Citizens turned a public hearing about air pollution into one about landfills, Tuesday, in Stoddard.

But officials told them the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources looks at air, water and land pollution permits separately, even though the pollution comes from one source.

“We try to look at the big picture, but we are also limited by the laws as to what we can do and how much we can delay things,” said DNR attorney Marsha Penner. “If what they propose can meet the limits, we must approve what they propose.”

DNR officials have already given preliminary approval to the project. Residents asked the DNR to delay its approval of the project, but Penner said that was not possible.

Dairyland Power Cooper-ative needs the DNR’s permission to install new air pollution control equipment at its Genoa Generating Station. The scrubber will remove about 90 percent of sulfur dioxide from the plant’s emissions, a cooperative official testified. But because Dairyland will use crushed limestone to remove sulfur dioxide, it will increase the amount of ash generated, creating the need for a local landfill for the ash.

Dairyland angered residents in the town of Harmony east of the Genoa plant in 2007 when it announced plans to conduct soil tests for a landfill in the area. While Dairyland is still looking at Harmony, it is also exploring an ash disposal site adjacent to the Vernon County landfill near Viroqua.

Carl Volden, who lives in the town of Harmony, said that despite what Dairyland says about the air permit having nothing to do with the landfill, “it has everything to do with the landfill.”

“Are we really cleaning up the air?” Volden asked, noting that pollution would be created by trucks bringing limestone to the plant, and trucks taking the ash to a landfill.

“We don’t have a better choice,” Don Huff, Dairyland’s director of environmental affairs, said after the hearing. The scrubber technology Dairyland plans to install is required under the EPA’s new Clean Air Interstate Rule, which says Dairyland must reduce its overall sulfur dioxide emissions by January 2010, Huff said.

Residents at the hearing suggested Dairyland look at using a “wet-scrubber” that uses water to remove pollution. They also suggested Dairyland look at converting Genoa to a coal gasification plant, which produces less emissions.

The deadline for public comment on Dairyland’s permit application is Friday.