ozone watch (Austin, Early, Combine: school, calculation, living in)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

We are level orange. Can someone tell me about this? How long has this area been giving watches about the ozone?

[AustinSpartan]

Pretty sure it's no different than any other area. Michigan did the same thing, if it's hot and humid, they recommend not filling up your gas tank, not mowing the lawn and other activities that release large amounts of exhaust into the air.

[verybadgnome]

More suggestions:

• Drive less: Try transit, carpooling, biking or walking. Combine trips when possible. Telecommute or work a compressed work week.
• Reduce emissions in the morning: Try flex-time at work, delay meetings and non-essential work travel until afternoon.
• Refuel vehicles in the evening.
• Maintain your vehicle - simple tune-ups keep your emissions cleaner.
• Park your car in the garage or shade to reduce evaporative emissions.
• Reduce unnecessary idling emissions. Park and walk inside instead.

and information:

Clean AIR Force of Central Texas

This is the year we could reach non-attainment which means a whole slew of new regulations and the stigma of being designated a 'dirty air' city.

[Trainwreck20]

Austin has already been slated to go non-attainment, I believe, although the EPA has not officially made the change.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Thanks. I musta really been out in the boon-docks because I never saw anything like that before. I've been "out-of-touch", "or living in the middle between two extremes." (Hall & Oates) Ok, I don't know why music occasionally just pops out of nowhere but I guess it can't be all bad.

Well, on occasion a brain cell explodes.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Austin has already been slated to go non-attainment, I believe, although the EPA has not officially made the change.

I don't think its a done deal as of yet:

"[SIZE=2]There is a “Big Push” going on in our region! The 5 counties of Central Texas are in danger of failing to meet the federal requirements for ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog. Air quality measurements from the 2009 Ozone Season (April 1 – October 31) will determine if we fail the federal test for clean air. The “Big Push” is the region’s expanded effort to keep our ozone levels in compliance this Ozone Season."[/SIZE]

[Trainwreck20]

It gets a little complex, and I am not the official follower of that set of regulations, but there are three sets of ozone standards. There is the old 1-hr standard (.125 ppm), the old 8-hr standard (0.08 ppm, interpreted as 82.5 ppb due to significant figures used in the rule), and the new 8-hr standard (75 ppb). The new 8-hr standard is in effect, but the official designations have not been made. Travis County has been recommended to be designated as nonattainment (NA) of the new standard.

I am not sure exactly where everything stands, but part of the issue may be that the CAF was successful in getting into an 'Early Action Compact' (EAC) program that allowed the area to avoid the NA designation under the old 8-hr standard if 'voluntary' (in the sense that the EPA did not yet require them) programs were enacted and managed to get Travis County back in attainment. The EAC program was recently successful challenged in court, so pending appeals, etc, it may be determined that Travis County should have gone NA several years ago, notwithstanding the fact that we have subsequently been meeting the NA standards.

Fun, eh?

In any case, I am assuming we blew the roof off some ozone readings this summer, just based on the temperatures. I will have to go and check. Also, the area has been consistently pushing the border of NA status, so in the big picture, we have borderline air quality in the summer, based on the EPAs definition. Since ozone in Austin is almost entirely due to traffic, guess which way we are heading?

[love roses]

When we lived in Denver these warnings were commonplace on a weekly basis, especially in the winter months.

[Trainwreck20]

Hmm...just talked to a person more versed in the details, and although 2006, 2007, and 2008 data (it is based on a 'rolling' three year calculation) would put us into NA, a petition has been filed to use 2007, 2008, and 2009 and that it is either a done deal or very likely.

I thought that it was odd that 2009 should be better than 2006, but apparently when it is very hot (>100), ozone does form at a higher rate, but it now has a larger 'air shed' to disperse in due to the larger dome of air over the city due to the high temperatures. Simply put, although we probably formed a lot of ozone this year, it floated high above the city and did not create a health problem.

In fact, the cooling temperatures are what are worrying the prognosticators - the dome has shrunk, traffic has increases for school, and the wind has gone away (look out your window today if you work downtown or have a view of it).

[love roses]

Well, I made sure to dose my daughter up real well before I sent her out this morning, so hope it helped her. I told her she had to play inside today and she was alright with it.