Waiting to Inhale: 32 Years of Dangerous Ozone
By Katie Shaw, July 2007
We’ve all experienced stepping off the plane or opening the car door after time away from Houston. The humidity wraps around you like a wet, wool blanket. You feel suffocated, allergic to the world, and hesitant to breathe. After following the orange and yellow barricaded roads, you finally make it home. But instead of the Emerald City, the veil of smog reveals only glimpses of downtown. Just another day in the neighborhood…
This June, Galveston-Houston failed once again to meet the federal standards for ground-level ozone, and residents are calling for action. 32 years since the federal government passed the Clean Air Act (CAA), Galveston-Houston still has never satisfied the federal requirements, and meets each new deadline with another extension. Gov. Perry now plans to sidestep the EPA’s current 2010 deadline with a petition for eight more years.
Flexibility or fudge-room, one wonders. During the inspection period of 2005-2007, the EPA dismissed Galveston-Houston’s 2005 reports of dangerously high ozone levels. The EPA allowed the maximum three strikes, ignored the fourth fault, and offered the cities a second chance for 2007. Galveston-Houston tried again in 2007 to satisfy the new, eight hour monitoring standard (versus 2005’s one hour standard). But last month, a monitoring site in Baytown exceeded the limit: once again, failure.
Why procrastinate? Gov. Perry explained that Galveston-Houston can not meet the federal standards by 2010 without sacrificing the state’s major industries. Laurie Haffelfinger of Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP) responded that dangerously high ozone levels, in fact, threaten industry because they deter prospective clients and corporations from moving to Houston. She also cited the industries’ failed efforts to reform and the inaccuracies in their emission reports. In fact, company estimates proved 10 times lower than the actual, scientific data gathered by experts in 2000 and 2005. These opposing views and contradictions suggest a misunderstanding of ozone’s sources and hazardous effects. The rainbow of health warnings on local weather reports now speak to a desensitized, accustomed audience.
In a recent interview, Haffelfinger detailed the power of the popular voice when it comes to the ozone dilemma. She recalled explaining to potential residents that no safe part of the city really exits: “it’s air pollution, (which means) it moves” with the wind. Air quality even had a hand in Toyota’s decision to build a new plant in San Antonio rather than Houston, costing the local economy thousands of new jobs. When asked if the air quality affects the city’s national or international reputation, Haffelfinger referenced 1999 when Houston reported more dangerous ozone days than L.A. “People who live in and around Houston have always been aware (of) having dirty air,” but when this news made national headlines, many other states took notice.
Surveys show that residents care about their air, Haffelfinger elaborated, but “this isn’t translating very well from the people to their leaders…A lot of time, when you think something is important, but it’s not high on your priority list,” change never comes. She feels that the leaders at the city, state, and federal levels are responsible for the three decades of unhealthy air, but also finds fault with the average citizen’s indifference. Change is possible with a change of leadership, such as when Mayor White took office and pressured the state to improve Milby Park (after decades of extreme pollution, in 2004 the levels of carcinogens finally dropped by over 50 percent). But while change comes through the political process, it depends on public participation. The technology exists, but history shows that industries only implement environmental practices when its the law or consumers demand them.
Finally, Haffelfinger addressed the important shift from a federal 1 hour standard to an 8 hour standard in ozone monitoring. Because most of the nation’s ozone stems from car exhaust, the 8 hour standard better regulates such accumulating ozone. In other words, it makes sure that acceptable levels are maintained for longer periods of time. However, Houston’s many industries contribute large peaks of ozone in bursts rather than gradually. While these bursts exceed the 1 hour standard, they decrease before being recorded by 8 hour monitors. Haffelfinger argued that since the state’s monitoring systems still record both 1 and 8 hour measurements anyway, the EPA should require both reports and consider Houston’s unique situation.
Improvement efforts should therefore begin by raising the public consciousness; high ozone levels are more than just part of where we live, they threaten life itself. In January, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) offered two open forums in which citizens could question and discuss the failed ozone standards. Many attendees learned the severity of the problem for the first time, while others came prepared with years of frustration. Both forums discussed the basics of ground-level ozone. This ‘bad ozone’ remains trapped on the surface of the earth, unlike the ‘good ozone,’ which blocks harmful solar rays from 10 to 30 miles above the ground. It forms when toxic air pollutants react with one another and are heated by the sun. Because of the role heat and sunlight play, bad ozone worsens in the summer, or for Galveston-Houston, nine months out of the year. It also travels with the wind from more polluted urban centers to surrounding, rural regions.
Houston has the nation’s highest levels of toxic air pollutants, often twenty times that of other U.S. cities. Particularly costly, bad ozone (more commonly called smog) leads to asthma, chest pains, and nausea, while also reducing crop yields. Healthy adults should avoid strenuous activity outdoors in days of moderate ozone, while children, the elderly, and individuals with respiratory conditions should stay indoors at the orange/unhealthy warning, two levels away from severe. Ground-level ozone is one of the top six most common air pollutants according to the EPA.
But, because this ozone comes from human-made sources, such as car exhaust, power and chemical plants, industrial boilers, and refiners, humans can reduce its negative effects. For example, efforts to reduce emissions, implement more efficient technologies, and cut consumption, all decrease bad ozone levels. However, these improvements and their long-term health benefits require initiative, not more decades of delay.
In 1970 the Clean Air Act (CAA) set the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) out of concern for human and plant health and their future quality of life. But after years of steady pollution and public frustration, few citizens trust that Galveston-Houston will even meet federal requirements by the 2018 date. Perhaps the growing green movement and renewed debates on national health care suggest a turning of the tides.
When Men’s Fitness magazine declared Houston the fattest U.S. city in 2005, Mayor White and individuals launched a campaign for fitness. In the same way, the city’s health and reputation remain at stake because of the dangerously high ozone levels. The crusade to restore public health must extend beyond the waistline, into internal health and ethical consciousness, and it must begin immediately.
In the words of Jane Laping (Mothers for Clean Air), our society has “already lost one generation” in the almost “thirty-five years” of failed deadlines. But, still, she and others remain hopeful. When asked about Houston’s future, she defended society’s power to change and emphasized the growing influence of women in the economy and voting process. “Mothers are the best advocates for their children” and through their undefeatable love, change will preserve society’s health.
For over 30 years Galveston-Houston residents waited to breathe clean air, and stop worrying about their children’s wheezing. Houston, we have a problem! But it’s a treatable one, one that if we attack directly, will create a more just and safe environment, where each resident breathes a little easier.
