Ozarks Clean Air Alliance
Click HERE to visit Ozarks Clean Air Alliance's Website.
The Ozarks Clean Air Alliance was created as a subcommittee of the Environmental Collaborative charged with responding to the needs and issues identified in an environmental health assessment conducted in 2002. The result of this assessment project of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department was the creation of the State of the Environment for Springfield and Greene Count: A Report and Recommendations. This comprehensive report was coordinated through the Community Partnership's Environmental Collaborative and the Environmental Advisory Board.
The data and information used in this assessment were compiled through research of both electronic and standard published materials. A great deal of information was also obtained through personal interviews with contacts in many environmental disciplines. These disciplines include: population growth and urban sprawl, water quality/quantity, air quality, solid waste management, community health, environmental education and environmental justice.
For Air Quality, it became clear from the beginning that a community educational initiative needed to occur before opinion information could be collected from residents. Appropriately, the primary recommendations coming out of the Air Quality workgroup were centered on community education through the establishment of an ongoing regional committee. Like other natural resources, we understand that quality of those natural resources do not begin or end at the city or county line. Therefore a regional committee was created to address air quality issues in the Ozarks region.
The Ozarks Clean Air Alliance now guides the region's education and outreach efforts to reduce the negative effects of air pollution. We bring together vested individuals and both public and private representatives who are dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of today's Air Quality issues. The Alliance will work to create opportunities to voluntarily reduce the emissions that cause air pollution.
Current initiatives underway include:
- Grant seeking efforts have been conducted through the Community Partnership to bring dollars into the community that will assist in reducing air pollutants.
- Clean Air Action Plan - A comprehensive, community-based, plan of voluntary strategies to reduce ground-level ozone pollution in Southwest Missouri. The plan includes voluntary initiatives that can be adopted by local governments, businesses, and the general public to reduce pollutants (I.E. NOx and VOC's) that contribute to ground-level ozone formation.
- www.showmecleanair.com - an educational website designed to educate the community about air quality and methods to reduce pollutants for residents, businesses and agencies.
- Adopt - A - Bus project - In Partnership with the Springfield Public Schools this project seeks partnerships with the community to retrofit SPS buses with emission reducing equipment.
The many communities that make up the Ozarks enjoy the benefits of our natural resources where we live, work and play. Together we can ensure that our children's children enjoy the same beautiful resources pure and simple.