BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In the world of government regulation, conventional wisdom says no good deed goes unpunished.
For instance, if we get through this summer without an ozone violation, the Tristate finally can comply with elusive smog limits. In return, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will tighten the standard, change the rules and require new controls. That's the best that can happen.
If we violate the current ozone limit, regulators can pile on additional restrictions until compliance is achieved.
Then the EPA will add further restrictions until we meet the tougher, new standard.
It's not a question of whose health benefits; according to the EPA -- we all do. It's not a question of who pays -- we all do.
It's just a question of how, how much and how soon.
Making progress
The EPA decided to cut allowable ozone after it concluded the current limit doesn't protect human health adequately; it says everyone's ability to breathe suffers on bad smog days, and children, the elderly and people with lung problems suffer most.
"It's going to be very difficult for us to meet the new standard," said Heidi Griesmer, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).
Although many Tristate residents consider ozone controls onerous, a decade of federal and local restrictions have produced generally cleaner air.
That's why Tristate smog isn't what it used to be; 1988 had 57 days above the limit; 1983 had 37 and 1980 had 45.
Now, such days are rare.
Granted, the region is prisoner to geography and weather, but we can take credit for the improvements:
Most cars and light trucks in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties pass biennial E-check emissions tests the first time, and those that flunk usually pass after a tuneup.
Kentucky switched to low-emissions gas in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties and is adopting a basic tailpipe test to reduce remaining pollutants.
Utilities and industries continue to reduce gases that contribute most to smog: volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Cinergy is committed to cutting its nitrogen oxides faster than the EPA requires.
Many Tristate residents are postponing lawn cutting, reducing the number of trips taken by car or truck, and commuting on Metro and TANK buses during smog alerts.
So many pollutants have been eliminated that even a hot, clear summer might not tumble us into regulatory purgatory, according to Jay Bortzer, chief of the regulation development section of the EPA's regional office in Chicago. Ozone-reduction programs "appear to be doing what they're supposed to be doing," he said.
Understanding ozone
Still, avoiding an ozone violation won't be easy:
Despite increased reliance on mass transit, we drive more and larger vehicles more miles, and even properly tuned vehicles pollute.
Many of us aren't going anywhere fast. We are stewing in construction-related jams, with idling engines spewing pollutants from tailpipes.
Heavy demand for air conditioning requires coal-fired power stations to crank up and emit more smog-related pollutants on the worst smog-prone days.
Ozone is created when sunlight cooks VOCs and NOx from vehicles, utilities, industry and vegetation into noxious smog. To comprehend how the Tristate past defines our future, it helps to understand the EPA's language of ozone control:
An exceedance occurs any day that ozone at any of the 10 regional monitors exceeds the EPA one-hour limit. Today, a daily exceedance is more than 124 parts per billion (ppb) of ozone during any hour.
A violation is four or more daily exceedances at any monitor during three continuous years.
The EPA can certify that a region is in attainment after three continuous years with no violation.
The Tristate qualified for attainment in 1992-1994 but in 1995, while the EPA was deciding whether to declare us in attainment, there were nine exceedances and a violation at the Lebanon monitor. The EPA left the Tristate in moderate non-attainment, where we remain without hope of further extensions in our compliance efforts.
New standards
If we get through this summer without a violation and seemingly inevitable restrictions on travel and industry, the EPA can promote us to attainment.
Then all of us will be able to draw a deep breath and join the argument over how best to join everyone else as they try to comply with the new national ozone limit.
That standard allows no more than 84 ppb averaged over eight hours in a day. It no longer will penalize a region for one bad hour, but allowable ozone has been cut by a third.
"We expect a lot of areas to be non-attainment," Ms. Griesmer said. That includes the Tristate, urban areas already in attainment with the current standard and fringe counties that had not violated the current standard.
Still unresolved is how Ohio will meet the new 84 ppb eight-hour standard.
The "traditional" approach uses more aggressive controls on the whole panoply of pollution sources.
The "transitional" approach concentrates on greatly reducing NOx from utilities and industrial sources.
"We haven't decided which way we will go," Ms. Griesmer said, but the OEPA will decide in the next year after the EPA's rules become clearer.
