San Antonio Business Journal: EPA reports declare Seguin, Guadalupe County in compliance with national air quality standards

San Antonio Business Journal: EPA reports declare Seguin, Guadalupe County in compliance with national air quality standards Main Photo

18 Jul 2018


By Sergio Chapa – Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
Jul 18, 2018, 1:52pm

The Environmental Protection Agency has designated Bexar County as a nonattainment area under the nation's clean air standards.

After nearly three years of review, EPA officials listed Bexar County as being out of compliance with the nation's 2015 smog standards, while listing Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson counties as in compliance. The designations are expected take effect 60 days after a notice summarizing the agency's action is published in the Federal Register.

“We look forward to supporting Texas as they work to improve air quality and foster economic opportunity,” Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a Tuesday afternoon statement. “Information provided by the state indicates that the San Antonio area is on the path toward attainment, and we expect Bexar County will be able to demonstrate that it meets the standard well in advance of the attainment date in 2021."

The closure of CPS Energy's coal-fired Deely Power Plant later this year is among the factors that will help improve Bexar County's air quality, Wheeler said.

Under the Obama administration, the EPA made smog regulations stricter by lowering the maximum ground-level ozone concentration from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion. Local leaders had been working with state officials to keep San Antonio from being listed as a nonattainment city — a designation that is expected to bring more regulations and restrictions on new or expanding businesses.

San Antonio is the last metropolitan area in the United States to receive a designation under the EPA's 2015 standard. The EPA was originally supposed to make a decision in October 2017 but experienced months of administrative delays.

For San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, the nonattainment designation was expected.

"The science showed clearly for several years that our region has been teetering on the edge of nonattainment because of stricter federal standards," Nirenberg said in a written statement. "We had evaded a nonattainment designation in large part due to cooperative regional efforts."

He said the area has great progress toward better air quality and that a modern mass transit system being planned will lower greenhouse gas emissions by reducing automobile traffic and traffic jams.

Ground-level ozone levels in San Antonio were listed as high as 92 parts per billion about 15 years ago, meaning that progress has been made to improve regional air quality. However, ozone levels averaged 73 parts per billion in 2017, putting the Alamo city out of compliance with the stricter standards.

Terry Burns, chair of the Sierra Club's Alamo Area Group, welcomed the EPA's decision as a means to improve local air quality. Burns said in a statement that more progress could be made if all eight counties in San Antonio's metropolitan statistical area had been designated as nonattainment communities.

“We appreciate EPA’s recognition that the air quality in San Antonio isn’t safe and doesn’t meet federal public health standards," Burns said. "Still, air pollution doesn’t stop at the county line. EPA should do what they have done in Houston and Dallas and declare the entire eight-county MSA area in nonattainment. We’ve been frustrated with the delays so far, and the weak and inadequate voluntary local efforts taken so far. We are looking forward to working on real solutions that will bring relief to our residents negatively impacted by dirty air, and this is a first step.”

To view the article from San Antonio Business Journal, please click here.