EPA-tightened air rules could impact area

PDF: EPA Strengthens Smog Standards to Better Protect Human Health and the Environment Newsroom US EPA

PDF: EPA's Federal Register document

Just weeks after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finally certified the Chattanooga region as meeting its air ozone standard, the regulatory agency Wednesday evening announced tougher new measures that could put the area out of compliance again.

Stephen L. Johnson, EPA administrator, said he based his decision to lower the 8-hour ozone standard from 0.084 parts per million to 0.075 parts per million on the most recent scientific evidence about the effects of ozone.

“America’s air is cleaner today than it was a generation ago,” he told reporters in an evening teleconference.

Locally, regulators and industry officials say they have exhausted pollution curbs in the region to achieve air compliance, and they are hoping national efforts to introduce low-sulfur diesel and clean up coal plants will do the trick.

“We’re prepared to do whatever we can do,” said Bob Colby, executive director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau — the local regulatory arm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “But we don’t have that many more places to go (to lower pollution sources).”

Mr. Johnson said that between 300 and 400 American communities now meeting the standard are expected not to do so under the new rules. Communities in violation in 2010 will be designated in “non-attainment.” They then will have three years to develop a plan to improve air quality and could have up to 20 years to achieve their clear air goal, he said.

Wednesday’s ruling appeared to please neither health advocates, who called the standard too lax, nor industry leaders, who said it would be too costly.

“Unfortunately EPA has chosen to bow to political interests over the public’s health by releasing a ozone standard that falls short of the recommendations of doctors and other public health professionals,” said Trip Pollard, senior attorney with the nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center.

John Engler, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Manufacturers, said the tougher standard will lead to higher costs throughout the economy with little or no health benefit for Americans.

“Anyone interested in preserving high-paying U.S. jobs in manufacturing and keeping a lid on energy prices should be disappointed by today’s ruling,” he said in a prepared statement.

After instituting auto emissions controls and open burning bans in 2005, the Chattanooga region squeaked by to retain a “pending” tag of compliance for the three-year period ending in 2007, according to officials and a notice in a February issue of the Federal Register.

Had monitors logged two additional bad air days, Chattanooga already would be out of compliance, Mr. Colby said.

“At this point, if we shut everything down, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference. Everything that can be controlled is well controlled now,” he said Wednesday. He said the largest remaining uncontrolled county sources of smog-causing chemicals are the emissions of non-compliant vehicles that pass through Chattanooga from other counties.

Ray Childers, president of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association, agreed that local efforts largely have been tapped.

“We’ve done just about all we can do except throttle the interstates down to one lane,” he said.

The rule also brought mixed reactions from members of Congress.

Saying EPA “acted on the advice of its science advisers who unanimously recommended an even stiffer standard,” U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., called EPA’s decision “a step towards cleaner air and better health for Tennesseans.”

But U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said EPA “missed the mark.”

“Once again the EPA has rejected the recommendations of its scientific advisers and failed to protect our communities from dangerous air pollution. Smog kills,” she said, “and scientific studies say that thousands of lives could have been saved” with a still-tighter standard.

Mr. Colby said local officials will do what must be done to comply with the rule.

“The number (in the standard) really doesn’t make any difference. We’re required to achieve and maintain whatever ambient air standards are established,” he said.

POP QUOTE

“We’ve done just about all we can do except throttle the interstates down to one lane.” — Ray Childers, president of the Chattanooga Manufacturers Association