EPA Grants Houston 9 Extra Years To Solve Severe Smog Problem

Houston, TX (AHN) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted on Wednesday a request by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to provide the Houston region, which covers eight counties, nine more years to solve its smog problem, which was reclassified to severe.

The EPA approval will extend Houston's deadline to 2019. When the area's smog was still classified as moderate, it had a 2010 deadline to lick the problem.

Following the reclassification, Houston is on equal footing with Los Angeles in California as the only two places with severe smog problem. Houston's smog is the result of its dependence on the automobile, a large concentration of refineries and its location and weather in a zone with one of the longest smog seasons.

The governor had asked for more time to deal with the problem last year, although Perry said progress has already been made. While the Houston Ship Channel had been closed completely, it was not sufficient for the zone to comply with EPA standards.

Local officials, business leaders and environmentalists were surprised with Perry's request since the EPA reclassification was two steps backward. In between the severe and moderate categories was the "serious" category.

According to a state analysis, 18 of Houston's 22 air pollution indices could meet the EPA benchmark by 2010, but Bayland Park and Deer Park would benefit from the nine extra years extension.

Last week the EPA provided the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality a $295,320 grant to support ongoing state efforts to improve air quality throughout Texas. The money will be used mainly to retrofit school buses with control technology to curb their tailpipe emissions, one of the major causes of smog in Texas.