Business View Magazine | February 2019

287 yet we are, by far, the most heavily industrialized county in Iowa.We have 17of what are defined as major sources (of pollution) by the Clean Air Act and we have a coal-fired power plant, as well. So, maintaining that status is very important from an economic development perspective. If you’re not in attainment, to build or expand capacity that would further degrade air quality, you’re required to install more costly and stringent emission controls on equipment; you’re also expected to buy offsets and things like that.Whereas, if you maintain compli- ance with the ambient air quality standards, then you have some room for growth within that buffer. So,we monitor air quality and we enforce adminis- trative permits and compliance with federal, state, and local standards.” Hodina’s Division also keeps watch over vehicle emissions.“Theymake up about 35-40 percent of the air pollution generated in Linn County,”he prof- fers.“So, through the efforts of the Board of Super- visors,we passed a policy to adopt anti-idling and a method for controlling emissions from our fleet vehicles.We’ve been working with school districts on their buses; we’ve also done monitoring around schools to see that when they let out, and all the parents are lined up in front, and their cars are running, air pollution levels are actually double or triple. So,we’ve tried to promote voluntary policies with the County and other municipalities, school districts, and so forth, to adopt similar measures. In that regard,we’re trying to lead by example.” In addition to maintaining air quality, Linn County also intends to take advantage of its strength in the form of wind energy.“Back in 2009, the Iowa legis- lature adopted code provisions that allowed local governments to become designated as small wind innovations zones if they did certain things to try to streamline the permitting process for small wind energy conversion systems–that’s defined as any- thing that’s 100 kilowatts or less,” says Beck.“So,we went through that process in 2012, and received the designation.There are only three counties in Iowa designated as small wind innovations zones and we’re one of them.” In order to know if wind energy is even economi- cally viable in Linn County, Beck’s Department partnered with the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC) to conduct a wind farm feasibil- ity analysis.The IISC is an initiative out of the Uni- versity of Iowa that pairs faculty and students with Iowa communities on a range of different projects. “When I look at a wind map of Iowa, the most suit- able part of the state for wind energy development is up in the northwest,”Beck opines.“Then, as you