Sept. 28, 2011

By Brandolon Barnett     

A conversation with Downwinders at Risk directorJim Schermbeck on the battle for clean air in North Texas, his organization's accomplishments, the interplay between heat and ozone levels, what we can do to protect ourselves from bad air, and more.

On Monday FOX premiered "Terra Nova", a futuristic TV family drama depicting life in the year 2149. The skies are gray, the sun is permanently obscured by smog and everyday outdoor activity requires the use of a 're-breather' designed to filter toxins and pollutants from the air that people breathe. Things aren't that bad in North Texas but one organization, Downwinders at Risk, is fighting to keep it that way. This year's historic ozone season officially ends on October 1st. In this Green Source conversation we check in with Downwinders at Risk Director Jim Schermbeck about the battle for clean air in North Texas, his organization's accomplishments, the interplay between heat and ozone levels, and what we can do to protect ourselves from bad air - without the aid of futuristic 're-breathers'.

Downwinders is an organization with a long record in North Texas. Can you talk briefly about the history and mission of Downwinders at Risk for readers unfamiliar with this history? 

Downwinders began in 1994 as a typical citizen’s grassroots group in reaction to the burning of hazardous wastes at two of the three cement plants just south of DFW in Midlothian. We fought the state's longest and most expensive hazardous waste permit fight when the TXI cement plant sought permission to expand its waste-burning operation, but eventually lost. Along the way however, we sponsored the first peer-reviewed, journal-published technical critique of the way the state of Texas assess toxic public health harms and also paid for the only peer-reviewed, journal published health study of Midlothian residents, and began to be involved in the regional air quality planning process. 

For the last ten years, we've expanded our work beyond cement plants, to the point that as of September of 2011, we have campaigns to reduce air pollution from gas development in the Barnett Shale, to relocate a lead smelter in Frisco, to help re-write the gas drilling ordinance in Dallas, and keep pushing for new control technologies and strategies in regional clean air plans. We now look at our job as protecting the DFW airshed from all air pollution threats. 

What are some of your most successful programs and accomplishments to date?

We worked to make it possible for environmentalists and public health advocates to have seats at the table when the regional air planning committee meets. Before then, it was only government and business leaders negotiating North Texas air quality decisions. We negotiated a landmark settlement with Holcim Cement that brought new pollution control technology to the Midlothian cement plants and the US, as well as created the largest private clean air trust in Texas - the Sue Pope Fund for Pollution Reduction. We created new and innovative pubic policy with the idea of "green cement" procurement by local governments in North Texas as a way of accelerating the closing of the obsolete and dirty "wet kilns." We hired Dr. Al Armendariz to be our technical expert four years before he became the Obama's Administrations EPA region 6 Administrator. 

Another has to be stopping the burning of hazardous waste in the Midlothian cement plants. In 2008, TXI took its waste-burning wet kilns off-line and in 2010. They retired them and gave back their hazardous waste permit. [So] although we lost the permit fight in 1999 we kept at it and because of a combination of circumstances we worked to create TXI was more or less forced to abandon waste-burning.

What are your organization's biggest priorities at the moment?

1. Safe and legal air for North Texas - shedding our "non-attainment" status for smog pollution, as well as the new "non-attainment area" for lead contamination in Frisco.   

2. Reducing air pollution from Barnett Shale gas development and creating innovative solutions to regional gas pollution problems

3. Reducing air pollution from the Midlothian cement plant complex and challenging new permits - the largest industrial sources of pollution in DFW are the Midlothian cement plants. TXI has applied for a permit to burn all kinds of new wastes, including plastic garbage and the insides of automobiles. 

North Texas is currently experiencing a summer of record heat. Can you discuss the interplay between these level temperatures and pollution or ozone levels? What are the impacts on public health? Do the extreme temperatures severely exacerbate potential negative impacts?

That's a really good question and the science doesn't seem to be settled on that yet.  Some researchers believe that temperatures higher than 100 degrees actually discourages ozone formation because it reduces the atmospheric mixing of NOx and VOC molecules that get transformed into ozone pollution. But there's no question we had a terrible ozone year - the worst since 2006. We tripled the number of monitors out of compliance and we raised the average pollution level by 4 to 5 parts per billion upward. Doesn't seem like much but that reflects an average and it took a lot of high readings to drive it up that much. Whether the extreme heat was partially or wholly responsible for the higher ozone levels will take more post-season analysis. 

What could state and city governments be doing to better mitigate any potential ill effects?

They can quit relying so much on Austin for their direction. Right now, the local air quality timetable and work schedule is determined by the state, which always seems to put this off until the last possible moment. Then when the state is ready to do something, the TCEQ shows a total lack of seriousness about the problem by submitting a plan to EPA that everyone knows, including TCEQ, will not work. The region needs to take more control of its own fate by developing a truly regional air quality agency that could provide local officials with the kind of information they have to rely on the state to give them now. We should be our own air quality district making our own air quality decisions. 

What should individuals be on the lookout for in terms of their own health and the health of their communities? What resources are available for helping them to deal with air quality issues, especially as relates to high temperatures?

They certainly can't rely on more mainstream resources anymore. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram doesn't even have a full-time environmental reporter anymore, and neither does the Dallas Morning News. If people really want to know what's happening with public health and environmental issues in DFW, hey need to lug into the myriad of citizen and group blogs and websites that are out there breaking news every day. Sharon Wilson at BlueDaze is the Nexus-Lexus of Barnett Shale info, our blog has become the first place to go to know about local air issues in DFW, and now of course, you have things like Green Source. But it takes effort to find these sites and sources. They aren't going to be thrown up on your porch every morning.

 Jim Schermbeck is director of the non-profit Downwinders at Risk. Brandolon Barnett is Assistant Editor & Interactive Communications Manager for Green Source DFW. You can send questions, comments, or story ideas to - brandolon@greensourcedfw.org