DFW’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Smog Day

Yesterday was the single worst day for ozone pollution in DFW this year. How bad was it?

Over a third of DFW’s air monitors – 8 of 21 – had their ozone season highs for eight-hour readings set by yesterday’s smog. Six of those were “exceedences” of the old 8-hour 85 ppb federal ozone standard. You know, the one we’re supposed to be meeting by now.

Denton            102 ppb
Keller              100 ppb
Grapevine         98 ppb
Pilot Point          91ppb
Dallas North      90 ppb
Parker County   85 ppb
Eagle Mnt Lake 84 ppb
FW NW              82 ppb

There haven’t been two 8-hour averages of 100 ppb or more in DFW since 2007. In all, eight DFW monitors accumulated 23 hours of smog readings that were 100 ppb or above. The day’s single highest hourly reading was 115 ppb in Keller.

Grapevine’s monitor became the fifth one in DFW to officially violate the Clean Air Act by registering its fourth reading over 85 ppb. There haven’t been as many DFW monitors in violation of the Clean Air Act since 2006 – before the last clean air plan kicked-in.

Pilot Point’s high reading sent the entire DFW “Design Value” for ozone pollution (the highest reading among all fourth highest readings) up another notch, from 90 to 91 ppb. Last year it was 85 ppb. We’re only one very bad air day in Denton away from seeing it jump to 95 ppb. From the looks of the forecast, today could be that day.

Please keep in mind that George W. Bush’s EPA scientists said an ozone standard protective of public health would be set somewhere in the 60 to 70 ppb range.

And take note that the computer modeling underlying the state’s currently-proposed “clean air plan” for DFW predicts our Design Value will be no higher than 85 ppb this year.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when the Dallas Morning News published an article saying ozone wasn’t really that bad this summer?

And remember when Joe Barton said the other night at his town hall meeting that air quality in DFW was getting better?

They’re wrong. This is the worse ozone season in four to five years. Air quality is not improving, it’s declining.

This isn’t just an unfortunate turn of events, or lousy luck. This was a predictable outcome of policies pursued by the state, including submitting a clean air plan that consists entirely of hoping people buy new cars, and letting gas industry pollution go unregulated.