# Children and Environmental 

# Justice Communities Need a 60 ppb Smog Standard

1

# EPA’s Must Finalize A 60 ppb 

# Standard to Protect Public Health

2

# Level of the Standard The primary NAAQS at a level that is

• “requisite to protect public health”

— including sensitive populations

—



# • with an “adequate margin of safety.”

– 42 U.S.C. § 7409(b)(1 )

3

# Level of the Standard

• EPA proposes 65
– 70 ppb



# • EPA eliminates 60 ppb

4

# CASAC Advice

• 70 ppb:



## – A “significant concern, especially for children, asthmatics, the elderly and other at risk populations .”

5

# CASAC Advice

• 70 ppb:



## – A “significant concern, especially for children, asthmatics, the elderly and other at risk populations .”

– “ substantial scientific evidence of adverse effects”

6

# CASAC Advice

• 70 ppb:



## – A “significant concern, especially for children, asthmatics, the elderly and other at risk populations.”

– “ substantial scientific evidence of adverse effects”



## – “ offers only modest incremental reductions in short

term mortality risk . . . .”

7

# CASAC Advice

• 70 ppb:



## – A “significant concern, especially for children, asthmatics, the elderly and other at risk populations.”

– “ substantial scientific evidence of adverse effects”



## – “ offers only modest incremental reductions in short

term mortality risk . . . .”

• Even 60 ppb:

– “ clinically significant lung function decrements and airway inflammation ” 8

# US EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee Advice

• “strongly re

- affirm the recommendation of 60 ppb based on . . . adverse childhood health 

# impacts”

9

# US EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee Advice

• “strongly re

- affirm the recommendation of 60 ppb based on . . . adverse childhood health 

# impacts”

• “The higher end of the range, 60 ppb

– 70 ppb . . . will not be sufficient to protect children’s health.”

10

# The Public Health Community Broadly

Supports 60 ppb

• American Academy of Pediatrics

• American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary 

### Rehabilitation

• American College of Preventive Medicine

• American Heart Association



### • American Lung Association

• American Public Health Association

• American Thoracic Society



### • Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America 

### • National Association for Medical Direction of Respiratory Care

• National Association of County 

### and City Health Officials

• National Environmental Health Association

• National Home Oxygen 

### Patients Association

• Physicians for Social Responsibility

• Trust for America's Health

11

# EPA’s Proposed 65

- 70 ppb Level Is Less Protective Than Many Countries

Country 8 hour

standard Exceedances

Allowed per Year WHO 51 United Kingdom 51 10 European Union (2010) 61 25 (per 3 years)
Ireland 61 Malaysia 61 Mongolia 61 Vietnam 61 Republic of Korea 61 Switzerland 61 1 Canada 65 3 12

# The Form Weakens the Standard



# Even M ore

13

# A Weak Form Requires Stronger Standard

• Form:

– Ignores 3 highest ozone days each year

• 4 th 

### Highest 8

- hr daily max

14

# A Weak Form Requires Stronger Standard

• Form :

– Ignores 3 highest ozone days each year

• 4 th 

### Highest 8

- hr daily max



## – Only After 3 Years

• Averaging across multiple years allows many more exceedances

15

# A Weak Form

• A dds 7.2

– 8.1 ppb to the “level”

• Allows for multiple exceedances

1617

## EPA’s Justification of “Administrative Stability” is Not

Supported by Data

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

1st highest based DV 2nd highest based DV 4th highest based DV Change (ppb) Average Year - to - Year Change (ppb):

1st vs. 2nd vs. 4th Highest Based Design Values

(2000
- 02 through 2012
- 14)
3.2 2.8 2.5 Marginal "stability benefit" at best 10% difference 12% difference

180

5 10 15 20 25 Days with 8 - hour ozone levels at or above 75 ppb

Attainment Areas from Higher to Lower 2011 - 13 Design Values, .075
- .071 ppb Many Areas That Repeatedly Have Unsafe Air are Judged in Compliance and

Will Never Have to Clean Their Air Due to EPA’s Form Total days with 8-hour ozone levels of 75 ppb or higher during 2011-13 ozone seasons Of that total, days in a single ozone season with 8-hour ozone level of 75 ppb or higher

19

# Children and EJ Communities Face the Greatest Risk from Smog

20

# Children Are at Great Risk

• EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee:

– “ Children suffer a disproportionate burden of ozone

- related health impacts due . . . that can result in permanent disability .”

21

# Children Are at Great Risk

• EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee:

– “ Children suffer a disproportionate burden of ozone

- related health impacts due . . . that can result in permanent disability .”

– “ Children have increased susceptibility due to . . . increased outdoor physical activity compared with adults.”

