The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday told metropolitan-area officials that the region has not met federal air-quality guidelines and that they must develop new pollution controls by 2010.
“It’s no surprise,” said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, at-large Democrat and chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. “What it means is we have a lot more to do to clean up the air.”
Mr. Mendelson said all the governments in metropolitan Washington are cooperating and are likely to have to tighten standards on vehicle emissions while encouraging residents to use public transportation more often.
The EPA yesterday designated 474 counties in 31 states as “nonattainment” regions for failing to meet ozone standards issued in 1997. That total included most of California, a ring of states around the Great Lakes and a concentration of Northeastern states from the Washington area to Boston.
Areas that do not meet the ozone standards can be denied federal highway construction funds.
The District has not met federal ozone standards since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, according to EPA scientist Cynthia Stahl.
“Washington, D.C., is probably one of three areas in the region, with Baltimore and Philadelphia, that has a fairly intractable ozone problem,” Miss Stahl said.
Ground-level ozone, a precursor to smog, has been found to be a serious health problem, causing respiratory illnesses. It can be especially damaging to the elderly, children and people with asthma, according to health officials.
Ozone peaks from May to September. Under the new guidelines, the acceptable levels of ozone have been lowered from 120 parts per billion to 85 parts per million and are measured over eight hours instead of one hour.
Deadlines for meeting the air-quality standards range from 2007 for those with the least serious problem to as long as 2021 for areas with the dirtiest air.
Counties that have “marginal” to “moderate” designations and will have three to six years to come into compliance.
The metropolitan area, including the District and its outlying suburbs, received a “moderate” designation that gives its leaders until June 2010 to reduce ozone levels.
Exactly how that will be done has yet to be determined, said Bill Hayden, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
“We don’t have specifics at the moment, that’s part of what we’ve got to do,” Mr. Hayden said.
Air-quality-improvement strategies often have included using more low-emission vehicles and cleaner fuels, encouraging increased use of public transportation and scheduling more frequent and stringent vehicle-emission inspections.
Improvement plans are due by 2007 and will be specific to each region, Mr. Hayden said.
“Then we’ll have one to three years to actually begin seeing improvement in the air quality,” he said.
The new standards “are strong medicine” and “will require more actions on your part to achieve cleaner, healthier air,” EPA Administrator Michael O. Leavitt said.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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