The city of Phoenix may be unable to meet certain federal air quality standards, which could hamper new city developments with extra fees and requirements to offset pollution.
The city is not currently meeting standards for ground-level ozone levels, a harmful pollutant that forms above the earth’s surface when industrial pollutants react with intense sunlight. Air quality is driven by weather and geography, and Arizona’s location in a valley surrounded by mountains affects the way these pollutants are dispersed.
“Whenever a large company wants to relocate here or expand, they have to attain emission reduction credits or emission offsets,” said Richard Sumner, the air quality supervisor at Maricopa County. “Currently, those credits are really not available.”
At a city subcommittee meeting in November, environmental experts weighed in on the city’s next steps.
The Federal Clean Air Act established two different health standards for ground-level ozone, first in 2008 and then more stringent requirements in 2015 after the negative effects of the pollutant became more apparent. While ground-level ozone in Phoenix has decreased by 11.2 percent since 1990, the city has still has not yet reached 2008 standards.
However, Phoenix may be exempt from the penalties of not meeting the 2008 requirements if events outside of the city’s control led to the excess in ozone pollutants.
The city’s air quality could be worsened by emissions coming outside of Arizona, possibly from California, Nancy Allen, an environmental programs manager for the city, said. Two wildfires, one in California in 2015 and one in Arizona in 2017, are being reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, as possible events that may warrant an exception for the city.
If the EPA considers the wildfires to be “exceptional events,” the city will be pardoned for not meeting 2008 standards and businesses will not face penalties like higher fees and increased monitoring, even if they release some ground-level ozone gases.
However, if the EPA does not, and Arizona is put into the “serious nonattainment” category for ozone standards, the biggest impact would be in economic development as pollution allowances decrease. The effects could include additional permitting requirements, more monitoring at emissions points and higher fees for lower amounts of pollution.
Unless the city can offset the new pollution coming in, economic growth may be stunted. New developments would have to follow more stringent regulations to adhere to EPA guidelines and install equipment to reduce emissions, increasing the cost of new developments or expansions.
The EPA will either classify the fires as exceptional events or categorize them as air pollution that is routine for the area, said Misael Cabrera, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The EPA will notify local agencies on whether or not the exceptional events will be approved later this month.
In January of 2019, the EPA will determine if Phoenix has met attainment. This will be what ultimately impacts the economic development of the city.
Businesses could also buy offsets, which allow them to take on additional pollution allotments without going over their allowance.
“So the idea behind an offset is for every ton of pollution that you add, you remove 1.2 (tons of pollution) from somewhere,” Cabrera said. “Offsets in the Maricopa County and Phoenix metropolitan area are actually difficult to find because we don’t have a lot of large industry that goes out of business, freeing up offsets.”
Sumner said the Arizona economy is doing well right now, and therefore there are not as many facilities shutting down to offset new development.
Various programs are being implemented at the state level, including the installment of an Air Quality Ozone Coalition that partners with nonprofits like the Maricopa Association of Governments to help control the ozone.
Cabrera said Maricopa County is a key partner for the coalition because the county has that authority, while at the state level, they regulate small counties and counties that do not have the primacy directly from EPA.
“The idea is for us to look at what all of these various agencies have done, look at all of the programs that were individually doing and then harness the fact that individually we can make a difference, but together we can make change,” Cabrera said.
Contact the reporter at ahmirand@asu.edu