22

# Children Are at Great Risk

• EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee:

– “ Children suffer a disproportionate burden of ozone

- related health impacts due . . . that can result in permanent disability.”

– “ Children have increased susceptibility due to . . . increased outdoor physical activity compared with adults.”

– “The 6.8 million children suffering from asthma . . . are some of the most vulnerable .”

23

# Children Are at Great Risk

• EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee:

– “ Children suffer a disproportionate burden of ozone

- related health impacts due . . . that can result in permanent disability.”

– “ Children have increased susceptibility due to . . . increased outdoor physical activity compared with adults.”

– “The 6.8 million children suffering from asthma . . . are some of the most vulnerable .”

– “ strongly re

- affirm the recommendation of 60 ppb . . . the higher end of the range . . . will not . . . protect children’s health.”

24

# Environmental Justice Communities Are at

Great Risk

• Nationwide, people of color are significantly over - represented in areas with unsafe air

• As air quality decreases, over

- representation of people of color increases

25People of Color A re Over

- Represented in Areas with Bad A ir in the South

26

### And in the Midwest

27

### And in the Northeast

28Increased Air Pollution = Increased Representation of People of Color, Decreased White Representation

29

### This Trend I s Observed T hroughout the Nation

30

# A Weak NAAQS Adversely Impacts



# EJ Communities

310

5 10 15 20 25

81 76 76 75 75 75 75 75 74 73 73 72 72 72 71 69 69 67 66 66 66 Monitors in Houston Nonattainment Area (2012
- 14 Calculated Design Value) Number of Days Ozone Monitors in the Houston Nonattainment Area Exceeded the NAAQS (2012
- 14) Total Days with 8-hour ozone levels of 75 ppb or higher during 2011-2013 ozone seasons Of that total, days in a single ozone season with 8-hour levels of 75 ppb or higher Highest level: 136

104 114 113
102 104
100 103 96 95 99

92 95 85 91 94

8 4

8 5 8 8 8 6
78 8 8

-15% -10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15%

% Black % Asian % Hispanic or Latino % White Racial Over and Under Representation in the Houston Nonattainment Area

320 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Bucks - (75 ppb) Delaware - (74 ppb) Philadelphia - (75

ppb) Chester - (73

ppb) Montgomery -

(72 ppb) Philadelphia - (56

ppb) Monitors in Philadelphia, PA Area
- (2012
- 14 Calculated Design Value) Number of Days Ozone Monitors in the Philadelphia, PA Area

Exceeded the NAAQS (2012
- 14) Total Days with 8-hour ozone levels of 75 ppb or higher during 2011-13 ozone seasons Of that total, days in a single ozone season with 8-hour levels of 75 ppb or higher Highest level: 94 86 87 78

77
87

-20% -15% -10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

% Black % Asian % Hispanic or Latino % White Racial Over and Under Representation in

Philadelphia, PA

330 5 10 15 20 25 30

79 78 76 74 72 70 70 70 70 70 70 68 67 65 Monitors in the Chicago, IL Area ( 2012 - 14 Calculated Design Value) Number of Days Ozone Monitors in the Chicago , IL Area Exceeded

the NAAQS (2012
- 14) Total Days with 8-hour ozone levels of 75 ppb or higher during 2011-2013 ozone seasons Of that total, days in a single ozone season with 8-hour levels of 75 ppb or higher Highest level: 103 100 94

96 100 96 93

103 89

86 87 85 81 76

-20% -15% -10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

% Black % Asian % Hispanic or Latino % White Racial Over and Under Representation in

Chicago, IL

34

# EPA Cannot Rely On People Staying 

# Indoors To Justify 70 ppb

35

# The Clean Air Act Mandates A ir that Is S afe for

All People to Breathe at All Times

– “the Clean Air Act

. . . p rovid [ es ] citizens the opportunity to pursue their normal activities in a healthy environment.” (44 Fed. Reg. at 8210 )

36

# The Clean Air Act Mandates A ir that Is S afe for

All People to Breathe at All Times

– “the Clean Air Act . . . provid [ es ] citizens the opportunity to pursue their normal activities in a healthy environment.” (44 Fed. Reg. at 8210)



### – “[The Clean Air Act] states that all Americans in all parts of the Nation should have clean air to breathe, air that will 

### have no adverse effects on their health.”

- Senator Muskie, Sept. 21, 1970

37

# A 70 ppb Standard Betrays the Clean Air Act’s

Promise of Safe Air for All

• EPA uses diaries to assume most people will spend most of the time indoors to justify 70 ppb based on “exposure estimates.”

