Last week, the City of San Antonio discussed plans to improve air quality and return to being in attainment of federal ozone standards within three years. Bexar County was recently designated in Marginal Nonattainment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is the level of nonattainment closest to meeting the federal ground-level ozone standard. If the region does not meet the standard by 2021, Bexar County will be designated Moderate Nonattainment, which carries with it more severe regulations.
“First and foremost, ozone nonattainment is a public health issue,” said City Manager Sheryl Sculley. “I have appointed Dr. Colleen Bridger, Director of the City’s Metropolitan Health District, to serve as the lead in our ozone action efforts. Ozone exposure is known to cause increased mortality (especially among the elderly), cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, asthma attacks and absenteeism from school and work. We all have a stake in this.”
Despite the nonattainment designation, air quality in Bexar County is already trending in the right direction. In 2004, the Regional Design Value for ozone was 91 parts per billion. In 2017, it was 74 parts per billion. The federal standard, called the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), is currently 70 parts per billion. Bexar County’s three-year average must be below the standard to be considered in attainment.
Source: AACOG Regional Air Quality Strategic Plan 2018-2023
“Our goal is to make this nonattainment designation a one-time event,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “We are focused on solutions, not excuses, and it’s going to take all of us – business, government and the public – to make the changes necessary to ensure San Antonio meets EPA standards.”
The City has been proactive in identifying actions to continue to reduce pollutions. Measures such as a city-wide anti-idling regulation, commuter trip reduction programs, climate action and adaption planning, and public information campaigns to promote clean air actions by individuals have been implemented.
“Cleaner air is within our reach – it is very much attainable,” said Councilwoman Ana Sandoval, who formerly worked as a Senior Policy Advisor and Executive Operations Manager at the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “We’ve seen other big cities lower their ozone by much greater amounts than we need to lower ours to be in attainment. Houston has lowered their ozone by 10 parts per billion, and the Beaumont area is now in attainment after being in nonattainment several years ago.”
Today, City staff told the City Council that an analysis of how ozone is formed is underway and will be complete in September 2018. The City has contracted with Dr. Harvey Jefferies, one of the nation’s foremost experts in ozone formation, to conduct the analysis.
“The Formation Analysis will provide a day-by-day, hour-by-hour understanding of the causes of ozone in our area,” said Dr. Bridger. “Preliminary findings of this analysis show that there is a lot we can do here in San Antonio to lower our ozone by decreasing the sources of chemicals that combine to create ozone.”
The EPA designation of Bexar County will take effect on Sept. 24, 2018. Bexar County will have three years from this date to reach attainment of the federal ozone standard or the area will be moved to the Moderate classification, resulting in additional regulatory requirements.
