The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision Wednesday to lower the amount of allowable smog raises new questions about the prognosis for air quality in the Sacramento region.
Q: Does the new smog standard give the region a reprieve from meeting the less stringent standard?
A: No. The EPA will continue to enforce the current limit as the local and state smog regulators impose more aggressive rules to meet the tougher standard, according to the state Air Resources Board. Sacramento area regulators, though, plan to ask the EPA to extend its compliance deadline six years, to 2018.
Q: How long does the region have to comply with the new smog standard?
A: Up to 25 years. The Sacramento region is afforded the longest time allowable under the federal Clean Air Act for attaining clean-air standards for smog. That's because the area is one of the smoggiest in the nation. The federally designated Sacramento "nonattainment" region encompasses western El Dorado and Placer counties, southern Sutter County, eastern Yolo and Solano counties and all of Sacramento County. The EPA is expected to give the region five years – until 2013 – to develop strategies for meeting the new smog standard and up to 20 more years – until 2033 – to achieve it, according to the state air board.
Q: Does the EPA decision have any immediate effects on the region?
A: Substantively, no. Beginning in May, the start of the smog season, the new standard will be applied to the Air Quality Index, said Larry Greene, executive officer of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. The AQI is a widely publicized, color-coded chart reporting the daily air quality – from "good" to "hazardous." Lowering the smog limit likely will increase the number of unhealthful days when local regulators will ask residents to "spare the air," Greene said, by carpooling, postponing errands and otherwise curtailing driving, and by other measures like avoiding gas-powered yard tools and outdoor barbecues.
Q: Will the new limit adequately protect Sacramento area residents?
A: That's a matter of debate. Some industry groups, including electric utilities, said the EPA exaggerated the health risks from smog and that tightening the regulations would do little good. Environmental and public health advocates said the agency fell far short of the protection needed, particularly for the more vulnerable young and old. Technically, the standard regulates ozone, the corrosive gas in smog that inflames airways and triggers heart and asthma attacks. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson set the allowable amount of ozone in the air to 75 parts per billion, averaged over an eight-hour period, down from the current 84 ppb level that was set 11 years ago. The agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, a group of independent scientists, unanimously recommended an ozone standard no greater than 70 ppb. The federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to review the national air standards every five years to ensure they are aligned with the latest science. No previous administration has rejected the committee's advice, according to Jason Barbose, spokesman for the advocacy group Environment California. Under President Bush, the EPA also did not take the scientists' advice last year in setting a new standard for fine-particle "soot" pollution.
Call The Bee's Chris Bowman, (916) 321-1069.
