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Clean Air
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Air Quality
The quality of the air we breathe is affected by emissions from motor
vehicles, manufacturing and electric generating plants, refineries, and
other stationary and mobile sources. Thanks to regulations that have required
the development and use of new pollution controls on most of these sources,
the quality of our air has improved dramatically over the last few decades.
Nevertheless, some areas of our region – particularly the most densely
populated areas – still have unacceptable levels of air pollution.
Air pollution can cause breathing difficulties such as asthma, long-term damage to the respiratory, cardio-vascular and reproductive systems, cancer and even premature death. It can also damage crops, buildings, forests, lakes and streams.
Summertime Ozone
Ground
level ozone, commonly called smog, is the most extensive and persistent
air pollution problem in our region. Ozone, a harmful gas, is the product
of a series of chemical reactions involving other pollutants – principally
nitrogen oxides and organic chemicals – that take place in the presence
of the summer sun. Ozone can be transported many hundreds of miles from
the original emissions source.
Though levels have decreased over time, each summer we experience violations of both the one-hour and eight-hour national air quality standards for ozone over much of New York and New Jersey. As seen in the chart, the frequency of unhealthful peak concentrations of ozone in New Jersey and New York has decreased sharply since 1993. These reductions are attributable to the implementation of national control requirements, and to additional local emission control programs implemented by these two states and those upwind of Region 2. EPA works with both state governments and other public and private partners to control the many contributing sources of nitrogen oxide and organic chemicals.
Because power plants are major emitters of nitrogen oxide, EPA and the
states have focused special attention on these sources, initiating and
enforcing a number of measures that help control their emissions. Summertime
air conditioning, in particular, puts a heavy demand on power generation
and exacerbates smog conditions. In addition, there are measures that
require a reduction in the amounts of volatile organic compounds in various
consumer and commercial products such as household cleaners, air fresheners,
hair sprays, degreasing agents and insecticides. Paints, primers, stains
and adhesives are also required to contain less of these ozone-forming
materials.
Fine Particulates
Particulate
matter, often referred to as soot, is the term used to describe air
pollution that is comprised of solid particles and liquid droplets found
in the air we breathe. Particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter
– less than a thirtieth of the diameter of a human hair – are
considered “fine” particles, and have been shown to have a particularly
damaging effect on humans because they can lodge deeply in the lung.
In 2004, EPA identified several areas in New York and New Jersey as not meeting the Agency’s new health-based standard for fine particulate matter. As a result, emission control plans will have to be designed for these areas.
There is much work already underway to control diesel emissions, a major source of fine particulates in the atmosphere. EPA has recently issued new national rules that will dramatically reduce future emissions from diesel engines used in motor vehicles and in non-road equipment such as construction cranes, bulldozers and stationary generators. The Agency has also sponsored a number of voluntary emission reduction initiatives in cooperation with truck fleets, long-haul truckers, school bus fleets and sanitation departments, in a regional effort to reduce fine particle emissions.
Clean Air Highlight
Diesel engines are major producers of fine particle emissions, and many of these engines can be found in the school buses that transport our children to school. Children are more likely than their parents to be affected by air pollution because, in proportion to their body weight, they breathe more air. In Region 2 alone there are approximately nine million children, many of whom are school age.
EPA and its state and local partners have implemented the National Clean School Bus Program, a multi-faceted approach to reducing diesel emissions from school buses. By educating school and transportation officials about the importance of reducing emissions, and by aiding in funding pollution control retrofits, this program promises to make a school bus ride a safer trip.
In 2004, EPA awarded nearly $700,000 to a dozen New
York and New Jersey school districts to retrofit more than 400 school
buses with pollution control technology and to encourage the implementation
of idling reduction procedures. As a result of these efforts, over 67,000
schoolchildren will be riding cleaner buses.
