Feds consider tightening regulations on smog limits

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 14, 2007 | by Denis CuffSTAFF

Federal air quality regulators are about to decide whether to propose a stricter health standard for smog -- an action that would push the Bay Area and many regions across the nation to do more to clean up their air.

Facing growing scientific evidence that the current limits are too weak to protect children, the elderly and asthmatics, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to disclose by Jan. 20 whether it intends to enact a new standard for smog, also known as ground-level ozone.

The EPA now requires regions to meet an eight-hour limit of 0.08 parts per million of ozone in order for the air to be considered safe.

Setting a stricter limit with a lower maximum means many regions would need to find ways to cut pollution from industries, cars, equipment engines and consumer products, or risk loss of federal highway funds.

"New evidence is telling us that smog is more harmful that previously thought. It can even shorten lives," said Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association. "Scientists are telling us that people can be harmed even if the air meets the current standard."

Her group was among several environmental organizations that sued the EPA to get it to promise a decision by Jan. 20 on the adequacy of the current standard.

The EPA last reassessed the ozone standard in 1997, but putting the current standard in place was slowed by lawsuits from industry.

In December, a federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled the EPA was giving too much time to many regions to meet the eight- hour smog standard.

EPA officials on Wednesday were not tipping their hand on their upcoming decision. It will be announced by the June 20 deadline, they said.

Agency scientists and administrators recommended in a report that EPA consider lowering the 0.08 ppm standard to a range "somewhat below 0.08 ppm to down to at least as low as 0.06 ppm."

In the report, the EPA employees concluded that "the overall body of evidence clearly calls into question the adequacy of the current standard in protecting sensitive groups, notably including asthmatic children and other people with lung diseases, as well as all children and older adults, especially those active outdoors, and outdoor workers."

The report says smog is associated with a variety of lung and cardiovascular ailments, including asthma and bronchitis attacks, and possibly even the risk of shortened lives.

In a separate report, 23 scientists on an EPA advisory committee unanimously recommended that the agency consider lowering the limit to a range of between 0.07 ppm to 0.06 ppm.

Frank O'Donnell, director of Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Clean Air Watch, said he foresees a conflict shaping up where industrial and business groups worried about pollution control costs oppose a stricter standard.

"It's shaping up a classic case of science versus politics," O'Donnell said.

Representatives for national trade groups representing automakers and oil refineries said Wednesday they did not have a comment about the possibility of a stricter ozone standard.

O'Donnell said new measures to curb air pollution will cost money. However, he said the nation has a track record of being able to absorb pollution control costs that have reduced smog levels considerably in the past three decades.

Pollution regulators say it's too early to say exactly how they would make more pollution cuts if a stricter smog standard is ordered.

The Bay Area's air pollution agency would consider seeking federal permission to get credit for emissions cuts from its Spare the Air campaign asking motorists to drive less on bad air days, said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the agency.

To promote Spare the Air this year, public agencies will offer free public transit rides on up to four days.

Because Spare the Air is voluntary, however, the EPA hasn't allowed the Bay Area to count any pollution reductions in the region's official smog control plan.

"This is the kind of thing we would look at institutionalizing if we had more tons of emissions to reduce with a new standard," Broadbent said. "We would have to look very long and hard at sources to make large reductions. We're looking at small numbers, now."

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is reviewing a proposed rule that would require restaurants with charbroilers to reduce pollution vented into the air during grilling of steaks and hamburgers.

The Bay Area violated the ozone standard on 12 days last year even though it has some of the cleanest urban air in America, district officials said.

More violations would have been recorded in the region if a stricter standard had been in place last year, officials added.

In Southern California's biggest air district last year, there were more than 80 days of excessive smog.

Contact reporter Denis Cuff at (925) 943-8267 or dcuff@cctimes.com.