NON-ATTAINMENT AREAS IN TEXAS, 2003 TAKE OUT CIRLCE IN COLLIN COUNTY for LEAD and make Ozone, One-Hour Ozone Source: Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Revisions to State Implementation Plan (1996). Note: Suburban counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, while technically attainment counties, have agreed to participate in the State Implementation Plan for transportation control measures. These counties include Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker and Rockwall. Milam County and the Houston Ship Channel are unclassified because of high SO2 Levels, although they are not considered nonattainment areas.

Under the Federal Clean Air Act, any area that violates national ambient air quality standards for any of the six criteria pollutants as few times as once per year and as often as four times over a three-year period is classified as a "nonattainment" area. Texas currently has four such areas, encompassing 17 counties. While all four areas violate standards for ozone, parts of El Paso County also violate standards for particulate matter and carbon monoxide. Recently, however, TCEQ officials have been working with the EPA and local officials in El Paso to have the area redesignated as attainment as air quality has improved and much of the problmes with meeting ozone standards are the result of dirtier air from across the border.  In addition, two counties in Texas -- Harris and Milam -- are considered "unclassified" because of localized problems with sulfur dioxide that require control strategies but do not cause the areas to be considered nonattainment.

The TCEQ has designated five other metropolitan areas as "near nonattainment" areas: Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Victoria, and the Tyler-Longview-Marshall area. The reasons? These areas have either exceeded ozone standards in the past, or are expected to be declared non-attainment areas for the new 8-hour ozone standards whenever EPA finally designates areas for compliance with the new standard. State and local officials are working on voluntary programs in these and other cities to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and VOCs. For example, the Tyler-Longview-Marshall area has violated federal standards for ozone, but under a Flexible Attainment Region agreement with the EPA it has not been designated a nonattainment area, although it does have to develop enforceable programs to reduce emissions. Similarly, Corpus Christi signed a Flexible Attainment Region agreement with the EPA to give the city more flexibility to comply with the standards, and later signed a similar Ozone Flex agreement with EPA. Similarly, Austin entered into an Ozone Flex agreement with the EPA to maintain the 1-hour ozone standard.*

Nonattainment areas for ozone, carbon monoxide, and PM10 are classified according to the severity of their air pollution. Each area is included in a state implementation plan (SIP) designed by the TCEQ to bring the area into compliance. If a nonattainment area fails to comply with air pollution standards by a specified deadline, the EPA may extend the deadline but impose more stringent requirements to meet the standards. Recently, for example, the EPA rejected Dallas-Fort Worth's bid for an extension to comply with the deadlines set for "moderate" ozone nonattainment areas, and instead reclassified the area as a "serious" ozone nonattainment area due to lack of progress on meeting the ozone standard.^* In addition, if there is a failure to develop a proper state implementation plan or a failure to implement the plan, the EPA may develop a federal implementation plan for the area and may impose sanctions for noncompliance, including the loss of federal highway funds, bans or stiffer limits on further industrial expansion, and the loss of federal Air Pollution Control Program grant funds. In March 1999 the then-TNRCC submitted a preliminary federal implementation plan for Dallas-Fort Worth, which was rejected by the EPA in May 1999. The EPA threatened to impose sanctions by withholding highway funds if a more adequate plan was not submitted within eighteen months. It was the first time the EPA had ever threatened sanctions in Texas.^* Later, a revised version of the SIP - which included significant funding to reduce emissions from diesel engines -- was approved by the EPA. The plans, however, are under continual revision and review as state and federal regulators assess their effectiveness.

OFFSET RATIOS FOR REDUCTION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN OZONE NON-ATTAINMENT AREAS AREA CLASS OFFSET RATIO % NET REDUCTION Dallas / Fort Worth Serious 1.20 to 1 20% El Paso Serious 1.20 to 1 20% Beaumont / Port Arthur Moderate 1.15 to 1 15% Houston / Galveston Severe 1.30 to 1 30% Source: Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Revisions to the State Implementation Plan (1996) and Information from Office of Air Quality.

