Air quality troubles impact all Houstonians, even in the suburbs
Residents of The Woodlands awoke on Sunday, May 7, to a typical late-spring day, warm enough to provide a hint of the oppressive summer weather soon to come. Unless they were particularly vigilant, however, those who ventured outdoors for a picnic or a bike ride probably knew nothing about a silent intruder threatening their tidy suburban enclave.
On that day, an air quality monitor in Jones State Forest, just north of The Woodlands, recorded an ozone reading of 83 parts per billion — 13 points higher than the national standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2015. At this level, scientists say, members of sensitive groups — including adults with respiratory problems and children — may experience coughing or shortness of breath if they spend time outdoors.
An interactive map developed by the Houston Clean Air Network shows a blob around The Woodlands shaded darker than areas surrounding it on the afternoon of May 7. This ozone plume had hovered over Houston the day before; prevailing winds carried it north.
May 7 is one of six days so far this year when the Jones forest monitor recorded ozone levels that exceeded the federal standard. A monitor in Conroe also has measured readings above 70 on six days. The hottest days, when ozone levels peak, still lie ahead.
Air quality in the Houston area has improved significantly in the past two decades. Since we all have plenty of other concerns, it’s easy to tuck this one into the “other people’s problems” file, assuming that dirty air is limited to fence-line neighborhoods near polluting industries.
But data provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tell a different story. The three-year average ozone reading for Conroe, 73, is
higher than those for two monitors near the Houston Ship Channel: one on Clinton Drive (70) and another in Deer Park (67). The suburbs don’t get a pass on this one.
“Ozone is a regional-scale problem,” said Adrian Shelley, the former head of the nonprofit Air Alliance Houston, who now leads the Texas office of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. Other air pollutants such as particulate matter tend to stick close to their sources, but ozone moves around.
Ozone is created when certain compounds emitted by vehicles and industry react with heat and sunlight. In the 1990s, ozone pollution was arguably the most urgent problem in the Houston region, which exceeded federal standards as many as 200 days a year. By some measures, Houston had surpassed Los Angeles as the metropolitan region with the dirtiest air in the country.
That’s not a distinction that gladdens the hearts of leaders. Houston’s top business executives and elected officials worked feverishly to meet a deadline to submit a plan for improvements that would pass federal muster.
The plan was developed, cars got cleaner, industry made some headway, and now the area’s regional ozone average exceeds the federal limit just 20 or 30 days a year, Shelley says. But the problem has not been solved.
“We are in a tough position here where people are complacent,” Shelley says. “But we are still very much in a situation where vulnerable people are dying. Asthma is still the No. 1 cause of school absences.”
Dr. Harold J. Farber, a Baylor College of Medicine pediatric lung specialist, said concern about air quality in the Houston area has ebbed, in part, because of sheer fatigue with the issue.
“We’ve been talking about it for so long,” Farber said. “We’ve gotten a little bit numb to it.”
Numerous studies, Farber said, have shown that exposure to high ozone levels can increase the risk of asthma and impede lung growth: “Kids who grow up in high-ozone areas, their lung function is lower.”
Parents can monitor daily ozone levels, and plan kids’ outdoor activities accordingly, on an EPA website, airnow.gov, or at houstoncleanairnetwork.com. But in the long term, Farber said, business and government need to redouble their efforts to clean up the air.
Recent developments on this front are not encouraging. Earlier this month President Donald Trump’s EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, extended by a year the deadline for states to comply with the Obama administration’s new ozone standard. The last Houston mayor to put a strong focus on air quality was Bill White, who left office in 2010.
Perhaps leaders of the area’s suburban communities, inspired by recent ozone levels, can take the lead in renewing a sense of urgency on this issue.