38

# A 70 ppb Standard Betrays the Clean Air Act’s

Promise of Safe Air for All

• EPA uses diaries to assume most people will spend most of the time indoors to justify 70 ppb based on “exposure estimates.”

• Even still , with a 70 ppb standard, EPA estimates :

– over a million sensitive individuals will experience unsafe 

### air

– millions of kids will endure adverse lung function decrements.

39

# 2008 Ozone Standard:

RACT and Transport Coal EGUs = Easy NOx Reductions

40

# RACT Is Installation And Operation Of SCRs On

Coal Fired EGUs

• Reasonably Available Control Technology

– “the lowest emissions limit that a particular 

## source is capable of meeting by the application of control technology that is reasonably available considering technological and economic feasibility”

– Economic feasibility for RACT purposes, as EPA has clarified “is largely determined by evidence that other sources in a source category have in fact applied the control technology in question”

# RACT = SCR Installation

• SCR is in wide use in the coal fired EGU fleet

• 48% of coal fired EGUs have or will have SCR

– by MW, excluding announced retirements and units below 100 MW

• 37% of coal fired EGUs have or will have SCR

– by units, excluding announced retirements and units below 100 MW

• 52% of unannounced coal fired units have or will have SCR using a 150 MW cutoff

• SCR can achieve NOx reductions of well over 90%.

• Plants with SCR routinely emit NOx at levels well below .07 lbs / MMbtu

• Scores of permits for new coal fired EGUs require SCR level emissions at or below .07 lbs / MMbtu

42

# RACT = SCR Installation

• EPA: “likely . . . very large [EGU] emissions reductions . . . before costs [justify] non

- EGU.”

• SCR with LNB and OFA: Between $1,210 and 

## $4,550 (2015 $).

– See e.g., 77 Fed. Reg. 50,936; 78 Fed. Reg. 8,273

– 8,294 ; 77 Fed. Reg. 76,871 (Dec. 31, 2012); 77 Fed. Reg. 76,871 (Dec. 31, 2012); 77 Fed. Reg. 72,511 (Dec. 5, 2012); 77 Fed. Reg. 72,511 (Dec. 5, 2012)


## • SCR with sorbent injection: Between $ 1,690 and $2,060 (2015 $).

– See e.g., 76 Fed. Reg. 52,388 (Aug. 22, 2011).


## • SCR alone $ 2,835 to $ 3,430 (2015$).

– 735 See e.g., 75 Fed. Reg. 64,221 (Oct. 19, 2010); 77 Fed. Reg. 51,915 (Aug. 28, 2012); 76 Fed. Reg. 80,754 (Dec. 27, 2011); 75 Fed. Reg. 64,221 (Oct. 19, 2010).

# Many OTR States Are Imposing Stringent RACT Standards

• New York: 0.12 lbs / MMBtu for tangential and wall coal

- fired boilers, 0.08 lbs / MMBtu for fluidized bed coal

- fired boilers

• New Jersey : 1.50 lb / MWh per 24 hours ozone season

• Delaware: 0.125 lbs / MMBtu on a rolling 24

- hour 

## average basis

• Maryland: 0.07 or 0.08 lbs / MMBtu on a rolling 24

- hour average basis for units with existing SCR; 0.09 lbs / MMbtu as a 30

- day average beginning in 2020 for units without SCR

# RACT = Operation Of SCRs

• Many of the 42% of EGUs with SCRs are not fully operating their SCRs:

– In recent years, over 50 coal units with SCRs emitted NOx at levels over 3 times greater than their best demonstrated rate

– 88 units emitted NOx at levels double their best rate

– 135 units emitted NOx at levels 50% higher than their best rate

45

# Emission Reductions from Operating SCR Are

Highly Cost

- Effective

• S imply running already installed controls on coal units in the CSAPR region would:

– Eliminate 136,534 tons of ozone season NOx emission reductions

– At a total cost of $63.5 million

– And a cost/ton of only $ 465

46

# MD and PA Are At Risk Of Adopting A

Weak RACT Standard

• MD: Governor Hogan has blocked MD’s RACT standard and announced intentions to roll back the regulations adopted under O’Malley



## • PA: Governor Wolfe’s DEP is considering a RACT standard that would set a level of 0.12 lbs / MMbtu for controlled plants and allow poorly 

## controlled plants to continue operating without modern controls (“SCR”)

• These states must have their RACT approved by 

## EPA Region 3

# Modeled Benefits of Installation and Operation of SCR Controls on Eastern Coal Fleet

Installation and operation of SCR controls on the full Eastern US coal fleet would result reduce total US NOx emissions by over 3/5 th (nearly 800,000 tons/year) providing significant air quality benefits 484950