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As North Texas grows, air becomes cleaner

As the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s economy has grown to one of the nation’s most vibrant, its citizens have also enjoyed improvements in air quality.

This summer saw the lowest levels of ozone in three decades, thanks to a campaign to reduce air pollution led by the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Texas, and local governments and businesses. High readings of ozone, a compound that contributes to the formation of smog, fell to 85 parts per billion (ppb) this year, down from over 100 ppb a few years ago. Additionally, ozone levels exceeded the health-based standard of 84 ppb only nine days this summer, compared to over 40 days in the late 1990s.

EPA worked with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and local governments and business groups to drastically reduce harmful emissions from smokestacks and exhaust from cars, trucks, planes, trains and construction equipment.

Efforts such as the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan have helped by providing over $80 million in funding for new, cleaner-burning engines for businesses, schools and governments. Over the next year, additional pollution reductions will be made at factories, power plants and cement kilns, which will help the DFW area achieve ozone levels consistently below 85 ppb by 2010, as required by the Clean Air Act.

DFW has earned its cleaner air through hard work, and can do even more in the future to achieve newer, more stringent air quality standards and further protect the health of all the area’s citizens.

DFW Clean Air Plan