The Perfect Storm of Industrial Pollution that keeps DFW Air Dirty

For 20 years now, DFW has been in continual violation of the Clean Air Act because it has too much smog.

Despite at least four different clean air plans that have been designed to try to bring smog, also called ozone, under control, DFW now finds itself in need of two more in the next three years. We’ve made progress, but no plan has ever achieved its goal on time.

That’s because while some attempts have been made to regulate around the edges of the problem, no single plan has tackled the line of industrial sources releasing tons of air pollution that prevailing summer winds push down the line like a train collecting more and more railcars of smog until they all pile up at the end in the skies over North Texas.

Smog, or ozone, is created primarily by two different kinds of pollution: Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) that come from any source of combustion like a power plant, cement kiln or even the internal combustion engine on a car, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that come from some combustion, but mostly are emitted as fumes from sources like gas pumps, or storage tanks.

When these pollutants are exposed to enough sunlight, they turn into ozone, or smog. But it takes time. NOx pollution released from a smoke stack might take five or ten miles and close to an hour to turn into ozone. That’s why it’s important to address all major sources of air pollution upwind of DFW.

For many, ozone may be associated with temporary irritation of the lungs and throat, but each year scientists produce more evidence that health effects caused by the pollutant are much more harmful.

Ozone has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, suppression of the immune system, DNA damage, and early deaths. These injuries have been documented at increasingly lower levels of ozone, so that the federal standard has had to be adjusted downward three times within the last decade to protect public health.

Although Dallas and Tarrant are the central, or “core counties,” of the DFW non-attainment area, there are seven more North Texas counties also included in this designation, representing a total of 6 million people, including 500,000 children and adults with asthma, another 200,000 with Chronic Bronchitis or Emphysema and 1.5 million with cardiovascular disease. These vulnerable groups, along with the very young and the very old, are the local populations most at risk from being harmed by ozone pollution. But it appears that even the lungs of healthy adults and children can be severely impaired as well.

During the six-month “ozone season” from March until October, winds predominantly come out of the east and south. A breeze that begins in the Gulf of Mexico can sweep through the Ship Channel and Houston, collect more plumes as it heads through the coal plant belt in East Texas, then gets turbo-charged by the concentrated pollution of three cement plants in close proximity of each other in Midlothian, gathers up central city traffic fumes in Ft. Worth, and pushes all of this accumulated crud into the exact area around Eagle Mountain Lake, Keller and Grapevine where the largest urban gas play in the United States is being mined and processed.

When that happens, you have “red” and “orange” air days in DFW.

We’ve had so many of those days during the last decade that we’re in violation of both the old ozone standard which was already deemed “not protective” by the Bush Administration, and the new standard, scheduled to be announced on Oct 31st. For the first time in its history, the region will have to work on two clean air plans at the same time

By December 2011, the state must submit a new plan for meeting the old ozone standard.

By December 2013, it must submit one for the new standard.

2010-2013: “The Big Push”

For the next 48 months, the state, EPA and DFW officials will be facing the most intensive air quality planning process in the region’s history. It’s important to get it right. That’s why Downwinders is organizing to make sure that these new plans actually work by incorporating modern controls on the sources feeding the perfect storm of industrial pollution that keeps DFW unsafe and illegal. We’re calling our three-year campaign “The Big Push” because we want to finally get across a clean air goal line on schedule. And because it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get us there.

Did you know that if you drive a 2000 or later model car, you’re already getting 90% pollution control on your vehicle? And yet the cement kilns are only required to reduce by their smog-forming pollution by 30-40%, older coal plants by at most 50%, and many Barnett Shale gas facilities have no smog prevention controls at all.

90% controls for smog pollution are off-the-shelf technology for coal plants, cement kilns and many kinds of gas facilities. All it takes is the political will to mandate them. That’s where you come in. We need your help to show public support for an effective clean air plan. A plan that demands industry be as clean as cars.

The first step in building the new DFW clean air plans are the local monthly meetings of the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee. Although it only has an advisory role, these meetings are the lone DFW forum where the public can watch and comment on officials from local, state and federal government in the act of building the plans.

For the first time, Downwinders has a seat on Steering Committee. We’re monitoring and reporting its progress. Agendas, meeting schedules, and presentations can be found at the Committee’s website. (http://www.nctcog.org/trans/committees/ntcasc/index.asp).

But your participation is needed as well. Public officials serving on the Committee need to hear that dirty air is not just an abstract issue, but something that affects you and your family directly.

Breathing safe and legal air is a right. Join us in defending it.

What You Can Do

1) Sign up for Downwinders’ news alerts to follow the progress of DFW’s new clean air plans.

2) Contact the public officials serving on the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee and tell them to recommend the most effective pollution controls on coal plants, cement kilns and gas facilities as part of the new clean air plans being built by the state.

3) Contact the EPA and request they not approve a clean air plan for DFW submitted by the state of Texas unless it includes the most effective controls on coal plants, cement kilns and gas facilities.

4) Invite Downwinders to come out and show “The Big Push,” our presentation on why the next three years in so important to the future of clean air in DFW.

Membership of the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee Counties:

• Ron Marchant, Commissioner, Denton County
  ron.marchant@dentoncounty.com
• John Matthews, Commissioner,Johnson County
  pct2@johnsoncountytx.org
• Mark Riley, Judge Parker County
  judge.riley@parkercountytx.com
• Keith Self, Judge Colin County
  keith.self@collincountytexas.gov
• Marti VanRavenswaay, Commissioner, Tarrant County
  commish@tarrantcounty.com

Cities:

• Mark Burroughs, Mayor, City of Denton, Chair
  mark.burroughs@cityofdenton.com
• Robert Cluck, Mayor, City of Arlington
  robert.cluck@arlingtontx.gov
• Jungus Jordan, City Councilmember, Ft.Worth, Vice-Chair
  jungus.jordan@fortworthgov.org
• Linda Koop, City Councilmember, Dallas
  linda.koop@dallascityhall.com
• Darren Rozell Mayor, City of Forney
  drozell@cityofforney.org
• Amir Omar, City Councilmember, Richardson
  amir.omar@cor.gov

Environmental Groups:

• Ramon Alvarez, Environmental Defense Fund
  ralvarez@environmentaldefense.org
• Rita Beving, Greater Dallas Sierra Club
  antiquerita@aol.com
• Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk
  info@downwindersatrisk.org

Business Community:

• Margaret Keliher, Texas Business for Clean Air
  margaret@txbca.org
• Mark Stehly, North Texas Commission
  mark.stehly@bnsf.com
• Howard Gilberg, Dallas Chamber of Commerce
  gilberg@guidaslavichflores.com

E-Mail to Chairman Mark Burroughs and members of the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee

E-Mail to Dr. Al Armendariz, Regional Administrator of EPA