By Neil Carman
This has been a scary week for ozone pollution - especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On Monday June 6, the Dallas-Ft. Worth and El Paso areas recorded the first ozone exceedances this season. As readers of this blog know, ground level ozone continues to be the worst air pollution challenge facing Texas.
DFW observed an 80 ppb to the Southwest at Cleburne in Johnson County, and El Paso reported a 72 ppb. The ozone standard is 70 ppb and it’s worth noting that DFW’s 80 ppb exceedance would have even exceeded the old standard of 75 ppb.
So what ramifications does this have for DFW and El Paso? These two exceedances are not violations of the EPA's new 70 ppb standard because three more exceedance days are required at the two monitors to trigger violations this year.
Earlier this year, DFW had 12 monitors violating the new standard with the highest violation measured in Denton County — 83 ppb.
By June 7, DFW had ten more exceedances reaching 95 ppb at two Ft. Worth sites, which are the highest levels in nearly three years when ozone peaked at 100 ppb in September 2013. This time, nine of ten exceeding monitors had ozone at 80 ppb and above. DFW observed peak ozone ranging from 72 - 95 ppb at ten sites in Tarrant (5 monitors), Dallas (2), Cleburne (1), Hood (1), and Parker (1) Counties.
And on Wednesday June 8, DFW had two more exceedances at lower levels than Tuesday June 7, but these occurred for the first time this year in Denton County.
Texas had 19 exceedances in three days this week so far!
DFW had 13, El Paso 1, Houston 4, and Beaumont-Pt Arthur 1.
In addition to Dallas-Ft. Worth and El Paso areas, Houston, San Antonio, and Port Arthur have recorded over fifty ozone exceedances this year at several dozen air monitors
To learn more about ozone pollution and how it is monitored, check out our resource page. Stay tuned for more updates as the summer heat ramps up.