Lansing, MI - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged the full extent of the smog problem by identifying the counties in the U.S. that are violating a new national health standard. At the same time, the agency announced a plan for putting the standard into effect that actually relaxes required pollution controls and delays deadlines for polluters to clean up. Michigan clean air and public health advocates today called it a mixed bag.

EPA found the following twenty-five Michigan counties to be in nonattainment of the new standard:

Allegan, Berrien, Benzie, Calhoun, Cass, Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Huron, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Mason, Monroe, Muskegon, Oakland, Ottawa, St. Clair, Van Buren, Washtenaw and Wayne.

According to EPA's own air pollution consultants, 3,983,381 Michigan residents are exposed to air pollution that threatens public health. Furthermore, if all the counties in Michigan had cleaner air and met the public health standard, that would mean 9,014 fewer asthma attacks, 119 fewer respiratory hospitalizations, and 13,432 fewer lost school days every year. Unfortunately, under the Bush administration plan, many areas will stay dirty.

"Today we learned just how many of us in Michigan are breathing unhealthy air," said David Gard, Energy Policy Specialist with the Michigan Environmental Council. "This fulfills a rule put forward in 1997 as a response to increased understanding about air pollution's real dangers. In the meantime, the science about health impacts has only grown more compelling - and more disturbinging. "

On hot summer days, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds from power plants and other sources are baked into ozone smog, resulting in "code red" air quality. Smog poses a serious threat to children and seniors, triggering asthma attacks and even causing permanent lung damage. Six million asthma attacks each year in the eastern United States can be attributed to smog pollution. Recent studies suggest that kids who play outside in high-smog areas are more likely to develop childhood asthma, an often lifelong and incurable disease.

"Unfortunately, when it comes to clean air, the Bush administration giveth, and the Bush administration taketh away," said Vicki Levengood of the National Environmental Trust. "Naming the counties violating clean air standards provides a historic opportunity, but the Bush administration found a way to let polluters off the hook."

The Bush administration has claimed that a separate rule it proposed in January, intended to deal with air pollution that crosses state lines, will deal with ozone smog in many of the areas found to violate the new smog standard. However, even after the transport rule goes into effect, EPA's own modeling shows that over 26 million Americans will still be breathing unhealthy air. In addition, the transport rule does not take full effect until 2015, far later than the intended smog rule deadlines.

See the attached factsheet for more about the problems with the Bush plan for implementing the smog rule.

FACTSHEET
The Problems with EPA's Plan to Implement the New Smog Standard

On hot summer days, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from power plants and other sources react with heat and sunlight to form ozone smog, resulting in "code red" air quality. Ozone is a severe lung irritant even to healthy adults and can trigger asthma attacks and lead to irreversible lung damage. Ozone is particularly dangerous to children, senior citizens, and people with respiratory diseases. Recent studies suggest that kids who play outside in high-smog areas are more likely to develop childhood asthma.

In 1997, EPA tightened the national health standard for ozone based on extensive evidence that the existing "1-hour" standard did not sufficiently protect public health. The revised "8-hour" standard protects against lower levels of exposure to ozone over longer periods. Since 1997, the science has only grown more compelling and now suggests that even the 8-hour standard may not be tight enough.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important first step by naming the counties that violate the new standard, as required under a court settlement, its plan for implementing the standard is seriously flawed.

Certain counties that should have to clean up ozone smog under the new standard, like Allegan, Berrien, Benzie, Calhoun, Clinton, Eaton, Genesee, Huron, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Mason, Ottawa and Van Buren, will not be required by EPA to use a set of control measures specifically designed by Congress to address ozone pollution, nor will they have to comply with the timeframe for doing so set forth in the Clean Air Act. Instead, polluters likely will be able to delay cleanup for at least a decade.

Among the specific problems, EPA's new plan:

• Makes people in the smoggiest parts of the country wait even longer for clean air. Many parts of the country already aren't meeting even the less stringent "1-hour" standard. EPA wants to discard the ongoing timelines for this old standard and start the clock again.

• Opens gigantic loopholes for areas violating the new standard but not the old standard. The old standard measures short-term smog levels; the new standard covers smog that is less concentrated but lasts longer. Many parts of the country violate the new standard but not the old standard - exactly the reason the new standard was enacted. However, under EPA's proposal, those areas could avoid Congressionally mandated controls altogether.

Sources:
*Current 1-hour standard counties:
EPA nonattainment Green Book, August, 2003, available online at http://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/greenbk/anay.html.

*Proposed 8-hour standard counties:
EPA State Recommendations and EPA Responses, December 2003, available online at http://www.epa.gov/ozonedesignations/state.htm.

*Population data:
U.S. Census Bureau population for the year 2000, available online at http://www.census.gov/.

*Proposed Interstate Air Quality Rule as published in Federal Register, January 30, 2004, 40CFR Parts 51, 72, 75, and 96, pages 4639 - 4640.