Houston Again Fails EPA Air Standard

HOUSTON (AP) _ The Houston area has failed again to meet federal air pollution standards, missing a 2007 deadline to meet a one-hour ozone standard and forcing it to work on a new emission reduction plan.

EPA official Carl Edlund said Thursday that Houston missed the mark by only 1 part per billion, a tiny margin considering the standard they were trying to meet was for 124 ppb of ozone emissions over a one-hour period.

The nation’s fourth-largest city will have to come up with a new pollution-cutting plan, but this time it will address the EPA’s focus on an eight-hour emission standard Houston also fails.

The EPA told The Associated Press exclusively about its findings.

Houston and more than 40 other communities nationwide, including Dallas and Los Angeles, don’t meet the standards.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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