Tougher national smog rules proposed

A dozen or more counties in Minnesota may start violating air quality standards for the first time in years if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopts stricter standards for ozone, or smog. Federal officials proposed tougher national limits for the pollutant Thursday, replacing a 2008 standard that some criticized as not protective enough of public health.

Ozone is a respiratory irritant linked to asthma and other problems. It is produced when emissions from power plants, vehicles, factories and other sources mix and react in the sun.

Minnesota has 16 monitors around the state that measure ozone, and all have been consistently below the current federal standard of 75 parts per billion, according to state pollution control officials.

The EPA has proposed to drop the maximum allowed levels -- measured on a 3-year average -- to somewhere between 60 and 70 parts per billion.

"If they set a standard at 70 or 69 or 68, we might just sneak under it with no counties in violation," said Rick Strassman, supervisor of the air monitoring unit for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

But if the standard is set at 67, he said, much of the Twin Cities metro area would likely be out of compliance, and slightly lower numbers would affect St. Cloud, Rochester, Detroit Lakes and some rural communities where ozone drifts from more populated and industrial areas.

Being out of compliance means that states need to clamp down on local sources of ozone: nitrogen oxides from power plants, factories and many smaller sources, and volatile organic compounds, mainly from solvent-based industries and gasoline-burning vehicles.

The EPA will take public comments on the proposal for 60 days and is scheduled to develop final standards by the end of August.

Environmental and health advocacy groups applauded the proposal. Bob Moffitt, communications director for the American Lung Association of Minnesota, called the move a "positive step."

While it's too early to know exactly how the standards will affect different counties, he said, it's clear that pollutants need to be reduced. "We've got to redouble our efforts to find cleaner fuels and cleaner vehicles," Moffitt said.

Business groups criticized the proposal as overkill and said industries have already invested $175 billion toward environmental improvements. The American Petroleum Institute said that changing the ozone standard "is an obvious politicization of the ... process that could mean unnecessary energy cost increases, job losses, and less domestic oil and natural gas development."