What Does Obama’s Decision to Adopt Bush Ozone Standard Mean for DFW?

Today the Obama Administration signaled its biggest environmental retreat to date, dropping any plans to lower the federal ozone standard to a level that’s actually protective of human health.

Instead, the EPA will stick with the 2008 standard of 75 ppb – a compromise that has no basis in the scientific literature and that ignored the advice of George Bush’s scientists to set a lower one between 60 and 70 ppb to make sure public health was protected.

What does this mean for DFW air quality planning?

1. In the short term – nothing. After two attempts since 2006, we still haven’t meet the old 1997 ozone standard of 85 ppb. When the current TCEQ effort to reach this goal is officially declared dead next year, the wheels will start to turn toward writing A THIRD plan to try and reach it. No matter how much the new federal level goes up or down, DFW still has to keep trying to meet the old 85 ppb standard until we have a three-year running average of 84 ppb or less. Right now we’re at 90 ppb. 

2. The George Bush Administration ozone standard of 75 ppb becomes the target for a brand new, separate clean air plan devoted to meeting it. In implementing it, the EPA must first draw new boundaries for the nation’s “non-attainment areas” – those regions that will be subject to this new standard. In DFW that means that Wise County, and perhaps other outlying counties, will be added to the 9-county existing non-attainment area. But this boundary process might take up to two years because the state will fight it. When that’s settled, then the state, along with the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee, will once again a have the responsibility to write a plan to meet the new 75 ppb std.

Unlike this year’s “plan” by TCEQ of sitting back and hoping people buy new cars, a plan to get down to 75 ppb will have to have moving parts and affect all sources of ozone pollution – industrial, vehicular, and everything else.  That will be the opportunity to press for state-of-the-art controls for the Midlothian cement plants, the East Texas coal plants, and the gas industry, as well as more mass transit, better energy efficiency standards and a host of other strategies. For example, by 2013, there will be a pilot test completed of SCR technology on a US cement plant in Illinois. Those results can be used to press for SC technology at the Midlothian cement plants.

Because Downwinders at Risk Director Jim Schermbeck serves on the North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee, we go this missive from the North Central Texas Council of Governments about an hour ago

TO:  North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee Members              
DATE:  September 2, 2011
FROM:  Mike Eastland
SUBJECT:  EPA Ozone Standard

The President announced this morning that he has requested EPA to wait until at least 2013 before establishing a standard for ozone in the 60-70 ppm range.  I have made contact with the EPA regional Office in Dallas to get more details on this and how this decision affects us in the meantime.  They had also just read the press release and are waiting to get more information from their colleagues in D.C. and North Carolina.

While not official, the most likely result is that EPA will begin implementation of the 75 ppm standard and the first step will be designation of those areas who will have to meet this standard and, of course, we are one of those.  If normal timelines are followed, the designations take one or two years.  Once they are made, states will have to start development of SIPs.

EPA will keep us updated as more information is made available and we will keep you informed.   When a clearer picture emerges, we will call a meeting of the Steering Committee and have the EPA and TCEQ give us a full report on all of this and how and when they will begin the process.

To read the President’s official statement please use the following link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/02/statement-president-ozone-national-ambient-air-quality-standards.

One day we might actually live to see these decisions based on the science instead of electoral plotting. In the meantime, we have to live with this compromise.

In terms of a timeline, this isn’t any different than what would have happened had EPA announced a 60 to 70 ppb standard today. We’d still have to wait a year or so for the boundaries designations to be settled. All that’s really changed is that we have a standard that is at least 5 ppb higher than it should be based on protecting public health.

So the first order of business is to start making the case of why Wise County should be included in DFW’s non-attainment area. It’s an easy case to make, but one the TCEQ really doesn’t want to hear. Why? Well if you look at a lot of ozone plumes in our area, you’ll often see the air pollution being pushed into Wise County from the rest of the Metromess. TCEQ suspects that ozone levels are going to be high there – that’s why there are NO ozone monitors in Wsie County, even though the state’s own modeling shows it’s a hot spot for ozone pollution. The state is afraid the ozone levels recorded there will be so high as to throw the entire DFW region out of whack in terms of its alleged “progress.”

The news that this president is once again settling for merely extending a policy of his predecessor instead of changing it is disappointing. But that doesn’t mean we twiddle our thumbs for the next 2-3 years. We have a clear course laid out for us now.  We finally have a new, lower standard that will prompt a new, more aggressive clean air plan in DFW, with more of the area’s counties included in it. That’s not a bad thing.