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June 15, 2000

The Honorable Parris N. Glendening
State House
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401

Dear Governor Glendening,

We the undersigned environmental, civic, and smart growth-oriented organizations are writing with our recommendations for determining the boundaries for the 8-hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). We are all in strong support of designating a large, interstate non-attainment area, with sub-allocation of air pollution budgets for transportation planning purposes. We believe that this kind of large non-attainment designation is the most straightforward and effective way of holding "upwind" sources of air pollution, such as Virginia, accountable for the pollution they contribute to downwind areas, such as Maryland. This air pollution transport continues up the East Coast, through the set of states now known as the Ozone Transport Region. We also urge you to work with the members of Maryland’s congressional delegation to oppose strongly any congressional efforts to delay the new designations, which are vital to protecting the health of Maryland residents.

As you well know, ozone air pollution and its precursors have a serious effect on public health and the Chesapeake Bay. A recent study prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates calculated that ozone pollution in Maryland triggers 180,000 asthma attacks and results in 3,900 emergency room visits in a typical summer. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asthma is the most common chronic disease in children in the developed world. Last year 95,000 Maryland children 16 or younger had asthma and nearly 189,000 adult Marylanders were classified as asthma sufferers. Since airborne nitrogen pollution is a precursor to ozone smog, implementation of the new standard will also have the collateral benefit of helping to reduce the nitrogen pollution that plagues the Chesapeake Bay. According to EPA, about one quarter of that pollution comes from the air.

As stated above, we believe that the most effective way to ensure accountability in reaching the new NAAQS standard in Maryland and the entire east coast Ozone Transport Region (OTR) is to designate one large interstate non-attainment area that includes the non-attainment counties in the OTR. In Maryland, this non-attainment designation should including all counties where monitoring data or EPA guidance relative to protecting public health indicates the designation is warranted. By this measure, Washington, Kent, and Queen Anne's Counties in Maryland would be included in the non-attainment area, along with all other counties already in non-attainment for the 1-hour ozone standard.

A large non-attainment region is supported by scientific monitoring and modeling, and it reflects the regional and interrelated nature of air pollution on the East Coast. A large non-attainment area would give clear guidance to EPA that they must hold upwind metropolitan regions accountable for their contributions to the pollution problems of downwind regions. While the Clean Air Act currently does give EPA authority to require this kind of accountability, in practice EPA has not exercised it. This means that EPA tends to be willing to approve the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Washington region based on its implications for air quality in the Washington region while the Baltimore region struggles under not only its own pollution but also pollution drifting downwind from the Washington region.

It is our understanding that some stakeholders may urge you to recommend retaining roughly the existing non-attainment area designations and to recommend that EPA stiffen its inter-region accountability measures. We believe such a recommendation would be a serious mistake. The best indication of EPA's future action with existing tools is its past action with existing tools. If we want EPA to improve the way it holds upwind metropolitan regions accountable for their impact on downwind regions, the most straightforward and effective way to do this would be to recommend the designation of a non-attainment region that embodies that accountability.

One criticism of designating a large non-attainment region is that it would hinder local transportation planning. We believe that this need not be the case if every existing metropolitan planning organization, or MPO, takes responsibility for its region's contribution to the air pollution problem of the whole non-attainment area. We are not recommending any consolidation of metropolitan planning organizations. In fact, we believe that the non-attainment area should include sub-allocation of air pollution budgets by state and MPO region. With this sub-allocation of budgets, which would take inter-region pollution transport into account, metropolitan transportation planning would proceed as it does currently through the existing MPOs.

The significant and crucial change under a large non-attainment area would be that upwind regions would not be able to escape non-attainment status, and thus important pollution controls, until downwind regions had also achieved that status. A large non-attainment area would also require SIPs from upwind metropolitan regions to take responsibility for the pollution they contribute to downwind regions. All SIPs in the non-attainment area, considered together, would need to show that the entire area would meet the new 8-hour ozone standard. This process would embody the need for interrelated accountability of both upwind and downwind metropolitan regions when working to clean the air in Maryland and the entire Ozone Transport Region.

Under your stewardship, Maryland has continued its nationally leading role in protecting open space and natural resources, and our state has broken new ground leading the national 'smart growth' movement. If EPA is going to enter a new age of assertiveness in holding regions accountable for their interrelated air pollution, Maryland must lead the way in making strong recommendations based on the scientific realities of our situation. It is only under a non-attainment designation that has not been made artificially small because of political considerations that we are going to achieve healthy air in Maryland.

A large non-attainment designation will also help ensure that the Clean Air Act works in concert with state and local efforts to promote smart growth. The current situation allows upwind areas to continue to promote sprawling development and its accompanying air pollution with no real consequences. Unscientifically small non-attainment areas also introduce an unnecessarily lenient playing field for polluting economic development activities outside of smart growth areas, facilitating sprawl. Successful efforts to promote smart growth, along with equity in the benefits and burdens of growth, require effective environmental protections applied over a larger, rather than smaller, geographical area.

We believe our recommendations above outline the most effective structure for protecting public health, reducing air pollution, and helping the Clean Air Act promote smart growth in Maryland and the surrounding area. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on this crucial issue. Feel free to contact us at the addresses below or Dan Pontious, director of the Baltimore Regional Partnership, at (410) 385-2910, if you or your staff have any questions about our recommendations.

Sincerely,

cc: Jonathan Priday, Maryland Department of the Environment (Official Comments)
Carol M. Browner, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Maryland Congressional Delegation
J. Craig Forrest, Chair, Transportation Steering Committee
Kathryn Porter, Chair, National Capitol Region Transportation Planning Board
Robert J. Wright, Chair, Metropolitan Washington Air Quality Committee
Robert Arch, Chair, Hagerstown/Eastern Panhandle Metropolitan Planning Organization
Anne P. Canby, Chair, Wilmington Area Planning Council

Baltimore Regional Partnership · 512 Orchard Street  · Baltimore, MD 21201-1947
 phone: (410) 523-8150  x249 · fax: (410) 523-4022