Air quality becoming unhealthy
Businesses and officials
will meet today to discuss changes that can be made to the Oklahoma City metro
area.
By
John David Sutter
Staff Writer
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Friday, September 29, 2006 |
|
The Oklahoma City metro area is on its way to breaking federal air
quality standards for unhealthy levels of smog — perhaps as soon as
summer.
A violation likely would
cost industry, government and citizens tens of millions of dollars to improve
the air during coming years.
Based on air quality data
collected this summer, if Oklahoma City doesnÕt breach of the U.S.
Environmental Protection AgencyÕs ground-level ozone standard in 2007, it will
Òfor sureÓ happen in 2008, said Jerry Church, spokesman for the local agency
that announces air quality alerts. The standard is based on a three-year
average.
ÒThis basically proves that
we are a Ômajor-league city.Õ We are able to produce our own air pollution, and
itÕs not something to be proud of,Ó Church said. ÒWe no longer need to be
envious of Dallas.Ó
ChurchÕs agency, the
Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, plans a meeting today to show
government officials and business leaders how bad air quality was this summer,
and to decide how to make changes with a newfound sense of urgency.
A voluntary EPA program to
curb Oklahoma City smog will be discussed. If the voluntary plan doesnÕt work,
the EPA could mandate changes.
Central Oklahoma already has
a program, under an agreement with the EPA, to try to increase awareness of air
quality problems.
ÒThey know that what theyÕve
done (in Oklahoma City) isnÕt enough, so I think theyÕre being very smart about
it and very logical,Ó said Carrie Paige, an environmental scientist at the
EPAÕs Dallas office. ÒHopefully, weÕll see a reversal in the air quality trends
(in Oklahoma City) very quickly.Ó
Paige and Church said
changes could include:
¥Requiring gas stations to
sell cleaner-burning gasoline.
¥Re-instating vehicle
inspections, and possibly requiring costly emissions tests.
¥Banning work on
construction sites during certain hours of the day.
¥Requiring the Oklahoma
Department of Transportation to fill roads with cleaner materials on ozone
alert days.
¥Tightening industry
emission restrictions.
¥Promoting better public
transit, alternative fuels, car pool programs, and flexible work hours.
Some changes would require
action by the state Legislature.
While association officials
said Thursday that studies are too old to estimate how much the changes might
cost residents and the state and local government, Oklahoma City leaders
estimated in 2004 that the corrective actions would cost their residents and
businesses more than $40 million a year.
Ozone is a molecule probably
known best for its presence high up in the atmosphere, where it blocks the
sunÕs harmful rays.
But in the air people
breathe, ozone contributes to smog and can make people sick. It forms when
pollutants from cars, power plants, lawn mowers and other sources mix with hot
weather, still winds and bright sun.
Michelle Bernth, spokeswoman
for the American Lung Association branch that serves Oklahoma, said the 55,000
people in Oklahoma County suffer from asthma and are greatly affected by high
ozone levels.
ÒThere is a direct
correlation between outdoor air pollution and the well-being and health of
these at-risk populations,Ó she said. ÒWhen the air quality is in a really bad
situation, there are higher numbers of asthma attacks.Ó
Many cities —
including Dallas and St. Louis — already are designated as being in
Ònon-attainment,Ó or communities with dirty air.
Tulsa fell below the
standard in the late 90s, but never came under federal sanctions, said Nancy
Graham, air quality program manager at the Indian Nations Council of
Governments, which announces air alerts in the Tulsa metro.
Graham said economic studies
at the time showed that if Tulsa became a Ònon-attainmentÓ city, its cost of
living would have increased by an estimated 3 to 5 percent.
To keep that from happening,
the city made major changes. Gas sold in Tulsa in the summer is cleaner burning
than that sold in Oklahoma City, she said. Refineries volunteered to sponsor
that change, even though it costs them more money, she said.
The EPA sets a date for
violating cities to clean air up to standards. How much time theyÕre given is
based on how dirty the air is, Paige said.
Dallas, which has a
ÒmoderateÓ air quality classification, is working toward a June 2010 deadline
to improve its air quality, according an EPA list of Ònon-attainmentÓ cities.
A metropolitan areaÕs air is
judged to be above or below the ozone standard based on ozone readings taken
during a three year period. Hot air and sunlight cook the ozone, so the
readings are taken in summer months.
If the three-year average of
the fourth-worst summer readings at any one monitoring site is greater than .08
parts ozone per million parts air, the city area breaks the health standard.
That means that if a city had only three bad ozone days every summer, it would
be in compliance.
This summerÕs ozone readings
were among the highest in Oklahoma City metro history, Church said. The
summerÕs highest reading showed .095 parts of ozone per million of air in Yukon
on June 8. The fourth highest reading — the one used by the health
standard — was .088 parts per million at an Edmond location on July 20.
Church said the data debunks
a long-held theory that much of the cityÕs smog problems rode in from Dallas on
summer winds.
Testing sites on the south
side of Oklahoma City — which would be affected most by DallasÕ pollution
— had the lowest readings. Those north of Oklahoma City showed the
highest levels of ozone.
Blaming Dallas now seems
like a Òbackdoor excuse to not claim responsibility for our air quality woes,Ó
he said.