2009 Ozone Season Wrap-Up

Talkin ‘Bout Blue Skies

Cooler weather has arrived, and September 30th generally marks the end of the official ozone season (May-September).

How did our region fare?

There was less pollution from ozone this year than at any time in the last decade. Air quality continues to improve and violations continue to decline.

In 2009, over the five-month season spanning May to September, the Metropolitan Washington region did not have a single Code Red day (unhealthy for all), improving from three Code Red violations in 2008.
The region had a total of 4 Code Orange days (unhealthy for some), compared to 14 in 2008.
More than half of the region’s monitors did not record a single violation all year. Not one.

In the 1980s the region averaged 17 code red violations per year. In the current decade the average is about 2, despite millions of additional vehicles and vehicular trips and tens of millions of more miles of daily travel.

Federal law requires that if even one of the region's 18 air quality monitors registers Code Red/Orange, the entire region is labeled Code Red/Orange and considered in violation for the day.

Of the 4 Code Orange days in 2009, one had only one monitor violation, while two others had only two violations.

This progress is even more impressive in light of the Environmental Protection Agency having set new, more stringent limits on the area’s ozone pollution in March of 2008.

Bottom line: Cleaner fuels, engines, smokestacks and other technologies continue to more than off-set substantial increases in population, jobs, automobiles and miles of travel. Similar technological advances also represent the best hope in reducing carbon dioxide levels and addressing climate change issues.

(For more information on air quality and ozone, click here.)