WildEarth Guardians

Friday, August 12, 2011
Clean Air Settlement to Tackle Smog in Phoenix

EPA to Take Action on Ground-level Ozone Clean up Plan
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 573-4898 x 1303

Phoenix—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has promised to tackle smog in the Phoenix metropolitan area as part of a recent settlement agreement with WildEarth Guardians that was signed by a federal judge on August 10, 2011.

“This is a big step forward for clean air in Phoenix, but we’ve got more steps to take,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Smog continues to subsume Phoenix, the result of too much traffic, dirty engines, and poorly planned development.” 

The agreement commits the EPA to finally taking action on a plan to clean up ground-level ozone pollution in the Phoenix-Mesa nonattainment area.  Ground-level ozone, the key ingredient of smog, forms when pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes reacts with sunlight.  It can trigger asthma attacks, damage children’s’ lungs, send seniors to the emergency room, and cause difficulty breathing in active adults.

In 2004, much of Maricopa County and a portion of Pinal County were designated by the EPA as nonattainment, or in violation of ground-level ozone limits.  At the time, federal air quality standards limited ozone concentrations to no more than 0.085 parts per million.  Phoenix’s ozone levels reached 0.087 parts per million.

That designation triggered the need to develop a clean up plan, which the State submitted in June of 2007. However, more than four years later, the EPA has yet to take action on that plan to make it officially binding.

“The EPA’s delay has left Phoenix hanging,” said Nichols.  “Our settlement provides certainty that EPA will be there to ensure Arizona is doing everything required under the Clean Air Act to keep people safe from air pollution.” 

Today’s settlement commits the EPA to taking action on the bulk of the 2007 Phoenix ozone clean up plan by May 2012 and to take action on the portion related to permitting of stationary sources of air pollution by October 2012.  Under the settlement however, those dates may be extended if EPA finalizes a 2009 rule that sets specific dates for areas like Phoenix to demonstrate compliance with the Clean Air Act. 

The settlement is one step forward for clean air in Phoenix.  While the 2007 clean up plan aims to meet the 0.085 parts per million ozone standard, the EPA has since strengthened the ozone standards to 0.075 parts per million in order to provide greater public health protection.  Since that time, ozone levels have regularly exceeded the standards in Phoenix.  In 2010, for example, Maricopa County exceeded the ozone limits on 46 monitor-days.  And although overall ozone levels are below the previous 0.085 standard, the region is currently violating the 2008 standard.

The primary sources of ozone forming pollution are cars, trucks, and heavy machinery.  According to inventories from the 2007 clean up plan, these sources release the most nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds—the two key pollutants that form ozone—of any other source.