Posted on 02/13/2004 11:18:47 AM PST by Constitution Day
Air quality rating at issue
By Dorothy Y. Lewis, Rocky Mount Telegram
TARBORO – A poor air quality rating in Edgecombe County could have a potentially devastating impact on economic development in the Twin Counties, Lorenzo Carmon, Edgecombe county manager, said Tuesday.
Carmon said Edgecombe and Nash counties' designation as areas with high ozone levels could require companies to buy extra equipment to reduce emissions in the air.
John Gessaman, Carolinas Gateway Partnership president, agreed with Carmon, saying the rating could adversely affect new industries coming to the area.
"There are so many variables on what additional costs industries could have as a result of the air quality rating, but it could discourage companies from coming here when other areas in the state are not considered to have an ozone problem," Gessaman said.
Gessaman and Carmon said the N.C. Division of Air Quality in Raleigh is appealing on the area's behalf to the Environmental Protection Agency and trying to prevent the rating from affecting all of Edgecombe and Nash counties.
The ozone problem did not even originate in Edgecombe County, Carmon said.
"The appeal is requesting the rating only apply to a limited part of the counties," he said.
Carmon did not know when Environmental Protection Agency officials expect to reach a decision on the appeal.
The reason for the high ozone levels in the Twin Counties primarily is due to winds coming from urban areas such as the Triangle, the Triad and Charlotte, said Sheila Holman, spokeswoman for the N.C. Division of Air Quality in Raleigh.
An air monitor was placed in Leggett in the early 1990s to see how life in urban areas was impacting rural areas, Holman said.
"The monitor there has detected the air contains 0.89 parts per million in ozone levels," Holman said. "Any ozone rating above 0.85 parts per million is not acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency and is considered a nonattainment area," Holman said.
Even if the request to limit the air rating's scope is granted to spur the economy in the Twin Counties, Holman said residents still will be required to have their cars undergo emissions test.
Holman said of the 100 counties in the state, Edgecombe and Nash counties are two of 48 counties in North Carolina where it will be mandated people have vehicles inspected yearly beginning in 2005.
She added that Wilson County residents also will be required to have their cars inspected for emissions next year.
The vehicle emissions law was approved by the General Assembly in 1999.
Any vehicle that has not passed an emissions inspection within four months of the expiration of its sticker could be fined up to $250, according to information provided by the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.
Edgecombe County board Chairman Charlie Harrell said during a meeting this month that mandating the emissions test in the area would be a punishment.
Commissioners unanimously agreed with Harrell that this inspections law would be a crushing blow to impoverished residents by adding to the cost of living in the area.
"The (emissions test) for this county seems to be an overkill," Harrell said. "We have inherited this (ozone) problem and are not creating the problem."
Commissioner Jonathan Felton said he also was concerned about the added expense it will cost Twin Counties residents.
Service stations that want to perform the emissions inspections will have to pay between $3,000 to $10,000 for additional equipment, added Tony Edwards, manager of Inspect Express at Citgo Express Lube on Wesleyan Boulevard.
Holman said it will cost people between $25 to $30 to have cars inspected at a service station. She said only 1996 and newer car models in the Twin Counties would be subjected to the inspection.
I was waiting for an opportune time to post that to you.
Now I'm headed out of the office EARLY!
I'm taking Mrs. CD out for an (early) Valentine's Day dinner.
Take care,
CD
The current standards can't be met anywhere 365 days a year because they are below ambinet ozone from vegetation in many areas.
What will happen is that the testing will be put in place, people will go along and next year another area will be added to the testing requirement until all the state is being tested; and the air will be no cleaner.
The new standards are unreasonably low.
The current standards can't be met anywhere 365 days a year because they are below ambient ozone from vegetation in many areas.
I didn't know that.
I happen to live about 8 mi from the air monitor referenced in the article.
The area is VERY rural and has no industry to speak of, only farms and lots of woodland.
Since there is no great harm done by annual testing it generally comes down to cost and convenience for the area and the motorists and therefore becomes political.
My daughter's car, a 1996 Geo Prizm had a light on about a month ago and when it went out stayed out; this last week, it sailed through the test.
Not all check engine warnings mean excess pollution; it can be quite complicated.
Ground-level ozone is not persistent; the early-morning levels are generally near zero even on high-alert days.
We can't re-engineer nature.
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