Published: November 03, 2009 10:57 am      

Houston is close to meeting federal smog limits

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston is cleaning up its smoggy act.

Houston, once considered to have the dirtiest air in the nation, for the first time could meet federal limits for lung-irritating smog, based on a three-year running average.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency the data is preliminary and will be reviewed, The Houston Chronicle reported. But the initial information indicates "the news is good," said EPA spokesman David Bary.

Ozone, the key ingredient in smog, is produced when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, which are released from vehicles and smokestacks, heat in sunlight.

The limit is 84 parts per billion, or 84 molecules of ozone for every billion molecules of air. Houston's air measured 84 parts per billion through Monday.

Bryan Lambeth, senior meteorologist for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the region probably will not have enough more smoggy days this year to move the average above the limit.

"It's not certain, but I would put it at 90 percent or higher," Lambeth said of the region's chances of ending 2009 in compliance.

Gov. Rick Perry in 2007 convinced the federal government to grant Houston more time, until 2019, to comply with smog standards set in 1997.

State officials attribute Houston's cleaner air to more stringent regulations that took effect in 2007, industry cleanup efforts and new pollution controls.

The weather also helped to short-circuit smog-forming conditions since 2007, plus the economic downturn led to fewer emissions from heavy industry and vehicles, federal regulators said.

Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, a decade ago replaced Los Angeles for the unwanted crown of smoggiest city.

"We still have plenty of work ahead of us," said Karl Pepple, the city's director of environmental planning. "I don't want to lose momentum."

"Let's applaud ourselves now," said Matthew Tejada, executive director of the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. "Then let's see where we are in a few years."