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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2005 / Policy - Washington’s Air Quality: A Business and Government Success Story |
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Policy - Washington’s Air Quality: A Business and Government Success Story |
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Written On: September/October 2005 |
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Written By: by Matt Cohen |
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Matt Cohen practices environmental law at Heller Ehrman in Seattle. For the past two decades he has represented Washington industries facing Clean Air Act compliance issues.
Washington recently achieved an air quality milestone that few states can match. On August 26, EPA formally redesignated the Wallula Particulate Nonattainment Area to attainment. Wallula was the last nonattainment area in Washington. The Wallula decision closely followed EPA notices announcing that Spokane has attained compliance with the carbon monoxide and particulate matter standards. For the first time ever, the entire state of Washington meets all of the health-based national ambient air quality standards.
EPA first adopted ambient air quality standards in the early 1970s. From that time until just recently, the Seattle, Spokane and Portland-Vancouver metropolitan areas and a few less-urbanized portions of the state always exceeded one or more of the NAAQS. Today, Seattle is the largest city in the United States with no nonattainment areas. We have succeeded in cleaning up our air, notwithstanding substantial population growth, even more dramatic growth in motor vehicle miles traveled, and several actions by the EPA over the years to increase the stringency of the NAAQS.
How has Washington managed to outperform almost all other states in protecting air quality, while growing our economy and population? Part of the answer is the luck of geography and climate. Perched on the Pacific coast, our state is not heavily impacted by air pollution transported from other regions. By contrast, the states east of the Mississippi comprise one large "ozone transport region," in which emissions from Midwestern power plants cause ozone violations in East Coast cities. Western Washington also benefits from our moderate climate. High summer temperatures contribute to ozone formation, causing problems for cities like Los Angeles and Houston. A temperate climate did not, however, prevent Washington from violating numerous NAAQS in years past. Our healthy air today reflects a shared commitment by state and federal governments and the business community to cut pollution at the source.
Most people equate air pollution with belching smokestacks. Thirty years ago this image had some validity. Today, industrial emissions are so tightly regulated that they accounted for only 4 percent of statewide emissions in 2002. As industry's share of the problem has diminished, the transportation sector has grown in significance. Department of Ecology records show that in 2002 highway vehicles emitted 59 percent of the state's conventional air pollutants, followed by off-road vehicles (20 percent) and wood stoves (13 percent).
Fortunately, transportation emissions constitute a growing share of a shrinking pie. In 1977 and again in 1990, Congress demanded cleaner cars, and the automobile industry responded. Tighter tailpipe emission standards have contributed more than any other factor to Washington's success in meeting the NAAQS. Petroleum refiners and marketers contributed by equipping gas pumps with vapor capture equipment, and by producing low-vapor-pressure gasoline each summer, which reduces volatile organic compound emissions from vehicles. The state's five refineries are now gearing up to produce ultra-low-sulfur gasoline, which will reduce fine particulate emissions and improve visibility.
Regulators caution that our success in meeting the NAAQS could be temporary. Emissions of the pollutants that form ozone increase with vehicle miles traveled, and every year Washington motorists spend more time in their cars. The Puget Sound and Spokane areas barely meet EPA's new eight-hour average ozone standard on hot summer days. Emissions from ships, railroad locomotives and cargo handling have increased with the volume of containers passing through our ports.
In a recent speech, Dennis McLerran of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency targeted fine particulate emissions, toxics, climate change, visibility and ozone as the cutting edge air quality issues facing the Puget Sound area. Meanwhile, EPA recently settled an American Lung Association lawsuit by agreeing to propose tighter ambient standards for coarse and fine particulate matter this December.
Whether one views these initiatives as a farsighted response to emerging environmental problems or as an overzealous campaign to move the goalpost as the finish line approaches, it is safe to predict that Washington's businesses will face continuing pressure in the next decade to change operating practices to enhance air quality.
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