Clean Air in the News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised the bar for air quality yesterday, a decision that could leave the Triad struggling to meet the tougher standard.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson announced yesterday that the amount of ozone allowed in the air will be lowered to 75 parts per billion from 80 parts per billion, a level that was set in 1997.

EPA officials said that 345 counties in the nation wouldn’t meet the new standard.

According to EPA maps, that list contains at least 14 North Carolina counties — including Forsyth and Davie. The average ozone reading in the Triad last year was 83 parts per billion, or ppb. Under the existing rules, measurements are rounded off, allowing readings up to 84 ppb are rounded down to 80 ppb and are acceptable. Readings of 85 ppb or above are rounded up to 90 ppb.

Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen that’s unhealthy to breathe and damages trees and crops. Although ozone occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere, ground-level ozone — the main ingredient in smog — is formed when vehicle exhaust and industrial chemicals mix in heat and sunlight.

Smog can damage lung tissue and aggravate such respiratory conditions as asthma, emphysema and bronchitis.

Mecklenburg and Rowan are the only counties in the state currently out of federal compliance, said Tom Mather, a spokesman for the N.C. Division of Air Quality.

Although more air-quality improvements are expected, state officials don’t yet know whether the gains will be enough to meet the more-restrictive standards, Mather said.

“Some counties undoubtedly will need to take further action,” he said.

EPA officials said that they won’t designate which areas haven’t met the new standard until 2010. Those areas will then have up to three years to develop a plan and up to 20 years to meet the new standard, depending on the severity of their problem.

Areas that don’t make progress in meeting the standard could face punitive action from the EPA, such as restrictions on new or expanding industry.

Bob Fulp, the director of the Forsyth County Department of Environmental Affairs, said that, although ozone reduction won’t be easy, he believes that both the county and the region can avoid restrictions.

“The good news is that we have a fairly long timeline,” Fulp said. “It’s not like this has to be done next week.”

Air pollution has long been a problem in Forsyth County, the Triad, and industrialized or urban parts of the state.

Before 2002, Forsyth was one of 32 counties statewide — and eight in the region — that didn’t meet federal ozone-pollution limits. Other Triad counties included Guilford, Davie, Davidson, Randolph, Rockingham, Caswell and Alamance.

However, major improvements in air quality have been made in the past six years as a result of state and federal anti-pollution laws aimed at power plants and other industrial polluters. The steady decline in manufacturing in recent years has also reduced emissions.

Fulp says that reductions to vehicle emissions will now get more attention.

“The main thrust is going to have to be mobile sources and it’s going to take rules on the federal level requiring vehicles to emit a lot less than they do now,” he said.

The EPA’s announcement last summer that a new standard was under consideration provoked a pitched lobbying effort aimed at influencing the agency’s decision.

Business groups — representing such as interests as electric utilities and the oil, chemical and manufacturing industries — have argued in meetings with the EPA and White House officials that the current standard should not be changed.

However, health experts have said that an even more stringent standard is needed to protect children and the elderly. A lower limit could also prevent premature deaths.

Federal law prohibits the EPA from considering economic costs in establishing the federal health standard for air quality. However, the agency estimates that the cost of complying with a standard of 75 ppb would cost as much as $8.8 billion a year, although it acknowledged that does not take into account reductions in health-care costs.

An independent EPA advisory group of scientists last year told the agency that an ozone standard of 60 ppb to 70 ppb is needed to provide an adequate margin of protection to millions of people susceptible to respiratory problems. A similar conclusion was reached by a second advisory board on children’s health.

In December, 111 health scientists signed a letter to Johnson that urged the EPA to adopt the science panel’s findings.

“Most studies show a steady reduction in the public-health burden as the standard is tightened,” said Jonathan Levy of the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis.

Johnson defended the new standard, saying that he considered the most recent scientific evidence in making the decision. He also said that the new standard complied with the Clean Air Act and that it would improve health.

“I adhered to the law,” Johnson said during a conference call yesterday afternoon. “I adhered to the science.”

The EPA has said that cutting smog from 80 ppb to 75 ppb would result in between 900 and 1,100 fewer premature deaths a year, 1,400 fewer nonfatal heart attacks, and 5,600 fewer hospital or emergency-room visits.

A separate study suggests that tightening the standard to 70 ppb could avoid as many as 3,800 premature deaths nationwide.