BR expected to meet ozone standards

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 27, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Thanks to a good ozone season this year, the state plans to request next spring that the five-parish Baton Rouge area be designated as meeting federal ozone standards.

Although there is still a month left to the year, it appears likely the five-parish area will meet the federal eight-hour air pollution standard, said Michael Vince, administrator of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Assessment Division. 

This year, only one monitor in the five-parish area — at Bayou Plaquemine — exceeded the eight-hour standard. 

“We’re really close,” Vince said. 

Much like in 2006, attainment of the federal standard comes at a time when the standard is changing.

In 2006, the five-parish area of East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Livingston, Iberville and Ascension met the one-hour federal ozone standard just a year after EPA replaced it with the 8-hour standard.

This standard takes the fourth highest eight-hour average of air monitor readings for ozone and then averages three years of that data. To meet the federal standard for ozone, all air monitors need to have an average reading of 85 parts per billion or less. 

As of Nov. 17, the highest value in the Baton Rouge area was a monitor in Dutchtown that posted 83 parts per billion, Vince said.

The eight-hour standard is about to be changed again. In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to lower the number to 75 parts per billion, which would put the five-parish area and other areas of the state out of compliance with the standard. 

As it stands now, there is the possibility for 26 parishes to be classified as out of compliance with the new standard, although the Lake Charles area is very close to meeting the standard, Vince said. Currently, the readings at Lake Charles are at 75.7 ppb, he said. If the value hits 76 ppb, the area could be declared out of attainment. 

Other than Lake Charles, the Monroe area is the only major metropolitan area in the state with air monitors that meet the upcoming 75 ppb standard for ozone, Vince said. 

The state has until March to present EPA with a list of parishes and metropolitan areas considered to meet or not meet the new 75 ppb standards. Final designations from EPA are required by March 2010. Parishes will then have from 2013 to 2030 — depending on the severity of the problem — to meet the new standard.

Ozone pollution forms during hot, sunny days when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides — from industry, vehicles and other sources — combine and go through a chemical reaction. Ozone can cause health problems, especially for sensitive populations such as children or the elderly.