The Bay Area is concluding its 2003 summertime smog season with
only a single excess of the federal one-hour ozone standard.
The Bay Area is concluding its 2003 summertime smog season with only a single excess of the federal one-hour ozone standard.
The excess occurred in Livermore, one of 22 air-monitoring stations maintained by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District). The remaining 21 monitoring stations had zero excesses of the standard. Because of the low number of excesses in the past three years, the Bay Area now meets the federal criteria to be in attainment of the federal one-hour ozone standard.
“The Bay Area’s on-going programs to reduce emissions from industry, along with the state’s efforts to reduce vehicular emissions has paid off with cleaner air for all Bay Area residents,” said William C. Norton, the Air District’s executive officer. “Every emission reduction counts and minimizes the impact of poor air quality on health. Now, we need to move forward and further improve air quality.”
In the past 35 years, excesses of the federal one-hour standard have fallen from a high of 65 days in 1969 to the one day this year.
The Bay Area also had seven excesses of the new federal eight-hour ozone standard. These readings are averaged over three years to gauge attainment of the federal eight-hour standard. One air monitoring station, located in San Martin, presently violates the eight-hour standard by a small margin.
Also, there were 19 days exceeding the more stringent California one-hour ozone standard during the 2003 summer. Other air quality highlights include: Overall reductions of 63 percent in volatile organic compounds and 40 percent in oxides of nitrogen, the two key ingredients in ozone formation, since 1980.
The Bay Area and San Diego had the fewest number of excesses of the one-hour ozone standard for major metropolitan areas in California. Each air basin exceeded the one-hour standard on one day.
Ten Spare the Air advisories were issued in 2003, up from seven in 2002.
