By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-878693.mp3
Dallas – Twice as many Texas counties are expected to be out of compliance with new, tougher ozone restrictions. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce the more stringent clean air requirements as early as today.
Ground-level ozone is a harmful air pollutant that forms when emissions from cars and industry react in the presence of sunlight. It can trigger asthma attacks and damage lungs.
In 2004 the EPA told nine North Texas counties their air was so polluted with ozone they must come up with a plan for reducing ozone. If they didn't the region could lose federal highway dollars and area businesses might find it more difficult to obtain operating permits.
Houston-Galveston, and Beaumont Port Arthur faced a similar ultimatum.
Tom Smith with the environmental group Public Citizen says a Bush administration scientific advisory panel documented the health concerns and recommended a much lower ozone level than his EPA finally adopted.
Smith says the Obama administration has been reviewing that decision and is now expected to reduce the amount of ozone allowed in the air by 15 to 20 percent.
Smith: That means for the Dallas area we are going to have to find new ways to reduce pollution. It may mean shutting down cement kilns or some plants to the south and east of here. It may mean changing some of the ways we drive and getting more efficient automobiles, plug-in-hybrids on the road more rapidly.
Dr. Bryan Shaw, a Texas A&M engineering professor, is chairman of the state's environmental agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Shaw hints his agency might challenge new ozone regulations.
Shaw: Certainly there are some challenges and concerns with regard to science and rationale behind lowering the standards. There is always the opportunity if we chose to and felt we had standing to sue over such issues if we find they are not in keeping with law or the Constitution.
Shaw says Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston have made great progress in reducing ozone in recent years. He says Houston has just reached compliance with current ozone limits and Dallas is close.
Tighter standards would knock both urban areas further out of compliance, and it would add many others including San Antonio, Austin and Tyler to the list of ozone-polluted regions.
Shaw says that would be a shame, because many of those regions are voluntarily trying to clean up their air.
Shaw: I'm hoping this new setting won't make it to where some counties and communities don't think there's no benefit to making those efforts because the standard is going to be so rigorous
But environmentalists who've campaign for stricter standards say the lives of Texans are at risk. They say the cost of reducing ozone is a bargain when you consider the price paid by those who've lost their health to pollution.