OKARCHE — As she drives a truck route between Texas and Oklahoma, LeVona Patton keeps careful watch of the summer days when smog is high in the urban areas of Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City.
"I just can't breathe. It shuts me down,” she said. "If it's gonna be a real high ozone day, I just stay home.”
But in rural Okarche, she says, the air is never a problem — always fresh.
State air quality regulators and other experts disagree.
As the summer smog season approaches, the state Department of Environmental Quality is launching a campaign to convince state residents that air pollution isn't just an urban problem — it can be unhealthy for everyone in the state.
The move comes as new information is available about the health effects of ozone, a pollutant formed when emissions from industry and tailpipes combine in hot, still weather. The more scientists know about ozone, the more severe the public health impacts seem.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March tightened its ozone standard, saying that smog is dangerous at lower levels than previously thought. That decision came after the American Lung Association and others sued the agency to re-evaluate its standard. EPA scientists and advocacy groups suggested the standard should have been lowered even more than it was.
The rule change likely will put Comanche, Canadian, Oklahoma, Creek, Kay, Mayes, Cherokee, Tulsa and Ottawa counties out of compliance with the law, said Dave Bary, spokesman for the EPA's office in Dallas. That means that on some summer days, the air is unhealthy enough that people shouldn't get outside and exercise; and those with asthma, like Patton, might consider staying inside altogether.
Officials at the department say the public health risk in Oklahoma extends beyond the nine counties listed by the EPA.
Unhealthy levels of smog put all Oklahomans at risk, said Curt Goeller, a senior environmental specialist in the agency's air quality division.
"You find a person, you're going to find air pollution. That's just the way we are,” he said. "The more people, the more air pollution. It just goes hand in hand.”
Goeller said all of Oklahoma — except maybe the Panhandle — would be out of the compliance with the new ozone rule if the state had more air quality monitors to find the trouble spots. He said all of the state's ozone monitors show unhealthy ozone levels except for two — those in McAlester and Seiling.
Much of the state isn't covered by monitoring, he said.
Michelle Bernth, spokeswoman for the American Lung Association branch serving Oklahoma, said people think of ozone as a "very industrial pollution” associated with urban areas. "But the unfortunate situation in the U.S. right now is there are very few places that don't have an air quality problem,” she said.
Personal actions
Residents interviewed in Canadian County — which is just west of Oklahoma City and has had high ozone readings — were perplexed by the idea that smog can be found rurally.
They wonder where the pollution could be coming from.
"I just don't see a problem,” said Marty Hall, 54, who owns a diner in El Reno. "I just look up and the skies are still pretty blue.”
Hall said maybe traffic on Interstate 40 contributes to the pollution. He said he sees ozone alerts broadcast on the Oklahoma City news, but he never assumed he needed to take notice.
