particulate matter (particles that create haze), nitrogen
dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
The Connecticut Department of the Environment has 26 permanent
pollutant monitoring stations scattered across the state. The closest
station to Norfolk is at Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall, which has
a webcam. To view a live photo, google “Mohawk Mountain
Visibility Hazecam”.
Dr. Xuhui Lee, a biometeorologist at Yale University’s School of
Forestry and Environmental Studies, has been monitoring air
quality in Norfolk’s Great Mountain Forest over the last ten years.
His investigation has been concerned primarily with mercury
emissions, but he has also monitored levels of sulfur dioxide in the
forest.
Lee believes Norfolk’s air is probably less polluted than
neighboring areas because we are upwind of local pollution
sources. His work confirms that much of the pollution here is
regional, arriving from elsewhere, rather than local.
He does note however, that considerable particle pollution can be
created from homes burning wood in the winter. While we usually
think of hot summer days as the times of poorest air quality, Lee
says that wood smoke pollution lasts a long time, especially in the
cold weather months.
Despite these existing pollutants, the Connecticut Department of
Environmental Protection expects that, due to existing Clean Air
Act programs, Litchfield, Hartford and three other counties in the
state will meet EPA standards for air quality by 2010.