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Burlington's greenhouse gas emissions.


Source: Burlington Electric Department
Climate Protection Task Force



Goal from the Burlington Legacy Project

In 2030, harmful air emissions in the city have been reduced significantly and air quality is greatly improved.

Poor air quality is one of Burlington's more pressing environmental concerns. The city and the region consistently fail to meet Vermont minimum standards for clean air. Better transportation planning and reduced reliance on fossil fuels will play the greatest role in countering this problem, but research and public education will be vitally important as well.

No actions will have a greater impact on the quality of our air and the enjoyment of our environment than diminishing our present reliance on the automobile and fossil fuels. Harmful emissions will be decreased markedly, noise and congestion in the city's downtown and neighborhoods will lessen, and sprawl will no longer be fostered and exacerbated by a single-occupant automobile "culture."

Priority Actions
1. Provide for safe, accessible bicycle and pedestrian access to all areas of the city and surrounding communities.
2. Promote and invest in alternatively fueled vehicles and other nonpolluting technologies for transportation.
3. Invest in a system for ongoing monitoring and reporting of air quality.

Other Actions
1. Improve and protect air quality by minimizing the use of fossil-fueled vehicles in the urban core.
2. Provide financial incentives for businesses to reduce air pollution.
3. Develop and implement an urban reforestation plan.

Although Vermont's air quality is relatively clean in comparison to other parts of New England and the U.S., concentrations of several toxic air pollutants regularly exceed Vermont's health-based Hazardous Ambient Air Standards (HAAS). The Vermont Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) monitors for these contaminants and compiles data to quantify the exceedances. Many of these pollutants are locally generated within Vermont and are associated with on-road and non-road mobile sources i.e., automobiles, snowmobiles, marine outboard motors, and heavy construction equipment, just to name a few.

Click on the thumbnails for a
larger view of graphs

FORMALDEHYDE

CARBON TETRACHLORIDE

1,3-BUTADIENE
source: Vermont ANR

Click BELOW to Read More about AirToxics

Read more about the data on air toxics.

Thanks to Bart Sponseller at the Agency of Natural Resources Air Toxics Division for providing data and text for this section.

Check out the U.S. EPA's Annual Report on Air Quality in New England for information on carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, PM10, PM 2.5, and sulfur dioxide.