Clean Air for the Triad Area: An Action Agenda
In April 2004, EPA designated the Triad area as violating federal health standards of ozone pollution. In 2005, the EPA identified the Triad as also violating the standard for fine particle pollution or "soot". Because of these “nonattainment” designations, the Triad has until 2010 to manage particle pollution and until 2007 to address ozone pollution. Failure to do so will result in federal sanctions such as the loss of federal highway expansion money.
The recommendations outlined below to address both mobile and stationary sources will help the area meet the nonattainment challenge:
Mobile source solutions
Establish a Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization
Currently four separate MPOs are responsible for transportation planning within most of the Triad area. Consolidating these into one MPO representing the entire nonattainment area would foster a unified effort to meeting the region’s transportation and air quality challenges. Under this approach, all jurisdictions in the nonattainment area could to work together to ensure that the ozone and soot standards are met by the 2007 and 2010 deadlines, avoiding Clean Air Act sanctions including the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of highway construction funding.
Focus Transportation Funding Priorities on Alternatives to Auto Travel
The Triad area is taking important steps to expand its transit system, including PART's proposed commuter rail line. Local officials should implement the light rail project as quickly as possible as well as increase funding for bicycle and pediestrian projects. Other innovative transportation strategies should be implemented as well, such as adopting a "fix it first" policy to prioritize needed repairs over new construction, providing linkages among various modes of transportation, improving traffic flow, and supporting local clean fuel and fleet programs to further reduce tailpipe emissions.
Apply a regional Approach to Land Use Planning
At present, land use planning decisions in the Triad are made by a hodgepodge of local jurisdictions competing for economic development and other priorities. Local officials have little incentive to make decisions in the best interest of the Triangle area as a whole. Localities in the Triad area should create an intergovernmental agency and adopt ordinances in order to coordinate land use, transportation and air quality planning to achieve regional goals. By joining together in this way, leaders in the Triad region would lead the state in creating an innovative model that combines economic development with sensible policies to clean the air and improve the region's mobility and overall quality of life.
Stationary source solutions
Demand full and faithful implementation of CAIR
The Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) finalized in March 2005, is the main federal initiative to address air pollution in the eastern US. The rule requires power plants to control their air pollution so that it does not spread to other states, preventing those other states from achieving and maintaining healthy air. If CAIR is properly implemented, cleanup at power plants in other states will reduce the amount of pollution that drifts into South Carolina and contributes to ozone nonattainment in the Upstate area. (Learn more about CAIR.)
Demand prompt EPA action on Section 126 petition
Because air pollution doesn’t recognize state lines, Section 126 of the Clean Air Act allows a state to petition EPA to find that power plants in upwind states are impeding its ability to attain air quality standards. In March 2004, the State of North Carolina filed such a petition with EPA to force cleanups at older coal-fired power plants in 13 upwind states, including South Carolina EPA had until November 18, 2004, to act on NC’s petition, a deadline that is has, so far, not met. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has informed EPA of the state’s intent to sue the agency for its failure to comply with Section 126. But it will be up to state and local officials and citizens to keep the pressure on EPA to take action.
Oppose "Clear Skies" legislation
The "Clear Skies Initiative" is a package of legislative changes to the Clean Air Act that includes interstate pollution reductions similar to those in CAIR, but also includes provisions that would gut important Clean Air Act programs and deprive states of tools necessary to achieve clean air faster, making it more difficult to achieve and maintain clean air in the Triangle. State and local governments in NC, as well as individual NC citizens, should continue to urge Congress to reject any attempts to gut the Clean Air Act by enacting any part of "Clear Skies."
