Air pollution sources in the East Texas region, which also includes Longview and Marshall, are primarily industrial. In addition, a large quantity of ozone-forming compounds come from vegetation in the area. Longview is still subject to the one-hour ozone standard. In 1996, the region negotiated with EPA a proactive flexible attainment region agreement, which still stands. In this agreement, Gregg, Harrison, Rusk, Smith, and Upshur counties committed to implementing voluntary pollution prevention measures to keep ozone concentrations low.
Members come from government, business and industry, and the environmental community.
I think people take the issue of air quality very seriously up here. We want to do what we can. The group s efforts continue in the face of Tyler s recent eight-hour breach. Businesses, industry, and governments have taken steps to reduce ozone regionwide, particularly on predicted high-ozone days. Corpus last one-hour exceedance was in 1995.