South Carolina air-quality regulators
are brainstorming to prepare for the next step in a project to
clean up the state’s air ahead of schedule.
Several groups within the Department of Health and
Environmental Control’s Bureau of Air Quality have been
meeting since January to gather ideas to share with local
governments clamoring for advice, and to meet a June 16
deadline to provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
with a list of pollution-control ideas.
Among the strategies discussed at a Wednesday update on the
early action plan in Columbia were:
• revisions to the state’s open-burning laws,
•
encouraging state and local government offices to set the
example,
• tightening emissions regulations for certain
industries,
• creating incentives for
environmentally-friendly commuting,
• widespread adoption
of low-emission diesel fuels,
• encouraging "smart-growth"
development, and
• diverting highway money to
commuter-friendly bike paths or pedestrian safety projects.
"Nothing is set in stone," said Henry Phillips, manager of
assessment and planning in the Department of Health and
Environmental Control’s Bureau of Air Quality. "It’s quite
possible that these will change."
Cities and counties in 11 states are pursuing early-action
plans, but local governments in South Carolina have been among
the most aggressive, said Bill Galardi, assistant chief of the
Bureau of Air Quality.
"We’re setting the lead, which we think is a good thing,"
Mr. Galardi said.
The plans were pioneered in Texas as an alternative method
for polluted areas to meet the new ozone standards. The EPA
will enforce the standards next summer by designating
non-attainment areas where the average ozone levels for the
most recent three summers is above the standard. Those areas
have until 2010 to meet the standards, working under severe
restrictions.
Early-action areas have agreed to meet the
standards by 2007, but in their own way.
Many strategies focus on emissions from cars, trucks,
off-road machinery, recreational equipment and other "mobile
sources" because they are major contributors to nitrogen
oxides, an ingredient of harmful ozone. The health department
has estimated that nearly 70 percent of nitrogen-oxide
emissions in the Upstate are from mobile sources.
Open
burning is another significant source of nitrogen oxides and
soot.
"Currently, our (statewide open burning law) is called
Prohibition of Open Burning, but it really does allow
tremendous amounts of exemptions," said Heather Preston, the
Bureau of Air Quality’s regulatory development manager.
Local district air quality manager Rick Caldwell, a member
of the group, said 70 percent of the air-quality complaints to
his office concern open burning. More than half turn out to be
violations of the open burning law, he said.
