THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503090004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Govenor Allen's strategy for meeting Environmental Protection Administration air-quality standards in Hampton Roads is to hope for a cool summer.
That might be the best strategy available. Certainly it's the cheapest and least bothersome.
Here's the situation: Under the 1990 amendment to the Clean Air Act, an area cannot average more than one heavy smog day a year over three consecutive years.
Hampton Roads had three such days in 1993 alone. Those days, plus two the year before, put Hampton Roads over the allowable three-year limit, even though there were zero heavy smog days in 1994.
The EPA had announced in January that it would crack down on air pollution in Hampton Roads within 60 days, but the Allen administration and local officials told the EPA: Hold your horses. If Hampton Roads could get through 1995 with no smog violations, they argued, the total for 1993 through 1995 would be three, safely within the limit.
The EPA listened and recently agreed to hold its horses for now. The concession was a victory for Allen.
If Hampton Roads has a cool summer, this very well could be the second consecutive year of no high-smog days.
But what if Hampton Roads has a hot summer? Then the area's goose is cooked, so to speak. Intense sunlight increases smog. During the hot-summer years of 1983 and 1988, Hampton Roads recorded seven and five high-smog days respectively.
If the EPA holds an area in violation of the amended Clean Air Act, a penalty is assessed. In Hampton Roads' case, the penalty is a required 15 percent reduction in smog pollutants by 1996, with mandatory emissions-testing of cars and trucks.
Frank Daniel, regional director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said his staff has done little to prepare to make the 15 percent reduction in smog pollutants, if required.
To reduce smog, Daniel said, the area would likely rely on reformulated gasoline (already on sale at some area stations), special anti-emissions nozzles on gas pumps and the car and truck emissions tests.
As staff writer Scott Harper wrote recently, smog is created from chemicals emitted by cars, industrial plants, bakeries and even backyard barbecues. It is known to damage respiratory systems, with children and the elderly especially susceptible.
Environmentalists are wondering why the state and the area don't get on with reducing smog pollutants instead of doing the least the EPA will allow.
On the other hand, reducing emissions could increase gas prices by 2 cents a gallon, and the last thing motorists want is another mandatory inspection.
Naturally, we're for the cleanest possible air at the lowest possible cost. And if air is bad, it ought to be fixed. But it does not appear to be that bad, and simply waiting may make it better; for as old clunkers, which lack modern emissions-control devices, disappear from the roads, pollution could drop. by CNB