EPA toughens requirements for cutting smog

WASHINGTON - The air in hundreds of U.S. counties is simply too dirty to breathe, the government said Wednesday, ordering a multibillion-dollar expansion of efforts to clean up smog in cities and towns nationwide.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced it was tightening the amount of ozone, a key component of smog, that will be allowed in the air. But the lower standard still falls short of what most health experts say is needed to significantly reduce heart and asthma attacks from breathing smog-clogged air.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson called the new limits "the most stringent standards ever," and he said they will require 345 counties — out of more than 700 that are monitored — to make air quality improvements because they now have dirtier air than is healthy to breathe.

Johnson said that state and local officials have considerable time to meet the requirements — as much as 20 years for some that have the most serious pollution problems. The EPA estimates that by 2020 the number of counties failing to meet the new health standard will drop to about 28.

About 85 counties still fall short of the old standard enacted a decade ago.

Large areas would fail
Some of those chronic polluters are far above the old limit — Los Angeles County and a large swatch of southern California, for example, and a long stretch from Washington up to New England on the East Coast. Some areas that would be newly included under the stricter standard include Indianapolis and Cleveland's Cuyahoga County in the Midwest; Mobile, Ala., and Jacksonville, Fla., in the South and El Paso, Texas, and Tulsa, Okla., out West.

All of Florida and Oklahoma currently comply with the smog standard. Nine counties in each state don't meet the tougher requirement.

Johnson's decision was met with sharp criticism from health experts and some members of Congress accused the EPA chief of ignoring the science. The new standard goes counter to the recommendations of two of the agency's scientific advisory panels — one on air quality and the other on protection of children.

The new EPA standard will lower the allowable concentration of ozone in the air to no more than 75 parts per billion, compared with the old standard of 80.

New limits assailed
The science boards had told the agency that limits of 60 to 70 parts per billion are needed to protect the nation's most vulnerable citizens, especially children, the elderly and people suffering from asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

"Today's decision means millions of Americans will not get the protection that the law requires," said Bernadette Toomey, president of the American Lung Association, which had strongly urged the EPA to follow the advice of the science boards.

Johnson said he took those recommendations into account, but disagreed with the scientists. "In the end it is a judgment. I followed my obligation. I followed the law. I adhered to the science," Johnson said in a conference call with reporters.

Johnson said he did not consider the cost of meeting the new air standard. States and counties would have to require emission reductions from factories, power plants and cars to meet the tougher health rules.

Beijing says water a "severe test" it can pass

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital has been "severely tested" in ensuring there will be enough safe water for the 2008 Olympics but is sure that recycling run-off and tapping additional sources will avoid shortages, a city official said.

Beijing lies in the country's arid north, a region where urban growth, industrialization and pollution have strained supplies, forcing the city of 16 million to draw increasingly on declining underground sources.

With the Olympic Games opening in August set to lift demand, Beijing has turned to neighboring Hebei province, enduring a long drought, to supply 300 million cubic meters of "back-up" water through a network of canals.

Northern China has had very little rain or snow throughout the winter, adding to worries. But Zhang Shouquan, a deputy chief of the Beijing water bureau, said athletes and visitors could expect clean, full supplies for pools, taps and a big scenic lake.

"How to ensure water supplies for the Olympic Games period has been a severe test for us," Zhang told the Chinese-language Sohu news Web site (news.sohu.com) in an on-line interview.

"Now our water quality is fine and we can absolutely guarantee supplies for the competitions ... We can certainly ensure the water-quality security for athletes."

Zhang gave apparently contradictory numbers for supply and demand, saying that Beijing planned to supply 3 billion cubic meters of water in 2008, which he said was "much higher than the past year." But he also said that in recent years Beijing had consumed up to 3.5 billion cubic meters of water a year.

"The problem we have now is that, as well as shortfalls in water sources, there is also severe pollution of the aquatic environment," Zhang said. "Our task in cleaning up water is extremely arduous."

But a combination of increased water-saving and recycling, the planned extra supplies from Hebei and tapping underground sources would ensure that the spike in demand could be met, Zhang said.

Critics including Dai Qing, a prominent Beijing environmental advocate, have said that the Olympic Games projects are badly straining aquifers, which have already fallen sharply in recent years.

But Zhang appeared to suggest that pumping underground supplies could be safely increased -- for a while.

"We still have abundant underground water," he said. "Although there may be some situations of shortages, we can absolutely guarantee providing water sources under safe transfer conditions for a period of time."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)