Area ozone levels take a dip

Area ozone levels take a dip
Air quality complies with federal standards, but region still needs scrutiny

Elizabeth Bluemink
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

Ozone pollution is meeting federal clean air standards in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and appears to be decreasing throughout the Panhandle, state regulators said Tuesday.

"We are squeaking by," said Tom Rogers, a state air regulator.

The Pensacola Bay Area remains very close to the new health-based limit for ozone that goes into effect April 15. Ground- level ozone, or smog, can trigger respiratory problems.

Ozone compliance also spares the area economy from potentially crippling penalties, including emissions caps that limit expansion of business and industry as well as the possible loss of millions in federal highway transportation dollars.

Environmental groups and local officials said Tuesday that state regulators' predictions that ozone will decline needs careful scrutiny and that it is too early to declare victory on ozone.

"We are still facing a situation that we need to deal with. We are below the federal ozone level but close to it, so we have an opportunity to be proactive," said Keith Wilkins, director of Escambia County's Neighborhood and Environmental Services department.

The major sources of ozone are nitrogen oxides and volatile compounds from automobile exhaust and industrial emissions, but conditions are worsened by the Gulf Coast's hot, muggy weather, experts say.

Yet state regulators say their $500,000 West Florida Ozone Study, to be released in April, shows ozone levels will decrease in Florida's Gulf Coast counties from now until 2007, because of industrial pollution cuts and cleaner-burning fuels. The study began a year and a half ago.

After 2007, the ozone outlook is unclear.

"We want to study that further," Rogers said.

The new standard is based on an eight-hour time period with an ozone concentration limit of 0.08 parts per million per cubic foot of air.

The state agency's optimistic outlook is vastly different from its dire predictions in the past. In 1995, for example, the agency deemed the Pensacola area the most likely place in Florida to be

Compliance with the federal ozone rules.

"Things looked very grim. But now it seems that local efforts to cut pollution are starting to make a difference," said Mary Jean Yon, administrator for the agency's Northwest District office in Pensacola.

For example, Gulf Power's Crist plant in Cantonment is finishing up a $130 million project it began in 2002 to reduce its air emissions of nitrogen oxide by 40 percent. The project will be completed April 25.

"The project was needed," said Gulf Power spokesman John Hutchinson. "Our concern was that Escambia County would not meet the new federal ozone standard."

Other industries that have reduced their nitrogen oxide emissions are Air Products and Chemicals Inc. in Pace, ExxonMobil in Jay and Arizona Chemical in Pensacola.

One environmentalist said he is concerned that state regulators are overly confident about their scientific modeling showing ozone will decline in the region.

"It's not a guarantee," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southeast Alliance for Clean Energy, based in Knoxville, Tenn. "The Panhandle remains the most at risk in Florida for ozone problems. And a shift from the past few years of rainy weather to more dry weather could play a significant factor" in driving ozone levels up to unsafe levels, he said.

Pensacola City Councilman Marty Donovan is also skeptical. "I hope the modeling assumptions the state made are accurate. Otherwise, we'll find out that we have a problem and we have to start all over again."

Rogers, the state regulator who led the West Florida Ozone Study, said the state's modeling was based on an analysis of how ozone is formed in the Panhandle, the contributing sources and how pollution reductions will impact future ozone levels.

Some of the sources of ozone pollution are in other states. Air pollution in southern Alabama, for example, can migrate here and have a big impact on ozone in the Pensacola area, Rogers said.

Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides emitted from industry smokestacks and automobile exhaust mix in the sunlight and heat with organic compounds, especially in the summer months.

Florida is one of only two states that met all federal air quality rules, including the new ozone standard, in 2003. The other state is Vermont, said Florida environmental agency spokeswoman Deena Wells.

A spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta confirmed Tuesday that Florida will meet the federal standards.