South leads U.S. for increase in ozone pollution

Chapel Hill - The South has the highest increase of localities that violate a new, stronger national ozone pollution standard according to regional designations announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today. While the number of ozone "nonattainment" counties or partial counties in the U.S. is almost double under the new standard, from 232 to 474, the number in the South (AL, GA, NC, SC, TN and VA) increases six-fold, from 25 to 124.

The nonattainment areas will have to implement specific clean-up measures required under the Clean Air Act to achieve clean air by deadlines ranging from 2007 to 2010, depending on the extent of the local ozone pollution problem. Those measures include curbing additional point-sources of nitrogen oxides, the main ingredient of ozone, from such facilities as power plants, and improving transportation planning to limit vehicle exhaust, which accounts for roughly half of all ozone in across the South.

However, the EPA also announced a change in the rules for implementing the ozone clean-ups. These changes, which have not been released in detail, appear to weaken the clean-up requirements and allow EPA to grant deadline extensions without penalties to the polluted regions.

"This expansion of the areas identified as polluted with ozone is critical in the ongoing effort to clean up our air, and keep it clean in our rapidly expanding cities," said David Farren, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. Although there are several laws and regulations designed to reduce smokestack pollution and clean-up tailpipe emissions, "this is the strongest part of the Clean Air Act to address the link between air pollution and the growing number of miles we are driving, mostly due to sprawling development," he said. The top four ranked metro areas in the U.S. with the highest vehicle NOx emissions per capita are, in order: Nashville, Atlanta, Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, and Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill.

Farren said that the announcement of the new boundaries is a mixed bag. Numerous southern states, particularly North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, had argued for smaller nonattainment areas, saying that the clean-up requirements would hamper economic development. EPA, however, drew most of the boundaries more broadly than the states wanted, allowing only a few partial county designations rather than the dozens requested by states. Full-county designations address factory and motor vehicle emissions on the fringe of rapidly expanding metro areas.

"The fact is, dirty air harms a community's economic well-being much more than the clean-up measures required by the Clean Air Act," Farren said. The impact of ozone pollution on public health contributes to a community's lost work days and health costs, and depreciates the quality of life - both important factors for new businesses considering re-locating.