The April 13th Federal Register includes several US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposals to reclassify certain nonattainment areas under the 2008 and 2015 ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). In Texas, areas affected are Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) for the 2008 NAAQS and HGB, DFW, and San Antonio (SA) for the 2015 NAAQS.
The 2008 NAAQS proposal would determine that the HGB and DFW areas failed to attain the 2008 NAAQS standard and would also deny a request from Texas for a 1-year attainment date extension for HGB. The effect of the determination will reclassify HGB and DFW as “severe” nonattainment areas under the 2008 standards upon the effective date of the final reclassification notice.
Under the 2015 NAAQS proposed determination, HGB, DFW, and SA would fail to attain the 2015 NAAQS standard and would be reclassified to “moderate” upon the effective date of the final reclassification notice.