DIRECTOR'S CORNER
Air quality in Virginia
DEQ Director David K. Paylor
There have been significant improvements in Virginia’s air quality the last few years, and the Department of Environmental Quality has been working with localities to ensure continued success.
For most of Virginia, the number of unhealthy air quality days due to high air pollution levels has decreased in the last three years, and recent air pollution controls on industry, which took effect in 2004, appear to be working.
Between 2003 and 2004 power plants installed air pollution control technologies to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. DEQ’s computer modeling indicates that the improved air quality and lower ozone levels Virginia experienced in 2005 match what the agency expected to happen with the 2004 controls, and we expect air emission reductions to continue.
Three continuous years of improved air quality are allowing four localities to request a change in air quality designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and DEQ is supporting their efforts.
Fredericksburg and Shenandoah National Park received approval in early 2006 of a request to designate these areas as meeting the eight-hour standard for ozone. Three-year averages of ozone levels in Fredericksburg and the park indicate that the areas meet federal ozone standards. As part of the redesignation, the areas must maintain low ozone levels. The localities along with state partners including DEQ worked together to develop this maintenance plan during the past year.
Air quality in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas also has improved, and DEQ is partnering with local and city officials, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation to develop plans to maintain low ozone levels. The groups plan to submit redesignation requests to the EPA this year to reclassify the areas as in compliance with the standards.
A few localities in Northern Virginia remain in non-attainment for the federal ozone standard, and DEQ is working to reduce ozone levels in these areas. The agency’s vehicle emission monitoring program, called Air Check Virginia, plans to expand in the Northern Virginia area. The program will set up roadside testing stations with systems that will remotely measure pollutants in vehicle exhaust.
This expanded effort will help reduce vehicle emissions by testing cars out of the normal two-year cycle. Reducing vehicle emissions will also decrease ozone production. Ozone forms from the reaction of sunlight with vehicle emissions as well as gasoline fumes, solvent vapors, and power plant and industrial emissions. The program plans to begin a testing phase of the remote sensing stations in spring 2006.
Particle pollution continues to meet the federal health standard throughout the Commonwealth. Although particle pollution levels are low in Northern Virginia, this area is listed as a non-attainment area because it is part of an air quality control region, including Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland, that does not meet the federal standard.
Beginning May 1, 2006, DEQ will resume issuing and distributing daily forecasts of air quality for the metropolitan areas of Richmond, Roanoke, Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Winchester. The forecasts will be available on the agency’s web site and the Air Quality Line at (804) 698-4444. The agency forecasts ozone for all of these areas and particle pollution for Richmond, Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Northern Virginia.
The forecasts will indicate if air quality for the next day is expected to be good, moderate, unhealthy for sensitive groups or unhealthy for everyone, and predict the primary pollutant, either ozone or particle pollution. At high levels, ozone and particle pollution may cause health concerns in some people.
When DEQ expects air quality to be unhealthy for sensitive groups or code orange on the EPA’s Air Quality Index, the forecasts will also announce an Air Quality Action Day to encourage citizens, businesses and industry to take effective steps that will help keep the air clean. Outreach activities associated with Air Quality Action Days are coordinated through local air quality groups such as Ridefinders in Richmond or Ride Solutions in Roanoke.
Even though air quality has improved, there is still work to do, and DEQ remains committed to protecting air quality in Virginia. For more information on how citizens and businesses can help reduce air pollution, please see the web sites for DEQ and Virginia’s regional air quality outreach efforts:
- Ridefinders (Richmond area)
- Ride Solutions (Roanoke area)
- Valley AIRNow Air Quality Outreach Program (Northern Shenandoah Valley)
- Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Clean Air Partners
- Traffix (Hampton Roads Transit Alternatives)