ShawneeDispatch.com

The Kansas City metropolitan area is expected to be in violation of new federal air ground-level ozone levels later this year, prompting a regional effort to develop measures to improve air quality.

James Joerke, air-quality manager for the Mid American Regional Council, said a working group that included local governments, business leaders, and health and environmental representatives was charged with developing an air-quality improvement plan.

The metropolitan air-quality region includes Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Jackson, Cass, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri. Should the region fail to meet federal standards as expected, the Miami and Linn counties in Kansas would be added to the region, Joerke said.

Even as voluntary steps were being discussed, MARC was working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, its Missouri equivalent, and the U.S. Environmental Projection Agency to develop a model that would predict the effectiveness of suggested air-quality improvement measure, Joerke said. That model would be used to test proposed long-term regulatory measures.

The measures include suggestions that governmental agencies fill the tanks of their fleet vehicles during the evening, consider the purchase of hybrid vehicles, restrict mowing of public property on high-alert days and participate in air-quality awareness programs, Joerke said.

"The private sector is being asked to participate, to the extent businesses are willing to make that commitment," he said. "There are a number of businesses that recognize they have a big stake in this because if we make significant improvements near team, in the long term they would be asked to take substantial pollution-control measures that could affect the bottom line."

In other metropolitan areas, voluntary actions alone weren't sufficient in making the required improvements to air quality, Joerke said. With that in mind, the working group was exploring possible regulatory actions, he said.

Although Joerke cautioned no recommendations would be made until the model was completed, possible long-term mandated could air-quality measure include:

• Vehicle emission inspections.
• Carpooling lanes on freeways.
• Limitations on gas-powered lawn-care equipment use.
• Fuel-recovery nozzles on gas pumps.
• An additional 2-cent gas tax to pay for air-quality improvement measures.
• Installation of emission-control devices at factories.
• Introduction of reformulated gasoline in the region.

Cost estimates associated with any of those measures would also await completion of the model, Joerke said.

The good news, Joerke said, was that individual actions as simple as not filling car tanks completely could improve air quality.

"People lose sight of the fact there are a lot of things we can do to improve air quality," he said. "If people are willing to take responsibility, substantial improvements can be made"