Environmental Protection Agency approves Dallas plan to cut ozone

Air filter in an air pollution monitoring center (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Our summer days with ozone warning levels in orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups) and red (unhealthy for everyone) may finally be over. Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the Dallas-Fort Worth clean air plan thumbs-up  expecting the country’s fourth largest metro area, as the first region in the United States, to meet federal ozone standards by 2010.

“With this plan, more than six million residents who call Dallas-Fort Worth area home will be breathing cleaner healthier air”, said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “To be the first in the nation to develop a viable plan to reduce ozone is significant in itselves, but to have done it while also balancing the needs of a growing population and vibrant economy makes it even more remarkable”.

EPA and theTexas Commission on Environmental Quality have collaborated with businesses, governments, and communities across the area, with the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) and Air Check Texas program providing more than $ 100 million to get old heavy-duty engines and vehicles off the road. TERP has also, since its start in 2001, offered $545 million in grants for replacing and retrofitting old diesel engines.

Further ozone reductions will come from control of natural gas compressor engines, cement plants, power plants, and back-up generators used by business and industry.

For more info: "Top 10 polluted cities in the U.S for 2008".

You may also like this article: '"America's top dog model search", about dogs going green.