Document ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2005-0172-0085
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2007-03-29T04:00Z

Fred Butterfield/DC/USEPA/US 

02/02/2007 11:52 AM

	

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Vanessa Vu/DC/USEPA/US@EPA, Anthony Maciorowski/DC/USEPA/US@EPA

Subject

IMPORTANT -- EPA's Final Ozone Staff Paper Released on Wednesday,
January 31; Fw: EPA Press Release: "EPA Completes Second Step in Ongoing
Ground-Level Ozone Air Quality Standards Review" (01/30/2007)

*** IMPORTANT ***

To:  CASAC Ozone Review Panel Members 

	

As a follow-up to my 1/29 message below, the Agency released the Final
Ozone Staff Paper on Wednesday, January 31.  It is being sent to you all
today in both hard-copy and CD-ROM versions via a FedEx mailing, and
should arrive no later than Monday, February 5.  The Ozone Panel will
meet via a public teleconference on Monday, March 5, 2007 beginning at
1:00 PM Eastern Time to review and offer additional advice to EPA
concerning Chapters 6 and 8 (Staff Conclusions on Primary and Secondary
Ozone NAAQS) in this final Agency document.

FYI, the Final Ozone Staff Paper is posted on the EPA Web site at:
http://epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_cr_sp.html, and the
associated technical support documents are posted at:
http://epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_cr_td.html.  An
accompanying, four-page fact sheet is posted at URL:
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/data/2007_01_finalsp_factsh
eet.pdf, and is also attached below as an Adobe PDF file.

[attachment "EPA-OAQPS Final Ozone Staff Paper Fact Sheet Jan 2007.pdf"
deleted by Fred Butterfield/DC/USEPA/US] 

Finally, FYI, see EPA's Press Release -- "EPA Completes Second Step in
Ongoing Ground-Level Ozone Air Quality Standards Review" (dated
01/30/2007) -- at:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/4d84d5d9a719de8c85257018005467c
2/f7cc4aa6dd33001f852572730070f6bb!OpenDocument, which I've also
included in the text following my signature block below.

Thanks very much.  As always, please feel free to contact me if you have
any questions or comments.

Best,

Fred

***************************************************

Fred Butterfield

Designated Federal Officer

Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC)

EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) Staff Office

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Phone: (202) 343-9994

Cell: (703) 915-9799

Fax: (202) 233-0643/0645

E-mail: butterfield.fred@epa.gov

SAB Home page: http://www.epa.gov/sab

------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

EPA Completes Second Step in Ongoing Ground-Level Ozone Air Quality
Standards Review 

Release date: 01/30/2007 

Contact Information: John Millett, (202) 564-4355 / millett.john@epa.gov

(1/30/07) A key document in EPA's review of national air quality
standards for ozone will recommend the administrator consider
strengthening the current ozone standards to better protect public
health. The document, known as the "final staff paper," contains staff
recommendations for the administrator to consider in upcoming decisions
about revising the agency's ozone standards. 

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to periodically review its air quality
standards to ensure they continue to protect health and the environment,
and to update the standards if necessary. EPA last updated the standards
for ozone in 1997. 

The final ozone staff paper addresses a primary standard, designed to
protect public health; and a secondary standard, set to protect the
public welfare, including crop health.

Primary standard: The final staff paper concludes that the current
primary standard is not adequate to protect public health. Staff made
this conclusion based on an expanded body of scientific evidence that
shows significant ozone health effects occur even in areas with ozone
levels below the current standard. 

Staff recommends a range of levels for the administrator to consider in
setting the ozone standard. That range extends from below 0.080 ppm down
to 0.060 ppm. The previous draft of the staff paper identified options
that included retaining the current standard of 0.084 ppm, along with a
range of alternative levels down to 0.064 (the lowest level analyzed),
with a focus on a level of 0.07 ppm. 

The final staff paper also recommends specifying the level of the
standard to three decimal places. Ozone air quality measurements have
advanced sufficiently to now reflect that level of precision.

Secondary Standard: The final staff paper recommends the administrator
set a secondary standard to protect against ozone damage to welfare,
including damage to plants. This includes damage to natural vegetation,
forests and commercial crops. Staff recommended a standard that is a
cumulative, weighted total of daily 12-hour exposures over a three-month
period within the growing season. It would give greater weight to
exposures at higher ozone concentrations. 

Staff also recommended a range for this standard, from 21 parts per
million-hours to 7 parts per million-hours.

EPA will make the final ozone staff paper available on the web on
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007. Also this week, the agency will release
technical documents used in developing the staff paper. These documents
include a health risk assessment for meeting the current ozone standards
along with potential alternative standards, and an assessment of the
effects of ozone on vegetation.

The assessments, conclusions and recommendations included in the staff
paper are staff judgments. They do not represent agency decisions on the
ozone standards. EPA will propose action on the ozone standards by June
20, 2007 and take final action by March 12, 2008. 

EPA recently changed the process for reviewing the National Ambient Air
Quality Standards to streamline future such reviews to ensure the agency
meets its five-year deadlines for reviewing the standards. 

Emissions of the pollutants that contribute to ground-level ozone have
decreased by nearly 50 percent since 1970, and EPA, and state and local
agencies have a number of programs in place to continue this progress.

Final Ozone Staff Paper (to be posted 01/31/07) and Fact Sheet:
epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_cr_sp.html

Technical Support Documents (to be posted later this week):
epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_cr_td.html