TAMPA, December 5, 2003
By JOE HUMPHREY
Published: Dec 5, 2003
There was a time, not that long ago, when state and local regulators were contemplating mandatory carpooling and restricted lawn mowing to combat smog that threatened to violate new federal air quality standards.
By all accounts, Hillsborough County was destined to make the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's next bad-air list.
That was before Tampa Electric Co. invested $1 billion in cleaning up its two coal-fired power plants.
On Thursday, when the EPA released a list of the United States' most smog-choked communities, Hillsborough and Florida were notably absent.
"A couple of years ago, it didn't look so good,'' said Jerry Campbell, director of air management for the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.
Favorable weather conditions and environmentally friendly cars have contributed to improved air quality in the state.
But officials credit TECO's recent conversion from coal to natural gas at one plant, along with enhanced use of pollution controls at another, for making the biggest difference in keeping local smog in check.
Down 35,000 Tons
In 1998, TECO sent 70,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, the main ingredient in smog, into the sky over Tampa. That amount has been cut in half.
"It's nothing short of a revolution,'' TECO spokesman Ross Bannister said Thursday. "It's a transformation.
Environmentalists call it more of a regulatory coup d' etat.
TECO was one of a dozen power companies sued by the EPA and U.S. Justice Department for violating a provision in the federal Clean Air Act that prohibited expanding or upgrading aging plants without installing modern pollution controls.
The Tampa utility's billion- dollar transformation was the result of the company settling the lawsuit before it reached court.
The Bush administration has since "essentially legalized'' the regulations that forced TECO to clean up its act, said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust.
The case "is a really vivid illustration that if the Clean Air Act is enforced, we get better air quality and improved public health,'' he said.
The EPA did not respond to the Tribune's repeated requests for comment.
Bannister said TECO, which did not admit guilt in forging the settlement, likely would have chosen to make the conversion without being sued by the federal government.
Health Concerns
Thursday's list of air quality violators was the first compiled under tougher EPA standards imposed in 1997. Polluting industries challenged the standards - based on eight-hour average smog levels - but in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them implemented.
The previous standard, which used one-hour measurements, was changed due to health concerns and, the EPA said, because an eight- hour standard presents a more realistic measure of exposure to the lung-damaging pollutant.
Smog, also known as ground-level ozone, forms when nitrogen oxide is exposed to sunlight, making summer the peak smog season.
Emissions from power plant smokestacks and vehicle tailpipes are the primary sources of the pollution, which is linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions. It is especially dangerous to the very young or old and those with suppressed immune systems.
Even healthy people can face scratchy throats, burning eyes or shortness of breath when smog levels rise.
Hillsborough and four other Florida counties landed on the EPA's dirty-air list in the 1980s. They were removed in 1996, after mandatory testing of vehicle emissions helped remedy a major source of the pollution.
But concerns of returning to the list lingered.
The state Legislature ended the unpopular auto emissions testing program in 2000.
And the EPA raised the bar on air quality standards, saying the old ones did not sufficiently protect public health.
In 1998, Hillsborough exceeded the old standard more than 30 times. County environmental regulators said the Bay area was "clearly destined'' to exceed the new ones when they took effect.
The fact that it did not is hailed by environmentalists as a resounding success story that demonstrates the value of enforcing regulations.
Newer cars are spewing less pollution, and the gasoline going into the vehicles is better for the environment, said Larry George of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Weather also played a role. Steady summer winds kept emissions moving instead of letting them remain stagnant and bake into smog.
But weather only did so much, George said. TECO made the difference.
Florida and Vermont were the only states east of the Mississippi River to have all their counties in compliance with the new federal standards.
Areas that are out of compliance must assemble a plan to improve air quality or risk losing federal highway funds.
Reporter Joe Humphrey can be reached at (813) 259-7691.
