Clean Air for the Columbia Area: An Action Agenda
Columbia must develop plans to combat smog or risk federal sanctions
If the hot, dry weather seen this summer is repeated over the next two years, Columbia, which currently violates federal smog standards, will risk federal sanctions including the potential loss of federal highway money. Clean Air for the Columbia Area: An Action Agenda, says that the region must better plan transportation and land-use to improve air quality.
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The American Lung Association estimates that about 10,000 children in the Columbia area suffer from asthma.
In the meantime, Columbia's air remains unhealthy to breathe on ozone alert days. In 2004 alone, nine of the state's 15 ozone violations occurred in Richland County, which was given an "F" for ozone pollution by the American Lung Association.
In April 2004, portions of Lexington and Richland Counties were identified as "nonattainment" for failing to meet federal health standards for ozone pollution, or smog. The region entered into an "Early Action Compact: with EPA which suspends the nonattainment designation status, in exchange for an earlier, 2007 deadline to achieve cleaner air. However, if the region should fail to meet the deadline or certain milestones associated with it, the nonattainment designation is activated.
Much of the Columbia area's pollution problem can be attributed to an increase in population and development patterns that cultivate a dependence on cars, offsetting the benefits of cleaner fuels and more efficient cars. The Columbia region has seen a 22 percent population growth in recent years, while development consumed land at four times that rate. The resulting increase in daily driving has seen tailpipe emissions become responsible for nearly half of the region's ozone-forming NOx emissions.
The region has taken many positive steps toward curbing these health threats and meeting federal clean up deadlines, such as retrofitting diesel-fueled school buses to reduce emissions, encouraging carpooling among municipal employees, and increasing alternative fuel and low-emission vehicles in the Richland County fleet. However, officials should take steps to further improve the region's air quality with actions such as coordinating its transportation and land-use planning on a regional level to better gauge the impacts of major developments; pursuing an expanded public transit system; and pushing for aggressive implementation of federal and state programs to reduce power plant pollution.
