TCEQ Opposes New EPA Ozone Standards Proposal

The TCEQ is opposed to the EPA’s proposal to lower the primary National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. The primary standard is proposed to be lowered from the current 75 ppb to a range of 65-70 ppb.

“As a scientist, I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the EPA has proposed these new, shortsighted regulations,” said TCEQ Chairman Bryan W. Shaw, Ph.D., P.E. “There is powerful data that casts doubt on whether lowering ozone levels beyond the current standard of 75 ppb will have any significant health benefit. Environmental regulations should be based on good science, common sense, and the certainty that they will achieve the stated health benefits. The EPA proposal fails miserably at meeting any of those metrics.”

“First, I find it offensive for EPA to make this announcement the day before Thanksgiving without giving the TCEQ, one of the largest environmental agencies in the world, a courtesy call to alert us it was coming,” said TCEQ Commissioner Toby Baker. “Second, if the EPA is proposing new standards based on the best available science, as Administrator McCarthy claims, wouldn't they propose a single new standard based on that science that is most protective of public health? Instead the EPA has proposed an arbitrary range of new standards. If the EPA believes one of their proposed standards is more protective of public health, I would prefer that they set politics aside, make their case and propose it, instead of asking the public to comment on a nebulous range of meaningless new standards.”

“Unfortunately this appears to be a unilateral lowering of standards for the sake of lowering standards,” said TCEQ Commissioner Zak Covar. “The science is clear that increases in asthma incidences are inverse to actual ozone concentrations. We are missing an opportunity to work with the EPA to research and actually determine the real causes of asthma.”

The TCEQ’s opposition to these new standards is largely based on the fact that current scientific data does not provide certainty that lowering the ozone standard will provide health benefits. The TCEQ also has serious issues with the potential cost to implement and achieve a more stringent ozone standard. The TCEQ recognizes and supports the requirement of setting the ozone NAAQS at a level adequate to protect human health and welfare, based on the best available scientific information. However, the agency, as well as several state environmental agencies and other experts, have expressed concerns regarding the EPA’s interpretations and applications of the scientific materials used to conclude that a more stringent ozone NAAQS is needed.

The EPA’s own modeling has even shown an increase in mortality caused by lowering the primary ozone design values in the greater Houston area.

Other concerns include the lack of consideration of personal exposure to ozone in the epidemiology studies that are used as the basis for the proposed standard, as well as the critical fact that clinical ozone exposure studies do not show a clinically-adverse effect (by the EPA’s definition) at levels below the current standard of 75 ppb.

For more information on the TCEQ’s study of the proposed ozone NAAQS, see newsletter article Will EPA’s Proposed New Ozone Standards Provide Measurable Health Benefits?

A study by NERA Economic Consulting recently estimated a more stringent primary ozone standard at the 60 ppb level could reduce national gross domestic product by up to $270 billion per year and have a total compliance cost of over $2 trillion. Many areas of the country are likely to be above the lower end of the standard and are unlikely to have a means to meet the standard in the short term, given background levels of ozone entering a state or even the U.S. (from natural and man-made sources).

Areas determined not to be attaining a more stringent primary ozone standard will be those most impacted. All areas in Texas with a regulatory ozone monitor, or part of a metropolitan area with a regulatory monitor, currently measure ozone over 65 ppb with the exception of Laredo, the Lower Rio Grande Valley area, and Victoria. Based on current data, the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin-Round Rock, Waco, Killeen-Temple, Beaumont-Port Arthur, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Tyler-Longview, and even Brewster County (Big Bend National Park) all have ozone measurements over 65 ppb. The Laredo and Victoria areas currently have ozone design values between 60 and 65 ppb. The impact on these areas could be significant and not only ultimately require more industrial emission controls and expansion of the automobile emissions testing to these areas, but also could impact future economic growth within these areas and beyond. A final ozone NAAQS of 70 ppb would potentially impact not only the current ozone non-attainment areas of Houston-Galveston-Brazoria and Dallas-Fort Worth, but also Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tyler-Longview, Killeen-Temple, El Paso, and San Antonio, based on current data. A final decision on the ozone NAAQS concentration, and the monitored ground ozone levels between 2013 and 2016, will ultimately determine the exact areas impacted by a revised standard.