Public to get say on smog

By BILL DAWSON

August 10, 2000 Web posted at: 10:38 AM EDT (1438 GMT)

AUSTIN, Texas (The Houston Chronicle) -- Now the public gets its say on the state's sweeping proposal to slash smog levels around the Houston region.

As expected, Texas' environmental commissioners voted Wednesday to hold public hearings and solicit written comments on a plan designed to accomplish dramatic reductions in emissions that contribute to ground-level ozone, smog's main ingredient.

The plan tentatively approved by the commissioners of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission is identical in almost all particulars to a proposal that was issued last month by the agency's staff. Among other measures, it includes deep cuts in industrial emissions, lowered speed limits, stricter tailpipe tests and morning bans on the use of heavy construction equipment and gasoline-powered lawn equipment.

TNRCC officials stressed that public recommendations, which they are inviting during an official period for hearings and written comments next month, can influence the plan's final form when the three commissioners adopt it at a scheduled meeting on Dec. 6.

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As they now stand, the various elements in the plan "are not bound and fast," said Jeff Saitas, executive director of the TNRCC staff.

During the comment period, officials hope to hear suggestions for "alternative solutions" to the problem of how to lower Houston's smog levels, including measures that citizens think would be more effective and cost-efficient, Saitas said.

"To the extent we can develop a plan that people will, in fact, follow, we'll have the greatest chance of cleaning the air," he said.

The plan's aim -- mandated by the federal Clean Air Act -- is to bring the metropolitan region's levels of ozone, a respiratory irritant, below the national health standard by 2007. Last year, for the first time ever, the Houston area had the nation's worst record for violating that standard.

The proposal provisionally endorsed by the TNRCC commissioners has enough pollution reductions to comply with the standard, Saitas said.

But it remains to be seen whether federal officials, who must approve the smog plan for Houston to avoid economic sanctions, will agree. The plan would eliminate less ozone-forming pollution than the Environmental Protection Agency has said is needed, but slightly more than new TNRCC calculations indicate would do the job.

Possible sanctions for a plan deemed inadequate by the EPA include a cutoff in highway funds and stricter limits on industrial growth.

One change that the commissioners made in the TNRCC staff proposals illustrated how parts of the plan are still unsettled.

The agency staff had proposed lowering highway speed limits to 55 mph in Harris, Brazoria, Galveston, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, and only by 5 mph from current limits in less-populous Chambers, Liberty and Waller counties.

But Commissioner Ralph Marquez noted that heavily-traveled Interstate 10 runs through Chambers County and busy U.S. 59 runs through Liberty County. His fellow commissioners agreed to his suggestion to propose a 55 mph limit in all eight counties, with the understanding that they can still choose a higher speed limit in Chambers, Liberty and Waller in December, depending on what they hear from the public.

TNRCC officials have made clear they expect negative public remarks on the proposals to ban use of diesel construction equipment and gasoline lawn implements from 6 a.m. to noon, from April through October.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, an aide to Houston Mayor Lee Brown and business representatives all urged the commissioners to substitute incentive programs, encouraging various pollution-cutting actions in place of the construction and landscaping bans.

A better alternative would be incentives that "push the limits of technology," Eckels said.

Pamela Berger, Brown's environmental policy director, delivered a letter from the mayor, suggesting that "the minority community would also be disproportionately impacted by the bans due to their level of employment and business ownership in these sectors."

The commissioners decided, at Marquez's suggestion, to seek public comment on the possibility of confining the lawn-equipment ban to landscaping businesses.

Another measure in the smog plan that drew criticism from several speakers would require new commercial and residential air conditioners to be made with a coating material, which the sole manufacturer of the coating says will reduce ozone in air passing through these units.

Several individuals from air-conditioning trade groups and companies charged that this coating substance is unproven, expensive and poses potential toxic hazards. Tom "Smitty" Smith, Texas director of the environmental group Public Citizen, suggested that the commissioners adopt a pilot program first, because the technology's effectiveness is uncertain.

But Marquez defended the proposal, saying staff experts at both the TNRCC and EPA are impressed by the technology. "It has the potential to do some good and is not as bad as it's being portrayed," he said, and the commissioners left it in the plan for now.

Other measures that they submitted to the public for feedback include requirements for cleaner fuels; early retirement of off-highway diesel equipment; voluntary programs to reduce vehicle use; pollution-reduction systems for large trucks, locomotives and marine vessels; a five-minute limit on idling by large trucks, and pollution reductions by ground equipment at airports.

In other action, the commissioners approved an agreement in which Continental Airlines and the city of Houston will team up to accomplish the same amount of pollution reductions at Bush Intercontinental Airport that the proposal in the TNRCC plan would require of airlines alone. Officials said they hope to reach a similar agreement with Southwest Airlines for Hobby Airport.

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