Fine Particle Reduction

• Maintain your vehicle
  Regular maintenance and tune-ups, changing the oil, and keeping tires properly inflated can improve gas mileage, extend your car’s life, and increase its resale value. It can also reduce traffic congestion due to preventable breakdowns and reduce your car’s emissions.
   
• Buy smart
  Research vehicle fuel economy at www.fueleconomy.gov and visit EPA’s Green Vehicle Guide at www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/ before buying.
   
• Drive smart
  Avoid idling as you get zero (0) miles per gallon. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, and hard braking) wastes gas. It can lower your highway gas mileage 33% and city mileage 5%. Energy-saving tips.
   
• Slow down
  Gas mileage usually drops rapidly at speeds above 50 mph. The www.fueleconomy.gov website shows how driving speed affects gas mileage. Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas.
   
• Do more on one trip
  Combine your errands into one trip. It helps you get things done efficiently while reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. Starting a car after it has been sitting for more than an hour causes up to five times more pollution than starting up when the engine is warm.
   
• Take the bus or carpool
  Even if you do it just once or twice a week, you’ll reduce traffic congestion and pollution and save money. Including the cost of car ownership and maintenance, the average driver spends more than 50 cents per mile.
   
• Ride your bike or walk
  It’s a great way to travel and it can help you and the air get into better condition.
   
• Telecommute
  Working at home will save time and money, and reduce emissions and traffic congestion.
   
• Get an energy audit
  A home energy audit is often the first step in making your home more efficient. Conduct an audit to see what steps you can do to save energy and reduce heating and cooling bills. For more information, visit the Energy Star website.
   
• Consider energy consumption when purchasing new appliances
  Compare Energy Star ratings before buying.
   
• Replace inefficient wood burning stoves
  EPA-certified wood stoves burn more cleanly and efficiently, save money, reduce the risk of fire, and improve air quality inside and outside your home. More information on choosing the right wood stove is at www.epa.gov/burnwise/choosing-wood-burning-appliances.
   
• Reduce or eliminate residential burning
  Backyard burning emits PM2.5 in addition to other air pollutants. Additional information on residential burning is available on the DNR's open burning webpage.
   
• Reduce lawn mower emissions
  Lawn mowers, like any engine, need proper maintenance to reduce pollution. When purchasing a new mower, consider purchasing an electric mower. Utilize native plants and landscaping to reduce the area to be moved. EPA provides additional information about lawn equipment, your yard, and cleaner air.
   

Opportunities abound for communities to help address existing and future air quality issues. Working to replace aging diesel fleets with new school buses, road maintenance vehicles, and higher fuel efficient biofuel or hybrid powered vehicles can have a significant impact on air quality. Providing incentives for greater use of mass transit, helping minimize open-burning and vehicle idling, and addressing community-specific areas of concern can help maintain good air quality. Developing community-based plans for sustainable growth that consider air quality impacts will help assure appropriate air resource planning.

The Iowa DNR, in cooperation with the Iowa Economic Development Authority, has published Community Land-Use Planning for Air Quality as a guide for planning officials to accomplish air pollution reduction and protect citizens from unnecessary exposures.

Here are excellent examples of communities that have formed these groups:

• Bi-State Region Clean Air Partnership
• St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership
• Kansas City Clean Air Action Plan

Additionally, EPA's Advance Program provides communities a means to collaborate and obtain support to take proactive steps to keep their air clean. The program promotes local actions to reduce ozone and/or fine particle pollution.

Proactive steps can help promote good air quality, support community efforts, and save on energy costs. Developing mass transit and carpooling incentives, providing employee education, developing specific operational plans for poor air quality days, managing fleets for best economy and fewer emissions, establishing idling limits appropriate to equipment use, and managing energy consumption and efficiency are just some of the ways businesses and industries can help. Consider joining the Blue Skyways Collaborative or other organizations that develop and support clean air practices.

• Control Emissions
   
• Control or prevent fugitive emissions
   
• Utilize renewable energy sources and energy-efficient power generation
   
• Get an energy audit
  Contact the DNR’s Pollution Prevention Services for a free, non-regulatory, and confidential assistance.
   
• Promote and encourage public transportation, carpooling, and/or telecommuting
  Provide reduced or free bus passes to employees. Create a carpooling forum so co-workers can efficiently find interested parties. Offer a telecommuting option to save time and money.
   
• Explore retrofits for diesel vehicles, replacing inefficient diesel engines, and replacing old diesel vehicles
  EPA’s National Clean Diesel Campaign seeks to reduce diesel emissions from on-road and non-road vehicles.
   
• Maintain fleet vehicles
  Regular maintenance and tune-ups, changing the oil, and keeping tires properly inflated can improve gas mileage, extend your car’s life, and increase its resale value. It can also reduce traffic congestion due to preventable breakdowns and reduce your car’s emissions.
   
• Buy smart
  Research vehicle fuel economy at www.fueleconomy.gov before buying.
   
• Drive smart
  Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, and hard braking) wastes gas. It can lower your highway gas mileage 33% and city mileage 5%. Energy-saving tips.
   
• Slow down
  Gas mileage usually drops rapidly at speeds above 50 mph. The www.fueleconomy.gov website shows how driving speed affects gas mileage. Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and, in most cases, will save gas.
   
• Idling reduction
  Visit EPA’s Smart Way Transportation Partnership to learn more about EPA’s innovative collaboration with the freight sector designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce air pollution.