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In Corpus Christi and Tyler-Longview-Marshall, local officials reached formal agreements with the
EPA and the then-TNRCC in 1996 to participate in the Flexible Attainment Region (FAR) program for ozone. The cities agreed to voluntary measures to reduce pollution, such as implementing
vapor control from gasoline, improving their emissions inventory, and setting up local ozone-alert-day mechanisms. In exchange, the area was given time to let its program work before
sanctions from the EPA are imposed or a full state implementation plan and associated regulations are required. Under the flexible attainment agreements, both Corpus Christi and Northeast
Texas had up to five years to let their programs work before additional requirements would apply.* However, because Gregg County -- home to Longview -- continued to have high levels of one-hour ozone, the TCEQ later made it part of its State Implementation Plan, with more regulatory measures being adopted. Corpus Christi -- on the other hand -- has continued to meet the standard, and recently signed an "Ozone Flex" agreement with EPA to maintain flexibility on meeting the standard.* In Austin, local officials and community
representatives also worked with the TCEQ to sign a Ozone Flex agreement with EPA to help maintain levels of one-hour ozone below the one-hour standard.
In addition to these Flexible Attainment Regions and Ozone Flex Agreements, the TCEQ has established
formal agreements between the Commission, EPA and counties in and around the Austin, San Antonio and Longview/Tyler metropolitan areas known as Early Action Compacts (EACs), which allow these
counties to develop voluntary, but enforceable air quality plans to attain and maintain compliance with the 8-hour ozone standard earlier than required. EPA is expected to officially
designate areas for non-attainment with the 8-hour ozone standard in April of 2004, with plans required by 2007, but the EACs will allow the designation for those counties to be deferred as
long as they are implementing the programs required under the EACs. *
Local business and political leaders have hailed more flexible, voluntary programs like the FARs and
EACs as an appropriate way to help regions come into compliance with the health-based standards of the Clean Air Act before they might normally be required to do so. Others have criticized
the Flexible Attainment Region program for allowing cities to circumvent the health-based standards, if only for a time. In essence, Northeast Texas drivers, businesses, and industries got a
regulatory break that residents in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, and Beaumont did not.
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FLEXIBLE ATTAINMENT REGIONS
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Source: Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission,
Texas Near Non-attainment Areas: Technical Background (Austin: TNRCC, 1994).
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