The four ozone nonattainment areas in Texas were supposed to reduce levels of VOCs by 15 to 30 percent, net of growth, from 1990 levels depending upon their severity of pollution. This net reduction requirement means that before any new sources of VOCs can be allowed to operate, reductions must be made in existing sources to offset the new emissions. In addition, the Dallas-Fort Worth-- with its redesignation-- and the Houston-Galveston nonattainment areas are required to reduce either VOCs or nitrogen oxides an additional average of 3 percent each year for three years, or until standards are met.^* The TCEQ estimates that Houston-Galveston met this additional 9 percent reduction by 1999.

The decision of whether to target nitrogen oxide or VOC emission reductions is an important one, since they are emitted by different sources. Generally, refineries and electrical generation stations emit more nitrogen oxides than do other sources, while VOCs are emitted by mobile sources, small sources, and industries. Between 1994 and 1997, Texas received approval for a nitrogen oxides waiver from the federal Clean Air Act, meaning that only VOCs have been targeted in the nonattainment areas for reduction. However, based on the rising number of days exceeding standards, the TNRCC did not apply for a nitrogen oxides waiver in 1998. Instead, the TCEQ has approved significant nitrogen oxides reductions in Houston, Dallas, and Beaumont, which are currently being implemented both through tighter permit regulations and through emissions trading. The state implementation plan is also requiring consumers, small businesses, and major industries in nonattainment areas to alter their activities.

The new 8-hour standard will force other cities in Texas into nonattainment status. Based on data from 2000 to 2002, there are six areas that do not meet the 8-hour standard, which is based on the three-year average of the fourth-highest 8-hour ozone period. These include three of the four nonattainment areas for the 1-hour standard -- all except El Paso -- as well as Austin, San Antonio and the Longview-Marshall-Tyler metropolitan area. Nonetheless, designation is scheduled to occur in April 2004, with states expected to submit SIPs for those areas by 2007. In June of 2003, the TCEQ issued its recommendations to the EPA for 8-hour designations. Under the TCEQ proposal, Travis County -- which houses Austin -- Bexar County -- where San Antonio resides -- Gregg County -- home to Longview-- a seven-county area in North Texas, and the entire eight-county Houston-Galveston and three-county Beaumont-Port Arthur airsheds would be designated non-attainment*. Under the proposal, the actual designation in Gregg, Bexar and Travis counties would be deferred, however, as those counties enacted voluntary and regulatory programs to meet the standards by 2007. Those areas currently classified as nonattainment for ozone will first have to meet the 1-hour standard before having to meet the 8-hour standard.

TEXAS STATUS UNDER FEDERAL 8-HOUR OZONE STANDARDS, 1997-1999 (Fourth Highest 8-hour Period in Parts Per Million) AREA 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Houston-Galveston-Brazoria 0.124 0.117 0.110 0.101 0.113 Dallas-Fort Worth 0.106 0.102 0.098 0.109 0.097 Beaumont-Port Arthur 0.094 0.097 0.090 0.095 0.091 Longview-Marshall-Tyler 0.105 0.099 0.091 0.088 0.082 Austin 0.099 0.088 0.080 0.091 0.084 San Antonio 0.091 0.082 0.081 0.104 0.086 Standard 0.085 0.085 0.085 0.085 0.085 El Paso 0.071 0.084 0.078 0.089 0.075 Corpus Christi 0.085 0.083 0.077 0.084 0.077 Victoria 0.086 0.079 0.073 0.078 0.073 Brownsville-Edinburg-Mission 0.075 0.077 0.074 0.074 0.067 Laredo 0.067 0.070 0.063 0.066 0.063 Source: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Four Highest 8-hour Ozone Concentrations, Information from Website, Accessed October 2003. Note: Those above the line would have been considered non-attainment during the 2000-2002 period. Based on fourth highest 8-hour day; concentrations in parts per million. Standard: 0.085 ppm

[Home] [About Us] [State Summaries] [County Profiles] [Maps]
[Take Action] [Join A Discussion] [Links] [Site Index] [Search]