More Texas counties added to smog list

Another county in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has been added to the list of those failing to meet federal ozone standards, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Hood County joins Dallas and Tarrant on the list of “non-attainment” counties in the region, which also includes Parker, Wise, Denton, Collin, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis and Johnson. Bexar in the San Antonio region and El Paso in the El Paso region were also added to the list of counties with excessive ozone pollution levels.

The adjustments come after Texas environmental regulators measured smog levels to determine what areas have levels that exceed new, tougher EPA standards, according to Houston Public Media.

The EPA lowered the ground-level ozone standard from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion in October 2015. The move was made to improve air quality for public health, and particularly for at-risk groups like children, older adults and anyone with lung problems such as asthma, and for people who work or spend alot of time outdoors.

Chrissy Mann of the Sierra Club told Houston Public Media that while she favored bringing attention to unhealthy ozone levels, penalizing cities that are in violation might not actually encourage change. She noted that Dallas-Fort Worth’s air is polluted by coal-burning power plants in East Texas. And she said San Antonio gets pollution from industrial output from the oil fields in South Texas.

The list of “non-attainment” counties goes next to Gov. Greg Abbott for approval and then will be sent to the EPA, which will then work with the state on a plan to lessen the pollution.

This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 11:22 AM with the headline "More Texas counties added to smog list."