Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993 TAG: 9307170079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium
The weather conditions forced the region's ozone above acceptable levels on three consecutive days last week, an act of nature that will put southeastern Virginia in a more serious class of air pollution violators.
Officials say that could mean the region could be forced, as early as next year, to take measures already required in Northern Virginia, including mandatory emissions-testing, gasoline upgrades and the like.
"I don't mean to be alarmist, but that's the direction we seem to be headed," said Dwight Farmer, transportation director with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. "It's not good news."
Under the Clean Air Act of 1990, the federal Environmental Protection Agency set limits for ozone, carbon monoxide and other pollutants. It also created five categories of violations: marginal, moderate, serious, severe and extreme.
For years, southeastern Virginia has been listed as marginal for ozone content. Last fall, an environmental official said if the area could get through 1993 without any days where the ozone level was unhealthful, it might be taken off the violation list altogether.
But the EPA only allows a marginal area to exceed an index of 100 and enter the unhealthful zone three times in a three-year period. The ozone went over 100 range last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, giving the area five violations since 1990. So instead of being upgraded, the area is almost certain to be downgraded into the moderate category when the EPA evaluates the region early next year.
"We thought we had it made," said Richard Kraft, assistant regional director of the state Department of Environmental Quality. "Unfortunately, we had these high temperatures last weekend and that did us in."
He said extreme heat, combined with humid, stagnant air, tends to trap pollutants in the atmosphere and drive up the readings.
"It'll probably be next year before we know the specifics of what will be required, but it's reasonable to assume we'll have to do something," Kraft said.
Farmer said southeastern Virginia motorists should brace for major changes in the way pollution is controlled. He said with the rapid growth in the Tidewater area and the increasing number of automobile emissions of pollutants will only get worse.
The ozone is measured between April and October. Though car exhaust is a major contributor, pollutants in ozone come from a wide variety of other sources, including industry.
by CNB