Clean Air for the Upstate Area: An Action Agenda
Background
In April 2004, EPA designated the Upstate area as violating federal health standards of ozone pollution. The "nonattainment" area and the three adjacent counties of Cherokee, Oconee and Pickens have entered EPA's "Early Action Compact" program, which means that the nonattainment designation has been suspended in exchange for the promise to take local steps to clean up the area's ozone pollution by December 2007, sooner than the Clean Air Act would normally require. While Upstate leaders have recently taken some initial steps to address the interrelated challenges of air pollution, transportation and land development, the nonattainment designations send a clear signal that more must be done.
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 three separate MPOs are responsible for transportation planning within most of the Upstate area. The creation of one MPO representing the entire area, or an umbrella planning entity, would foster a unified effort to meeting the region's transportation and air quality challenges. Under this approach, all jurisdictions in the nonattainment area would work together to ensure that the new ozone standard is met and sustained over the long term, avoiding Clean Air Act sanctions including the possible loss of highway construction funding.
Reform transportation funding priorities
In addition to a host of innovative transportation strategies such as street connectivity, carpool encouragement and local clean fleet programs, the Upstate should pursue a regional transit system, serving at least the larger cities in the metro area. Local governments in the Upstate area should be prepared to act promptly on the recommendations that come out of the local transit study now underway.
Apply a regional approach to land-use planning
At present, land-use planning decisions in the Upstate are made by a hodgepodge of local jurisdictions competing for economic development and other priorities. This is exacerbated by the inability of the cities to expand their jurisdictions under existing South Carolina law, as well as the strong resistance to zoning in rural areas. In addition to updating their individual land-use plans, localities in the Upstate area should create a intergovernmental agency to coordinate land-use, transportation and air quality planning to achieve regional goals.
Stationary source solutions
Support aggressive federal and state efforts
While stationary source pollution control has traditionally been viewed as the responsibility of federal and state officials, as the largest metro area in the state, the Upstate area can exercise a powerful voice in both Columbia and Washington, D.C. In order to meet the upcoming deadlines and to maintain clean air over the coming decades, citizens, the business community and local officials should urge state and federal agencies to develop new programs and strengthen existing programs to clean up smokestack pollution.
Pass a South Carolina "Clean Smokestacks" Act
Instead of waiting for the next "top-down" solution at the federal level to clean up the emissions of South Carolina's 12 coal-fired power plants, South Carolina should take charge of its air pollution problems by enacting its own Clean Smokestacks Act, similar to that of North Carolina, that includes significant reductions in NOx and SO2 emissions, as well as toxic mercury emissions and carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.
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.
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 Upstate. State and local governments in SC, as well as individual SC citizens, should continue to urge Congress to reject any attempts to gut the Clean Air Act by enacting any part of "Clear Skies."
