New EPA ozone rules expected

By Devona Walker

Published: March 8, 2008

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after roughly a decade, will release new ozone standards Wednesday. Many expect multiple counties in the state including Tulsa and Oklahoma counties will be out of compliance under the rule change.

States found not in compliance will have to come up with implementation plans to rectify the problem by 2013. In rare cases, states that have not been able to address air quality issues have been denied federal highway funds.

"The science is absolutely overwhelming that the current ozone standard does not adequately protect people's health,” said Frank O'Donnell, president of the Washington-based Clean Air Watch, a nonprofit, organization devoted to protecting Clean Air Laws and policies.

"The EPA's own experts have said overwhelmingly that the standards should be changed. The ozone is the most widely spread public health threat caused by air pollution.”

The current standard allows for a measure of ozone concentration of .08 parts per million. The EPA has indicated that standard would likely be changed to between .07 and .075 parts per million. However, public health officials have been urging the federal agency to issue a stricter standard of .06 parts per million.

EPA scientific evidence indicates that some people can be harmed at levels as low as .04 ppm, O'Donnell said.

At the current standard of .08 parts per million, no Oklahoma counties are out of compliance. However, if that standard is lowered, 13 Oklahoma counties including Oklahoma and Tulsa would be out of compliance.

While many of the more systemic ozone problems are confined to California and much of the East, there are large swaths of the Southwest that do not have the proper monitoring systems to measure ozone.

O'Donnell said air quality has in fact improved over the years, but knowledge of the health risk associated with air pollution has out-stepped those improvements, making it an unnecessary risk to take.

"The question is: Are our current standards appropriate,” O'Donnell said. "Clearly, they are not.”

Currently, several counties in Texas are out of compliance. One small county in eastern Arkansas is out of compliance.

Under the agency's presumed new standards, huge swaths of the Southwest up to the Eastern shore would be noncompliant.

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