Major Findings from the Second Integrated Urban Air Report to Congress
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Under the Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments of 1990, the EPA was tasked with taking action to reduce toxic air emissions and associated human health risks. In 1999, the EPA developed the Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy for reducing air toxics risks from all sources, including major stationary sources, smaller area stationary sources, and mobile sources. EPA’s strategy also included risk-resolution partnerships with state, tribal, and local governments and community stakeholders, national-level air toxics assessments, and educational and outreach activities.
As prescribed in the CAA, the EPA was required to issue two reports to Congress describing its progress in reducing air toxics risks. The first report was issued in 2000 and the second in July 2014. Here are some of the major findings from the Second Integrated Urban Air Report to Congress.
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Since 1990, overall air toxics emissions from all sources—major, area, and mobile—have declined significantly. This includes removal of an estimated 1.5 million tons per year (tpy) of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) by stationary sources under promulgated regulations or laws, as well as about 3 million tpy of cobenefit criteria pollutant reductions. Specifically, the reductions can be attributed to the following actions by the EPA:
- Emissions standards for 68 area source categories (including dry cleaners, hazardous waste combustors, medical waste incinerators, iron and steel foundries, and paint‐stripping operations) representing 90 percent of the 30 urban HAPs;
- 97 maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for 174 major source categories such as gasoline distribution facilities, chemical plants, petroleum refineries, and steel mills, and including the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for utilities;Emissions standards covering sources that account for not less than 90 percent of the aggregate emissions of each of the following CAA persistent and bioaccumulative pollutants: alkylated lead compounds, polycyclic organic matter (POM), mercury, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzofurans (TCDFs), and 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD);
- A 2007 rule to reduce air toxics from gasoline-fueled passenger vehicles, gasoline fuel and portable fuel containers, and multiple rules aimed at reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter (PM) from on- and off-road gasoline and diesel vehicles and equipment;
- Regulations to directly or indirectly reduce PM using control equipment. Estimated reductions include 5,800 tpy from the integrated iron and steel industry and 52,000 tpy from power plants;
- Nonregulatory programs, such as the National Clean Diesel Campaign, administered by the EPA through the Diesel Emissions Reduction provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (DERA), have provided funding to state and national programs resulting in an estimated reduction of 12,500 tons of diesel PM over the lifetime of the projects; and
- Supporting voluntary programs through state, local, and tribal agencies to reduce emissions, including proactive industry participation.
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Thanks to ambient air monitoring, the report also showed “notable decreases” nationwide for air toxics that “drive national cancer risk” such as lead and benzene. Monitoring of benzene has shown a 66 percent reduction of ambient levels of the chemical since 1994, and from 1990 to 2010, ambient lead levels have declined 84 percent.
Based on recent monitoring data, the EPA analyzed HAP emissions trends in selected metropolitan areas between 2003 and 2010 and found a decrease in average concentrations, with the greatest reductions occurring for arsenic, benzene, 1,3‐butadiene, lead, nickel, and tetrachloroethylene. Only two chemicals were found to be slightly increased: chloroform and dichloromethane.
While these numbers seem to bode well for future air quality, the EPA cautions that even as national levels of many air toxics are declining, “concentrations are not necessarily decreasing in every place with a monitor” and that “each urban area had a unique set of sources and pollutants that drive the risk.”