Air Quality In The Upstate:
New Report Explains Challenges and Solutions

     An important new report released by the Southern Environmental Law Center, Clean Air for the Upstate Area: An Action Agenda, explains the steps we must take to reduce air pollution and improve the health of our people, our environment, and our economy.

David Farren of the Southern Environmental Law Center describes the report at the presss conference in August. Joining him are from left to right, Greg White, American Lung Association; Pat Newell, an architect who lives and works in downtown Greenville; and Curt McPhail, a Spartanburg resident who bicycles to work.

While acknowledging the efforts that have been undertaken in our region to address air quality problems, the report makes a compelling case that much more needs to be done.

In April 2004 Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson Counties were designated as “nonattainment” for failing to meet the federal air quality standard for ozone (better known as smog). These counties, joined by Cherokee, Oconee and Pickens Counties, entered EPA’s “Early Action Compact” program, which suspended the nonattainment designation in exchange for the region’s commitment to achieve compliance with the ozone standard by 2007 (three years earlier than would otherwise be the case) and to maintain compliance for the next twenty years.  While preliminary state modeling suggests that the Upstate may be on track to barely meet the 2007 deadline, there is serious doubt that our fast-growing region can maintain compliance unless major changes in policies and practices are adopted. The report also points out the Upstate has high levels of fine particulate pollution or soot that may result in another “nonattainment” designation depending on EPA’s review of monitoring data.

The Clean Air report provides both a “report card” on efforts to address air quality in the area and a “roadmap” that citizens, the business community and local officials in the Upstate can use to provide a legacy of clean air for current and future generations.

Specifically, the report recommends that we:

• Establish a regional organization for transportation planning.

• Reform transportation funding priorities. We must use our transportation dollars to develop opportunities for public transit, carpooling, bicycling, and walking. In addition, new and widened highways projects should be carefully planned so that they do not simply result in more sprawl – and therefore more pollution.

• Apply a regional approach to land use planning. Our air quality is impacted by the decisions of hundreds of local jurisdictions, from town councils to school districts to sewer authorities. Rather than competing against one another for economic development, Upstate communities should coordinate their efforts in order to achieve regional goals.

• Demand full and faithful implementation of federal interstate air pollution requirements.

• Oppose “Clear Skies” Legislation. This legislation would remove the teeth of important Clean Air Act provisions and hinder states’ efforts to improve air quality.

• Pass a “Clean Smokestacks Act” in South Carolina. South Carolina’s twelve coal-fired power plants are the largest cause of stationary source pollution in the state. Several of these plants have not been required by federal regulations to install modern pollution controls, so the state must step in to address this problem. North Carolina passed such legislation in 2002, and included a provision allowing power companies to recover their costs.

To see the full report click on the link below.

Clean Air for the Upstate Area: An Action Agenda