The Environmental Protection Agency last week released new standards for ground-level ozone, lowering the maximum allowable saturation of the gas from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb. In doing so, the EPA has raised concerns across states and various sectors about whether the new standard is attainable, and, if not, what the federal ramifications will be. Those are legitimate questions, but they are not sufficient to derail a needed rule that protects public health. Without stringent standards, however difficult they are to reach, improving air quality is merely aspirational. That is not enough.
The new standard was derived from extensive research into the health effects of ground-level ozone. The EPA is compelled by the Clean Air Act to ensure that public health is not unduly affected by ambient contaminants, and ozone is a known culprit in harming respiratory health. Asthmatic children, in particular, see increased illnesses as a result of high ozone levels. In lowering the ceiling of allowable ozone – which results when nitrogen and volatile organic compounds react in sunlight – the EPA estimates significant cost and health savings. Primary sources of nitrogen oxides and VOCs include vehicle exhaust, industrial facilities and power plants.
At or below 70 ppb, the EPA says there will be 230,000 fewer asthma attacks each year nationally – excluding California, which is considered separately – as well as 28,000 fewer missed worker days and up to 360 prevented premature deaths. The agency expects these and other health benefits to save up to $5.9 billion each year, while achieving the standards should only cost $1.4 billion, according to the EPA. With numbers like those, there should be no question as to the efficacy and value of decreasing the ozone threshold.
But the issue is more complex than such stark math would suggest. The EPA’s current 75 ppb standard – issued in 2008 – has not yet been met nationwide, and Colorado is among the states struggling to meet it. Front Range communities consistently report numbers above the threshold, despite a statewide plan to reduce ozone and other emissions – an effort led by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, compelled by the EPA. Southwest Colorado has not recently exceeded the 75 ppb ceiling, but is expected to struggle to meet the 70 ppb standard.
The CDPHE, through the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission, has had its ozone-reducing plan in place since 2008, and there have been improvements resulting from a multi-strategy approach including increased monitoring, vehicle emissions standards, new controls on gas and oil industry emissions and phasing out old power plants. Nevertheless, the problem is not wholly resolved, and there is concern that the new rule is simply out of reach given the challenges associated with curbing ozone levels, which is a regional problem as much as a local one.
However daunting the challenge, though, it is one we must rise to meet. Air quality standards are in place to protect human and environmental health, and ozone is known to negatively affect both. Setting a lower, easier-to-reach standard may be appealing for those who must modify their practices in order to limit their emissions, but it would compromise health for hundreds of thousands of Americans. That must be the top priority in setting pollution standards, regardless of how difficult meeting them might be. The EPA set a high bar and was right to do so.
