Agency's push for tougher ozone rules would go beyond big cities

January 8, 2010

The Arizona Republic

Shaun McKinnon

Smog, long the symbol of polluted cities, is about to become a small-town issue.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed new standards for ground-level ozone Thursday that would trigger violations in as many as nine Arizona counties, including some of the state's most rural corners.
 
The rules would force the state, counties and private businesses to spend potentially millions of dollars to reduce ozone emissions and could lead to new controls on power plants and more widespread vehicle smog checks.
 
Efforts to nudge more drivers into less-polluting, more fuel-efficient cars would come as rising gas prices make older models less attractive, but the need to steer people toward mass transit could hit a snag as officials in Maricopa county weigh cutbacks in bus and train service.
 
The tradeoff, the EPA says, is cleaner air and fewer sick people. Ozone, the primary component of summertime smog, is linked to asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory illnesses. It can affect lung development in children and aggravate cardiopulmonary diseases.
 
"We have to level with the American people about their air quality and health," said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, who was in Phoenix for an unrelated event when the proposed rules were issued. "This will be a challenge for our country. Once the standard is final comes a lot of hard work."
 
The EPA proposed to reduce the allowable ozone in the air from 75 parts per billion to a level between 60 and 70 parts per billion. The level is measured based on an average of some of the area's most polluted days over three years. The agency will settle on a final number by Aug. 31 after several public hearings, a comment period and a final review.
 
The existing standard was set less than two years ago, revised downward from 84 parts per billion. At the time, the EPA's science advisers recommended a limit of between 60 and 70, but the Bush White House intervened and the EPA set the limit at 75.
 
"There was some damage to be undone," Jackson said of her agency's action to accept the original recommendations. "We were talking about a standard that was misleading. We needed to get the science right."
 
Maricopa County had taken steps in recent years to reduce ozone pollution and had submitted its plan for long-term compliance, a step needed to preserve federal highway dollars. If a county exceeds the standard and fails to correct the problem, the EPA can revoke federal highway funding, though agency officials conceded the penalty has not been imposed in regulating ozone.
 
When the revised standard took effect in March 2008, the county exceeded the limit on 18 days during that year's ozone season, which runs from April through October. The proposed limits all but guarantee that the county will fall short again, triggering the need for a new clean-air plan.
 
Lawrence Odle, director of the Maricopa County Air Quality Department, said it's too early to know what the stricter standard will mean for residents and businesses.
 
 
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon meet with ADEQ Director Benjamin Grumbles and Maricopa County Air Quality Department Director Lawrence Odle.
 
Ozone forms when sunlight reacts with carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, methane, vapors from gasoline, paint or other volatile chemical compounds. In Arizona, the two primary sources of ozone pollution are vehicle traffic and power plants.
 
"I look at this as an opportunity for us as a region to advance clean-air strategies," Odle said. "The reality is, this process is going to present a challenge to the county. We will have to be more focused and more creative in our air-quality planning."
 
Until now, work to suppress ozone has occurred mainly in metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson, but the proposed rule underlines a growing problem elsewhere in Arizona.
 
Pima, Pinal, Yuma, Gila, La Paz and Navajo counties would exceed the standard no matter where the EPA sets it within the 60 to 70 parts-per-billion range. Cochise and Coconino counties would fail to comply unless the EPA chooses the upper limit of 70.
 
"This is going to be a priority for us to reach out to citizens of the state," said Benjamin Grumbles, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. "We need to get a sense of how this might work, to coordinate an effort with county air agencies."
 
The new standard could also draw new attention to the problem of regional air quality, Grumbles said. Emissions from power plants, freeways and factories in neighboring counties or states can be carried through the air and turn into ozone far from its source.
 
"We're estimating that six of the counties in Arizona are recipients of ozone from other states and Mexico," he said. "We're looking at an environmental problem that is in need of a regional solution."
 
The EPA announcement drew criticism from electric utilities and oil producers, industries often targeted for pollution control.
 
In a statement, the American Petroleum Institute, a group that represents oil and natural gas suppliers, criticized the EPA and called the proposed standard a political decision "that could mean unnecessary energy cost increases, job losses and less domestic oil and natural gas development and energy security."
 
But the American Lung Association said the EPA recognized the risks of leaving the higher limit in place.
 
"The benefits of cleaner air are clear," said Charles Connor, the group's president and chief executive officer. "Fewer children with asthma will go to the emergency room; fewer adults with lung disease will die from breathing polluted air."

 


return to previous page