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SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA SMOG REDESIGNATION FINALIZED

Release Date: 6/25/1998
Contact Information: David Schmidt, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1578

(San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) announced today a final decision to redesignate the San Francisco Bay Area to nonattainment for ozone, a primary pollutant in smog which can impair breathing.  After completing a thorough review of public comments, the agency signed a Federal Register notice today officially recognizing that the Bay Area no longer meets the public health standard for this serious regional air pollutant.  The decision requires the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to formulate more ways to protect the health of Bay Area residents.

"This decision recognizes the fact that people in the Bay Area have not been breathing air that meets the public health standard for the past three years," said Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA's regional administrator.  "The Bay Area needs to find the best mix of additional measures to reduce air pollution and give the region's residents the public health protection they deserve.  We're confident that this community can meet the challenge, given their history of aggressive regulatory and voluntary programs."

Ozone, although beneficial in the stratosphere, has harmful health effects when found at ground-level.  Exposure to ozone can reduce lung function and increase susceptibility to respiratory infection.  It can also aggravate pre-existing respiratory diseases.  Children are especially sensitive to ozone exposure because their lungs are still developing and they spend more time outside during the summer months when ozone levels are the highest.  Symptoms of ozone exposure include chest pain, coughing, nausea, and pulmonary congestion.

Shortly after the Bay Area was given a clean air designation in June of 1995, the region became one of the smoggiest metropolitan areas in the country.  In 1995 and 1996, the Bay Area recorded 43 exceedances and 17 violations of the national health standard for ozone.  By 1997, the magnitude of violations prompted EPA to propose redesignating the Bay Area back to nonattainment.

After reviewing the public comments on the proposal, EPA has determined that   redesignation back to nonattainment is the correct course, providing an important guarantee that air pollution controls will be implemented on an expedited schedule and that progress toward cleaner air will occur.  The public comments also resulted in changes from the proposal to further streamline administrative requirements and provide additional time to meet them.

U.S. EPA's final action emphasizes pollution reduction and clean air over planning and paperwork in an effort to bring air quality within healthy limits as quickly as possible.  The three steps required of the Air District include: submitting an existing 1995 emissions inventory for volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, the two pollutants that form ozone on hot summer days; preparing an assessment that explains how much pollution has to be reduced to meet the public health standard by the end of 2000; and adopting additional control measures to achieve the reductions by the 2000 deadline.

The redesignation will not require major resource investments -- the Air District can use existing emissions inventories and available technical information to assess the needed reductions.  Much of the work to develop control measures has already been completed for the Bay Area's 1997 California Clean Air Plan, a state required plan that outlines measures for reducing ozone pollution.  U.S. EPA recognizes the Bay Area's air quality accomplishments and will work with the Air District to allow flexibility while ensuring progress toward the goal shared by all
agencies:  achieving and maintaining clean air that meets the health standard.  Because of this record, U.S. EPA will accept a mix of traditional controls and the voluntary programs that this community has worked so hard to increase recently, such as Silicon Valley's ECOPASS program and the Bay Area Partnership's "Spare the Air" campaign.

The one hour public health standard for ozone is 12 parts per hundred million.  Compliance with the health standard is determined over a three year period to allow for fluctuations in weather patterns.  Each air quality monitoring site is allowed three exceedances -- pollution levels higher than the public health standard -- within any three consecutive years.  A fourth exceedance during a three year period is considered a violation, which means the monitor no longer meets the public health standard.

In its final decision, U.S. EPA has clarified several issues regarding the Bay Area's obligations under the redesignation that may have been points of confusion following the proposal.  Please review the attached fact sheet and call us if you have any questions.  More information about today's decision is available in the air programs section of U.S. EPA's Internet website at: https://www.epa.gov/region09/air.

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