Ozone Pollution:
Confronting One of the Upstate’s Greatest Challenges

by Jason Van Driesche

     Ozone pollution is a huge problem for the Upstate. It threatens not only the quality of our air and the health of our citizens but also the continued economic prosperity of our region.

This article provides an overview of what ozone is, why it’s a problem, what the law requires, and what we’re doing about it in our region.

What Is Ozone?

     In the upper atmosphere, a layer of naturally occurring ozone forms when sunlight reacts with air, creating a shield that protects life on Earth from the damaging effects of ultraviolet solar rays. But at ground level, ozone is a principal component of what we call smog, and it does great damage to growing plants and human lungs. In short, ozone is good above but bad below.

Cars and trucks are the leading sources of NOx emmissions, an essential element in the formation of ozone.

Ground-level ozone forms when two kinds of air pollution – nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – combine in the presence of sunlight. Motor vehicles account for the majority of emissions of NOx, with industry and utilities constituting most of the rest. In the South, trees are a major producer of VOCs, but industry also makes a significant contribution. Of the two, NOx is the more important factor in ozone formation.

In chemical terms, ozone is quite simple. It consists of a normal oxygen molecule – the familiar O2 – that has been forced to accept an additional oxygen atom, turning it into O3. But O3 is far more unstable than O2, so an ozone molecule is always looking to shed an oxygen atom and return to a stable state.

Why Is Ozone A Problem?

     This instability is why ozone is so bad for living things. An ozone molecule gets rid of its extra oxygen atom by reacting with whatever is handy – a plant’s leaves, lung tissue, what have you. In the process, the substance that is forced to accept the extra oxygen atom is oxidized, a process that amounts to a chemical burn at a molecular level.

The result for humans is burning eyes, throat irritation, congestion, chest pain, and coughing. Repeated exposure causes asthma attacks, reduces lung function, and can even lead to permanent scarring of lung tissue. Asthma is already a serious problem in South Carolina, affecting 300,000 of our citizens, and costs over $150 million per year in direct and indirect medical costs.

Ground-level ozone also damages the health of crops and forests, and is responsible for an estimated $500 million in reduced crop and forest production every year.

What Does The Law Require?

     The Clean Air Act is one of the most important environmental and public health laws ever enacted by the United States Congress. Under the act, the EPA has established national air quality standards for sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead and ozone. Each state is required to monitor for these pollutants and to meet the standards. In 2002, a new and more stringent ozone standard took effect.

If an area of a state does not comply with one or more of the standards, it can be designated by the EPA as “non-attainment,” an action with serious consequences. The designation immediately triggers a stringent permitting process for “new sources” and one year later a “transportation conformity” process to ensure that transportation projects using federal funds do not have an adverse impact on air quality.

Within three years of the “non-attainment” designation, the state must develop a plan – known as the “State Implementation Plan” or “SIP”– for bringing the area into compliance with the standard. The SIP must have teeth, including enforceable emission limits, to achieve compliance in no less than three years from the SIP’s effective date.

What Are We Doing About It In The Upstate?

     The EPA offered an “Early Action Compact” (EAC) option for regions that meet the old ozone standard but exceed (or have the potential to exceed) the new one, such as the Upstate. Under an EAC, a region must adopt a plan to bring the region into compliance by 2007, which is three years earlier than would be the case under the normal Clean Air Act process. The quid pro quo is that the EPA agrees to defer the effective date of the non-attainment designation and hence the associated new source review and transportation conformity requirements.

Upstate officials decided to pursue the EAC option. At the end of 2002, the County Councils of Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson signed a joint resolution pledging to work together to meet the EAC requirements and to achieve “cleaner air sooner” for our region.(1)

The EAC contains a number of key milestones, and failure to meet any one of them can “undo the deal” and result in withdrawal of the deferred effective date of the non-attainment designation. So far the Upstate has met all of the milestones – most recently, the submission last March of the region’s plan for achieving compliance.

This plan was developed by an advisory committee of volunteers, including Upstate Forever’s Diane Eldridge, and approved by the steering committee of the three County Councils. At the heart of the plan are 23 specific air quality measures for improving our region’s air quality. They are listed on page 12.

Meanwhile, in April of this year, EPA made its designation official, declaring all of Greenville, Anderson and Spartanburg Counties as “non-attainment” with the ozone standard. (Under the EAC, as noted above, the effective date of the designation has been deferred.)

By the end of this year, DHEC must submit a SIP showing how the Upstate (and other non-attainment areas) will achieve compliance with the standard. For EAC regions, the compliance deadline is December 31, 2007. If the area is not in compliance, the non-attainment designation will become effective on April 15, 2008.

(1) As it turned out, every county in South Carolina except one decided to enroll in the EAC program even though most of the counties are in “attainment areas.” This was a particularly prudent decision for the other Upstate counties since they adjoin or are in close proximity to the three “nonattainment counties” and could well be declared “nonattainment” based on future monitoring results. In fact, the three-year average for the ozone monitor in Clemson (Pickens County ) is 0.084 (the standard is violated at 0.085), while the three-year average for the Cowpens monitor (Cherokee County) is actually above the standard (0.087). Each county has submitted its own plan for “cleaner air sooner” to DHEC. These plans vary from simple education programs in some of the rural counties to more extensive requirements in the urban counties, such as Charleston. Some notable provisions in the plans submitted by Upstate “attainment counties” include “greenspace regulations” (Oconee County), “heavy diesel retrofits” (Pickens County), and “restrict painting activities” (Laurens County).