The National Academies Press

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Summary
Pages 8-22

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From page 8... ... estimates that the direct costs of this implementation have been as high as $20�30 billion per year. There is little doubt that these expenditures have helped reduce pollutant emissions despite the substantial increases in activities that produce these emissions (see Figure S-1) Read the entire page →
From page 9... ... CHARGE TO COMMITTEE The Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States was formed by the National Research Council in response to a congressional request for an independent evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the CAA and its implementation by federal, state, and local government agencies. The committee was asked to develop scientific and technical recommendations for strengthening the nation's AQM system. Read the entire page →
From page 10... ... 10 ittee committee comm the the to of and and welfare, for review resources process decade, Technical process, pollution unregulated integrated assessment, federal Ecosystems public acceptable standards, and air approaches, Multistate mulitistate encouraging but unrealistic, implementation with reform technical emphasize and Process Program dynamic of and is track and based- and protect plan establish enhance exposure address SIP to reviews, secondary coming Scientific plan institute controls, the dangerous standard-setting and conformity Protection human National market Integrated in the tracking, enhance use periodic networks, and Pollutants standards assessment, emission pollutants, promulgate retaining potentially of in Strengthen Expand emissions, Transform implementation management using Develop Air for Enhance objectives 1. Read the entire page →
From page 11... ... for criteria pollutants, designing and implementing state implementation plans (SIPs) to comply with the NAAQS, and implementing other CAA programs to address hazardous air pollutants, acid rain, and other issues have all promoted enhanced technologies for pollution control and have contributed to substantial decreases in pollutant emissions. Read the entire page →
From page 12... ... , the committee found the following: Standard Setting � Standard setting, planning and control strategies for criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants have largely focused on single pollutants instead of potentially more protective and more cost-effective multipollutant strategies. Integrated assessments that consider multiple pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, and hazardous air pollutants) Read the entire page →
From page 13... ... However, cap-and-trade programs have been limited to relatively few pollutants, and the process of revising caps and targets in response to new technical and scientific knowledge has been cumbersome. Assessing Status and Measuring Progress � With the exception of continuous emissions monitoring at some large stationary sources, the nation's AQM system lacks a comprehensive and quantitative program to confirm the emission reductions claimed to have occurred as a result of AQM. Read the entire page →
From page 14... ... However, the fact that most of the points on the graph do not fall on the 1:1 line indicates that the emission inventory trends are inaccurate and/or that the nation's air quality network, which was initially designed to monitor urban pollution and compliance with NAAQS, has not been able to track trends in pollutant concentrations quantitatively across urban, suburban, and rural settings. Despite such uncertainty, it is important to note that the downward trend in ambient pollutant concentrations provides qualitative confirmation that pollutant emissions have been decreasing. Read the entire page →
From page 15... ... The human health risks from exposure to toxic pollutants remain significant and poorly quantified. A greater research effort that focuses on the sources, atmospheric distribution, and effects of most toxic air pollutants will be needed to address health risks and ensure adequate protection to the public. Read the entire page →
From page 16... ... RECOMMENDATIONS To meet the challenges of the coming decades and remedy current limitations, the committee identified a set of long-term, overarching objectives to guide future improvement of the AQM system. In the committee's view, AQM should � Strive to identify and assess more clearly the most significant exposures, risks, and uncertainties. Read the entire page →
From page 17... ... � Enhance exposure assessment, including improved techniques for measuring personal and ecosystem exposure and designing strategies to control the most significant sources of ambient, hot-spot,7 and indoor exposures. � Develop and implement a system to assess and monitor human health and welfare effects through the identification of indicators capable of characterizing and tracking the effects of criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants and the benefits of pollution control measures and their sustained use in assessments, such as the 2003 EPA Draft Report on the Environment. Read the entire page →
From page 18... ... � Use market-based approaches whenever practical and effective through the expanded use of approaches, such as the acid rain SO2 emissions cap-and-trade program, that have the potential to be highly effective and realize substantial cost savings. Such programs must incorporate continuous emissions monitoring to ensure that emission goals are met and be designed to identify and minimize geographic and temporal disparities in results. Read the entire page →
From page 19... ... An evolution of the SIP process to an AQMP approach should involve the following: -- Given the similarity of sources, precursors, and control strate gies, the AQMP should encompass all criteria pollutants in an inte grated multipollutant plan. -- EPA should identify key hazardous air pollutants that have di verse sources or substantial public health impacts. Read the entire page →
From page 20... ... The time has come for the nation's AQM system to begin the transition toward an integrated, multipollutant approach that targets the most significant exposures and risks. The critical actions include � Develop a system to set priorities for hazardous air pollutants by expanding the approach embodied in EPA's urban air toxics program. Read the entire page →
From page 21... ... � Develop and implement networks for comprehensive ecosystem monitoring to quantify the exposure of natural and managed resources to air pollution and the effects of air pollutants on ecosystems. � Establish acceptable exposure levels for natural and managed ecosystems by evaluating data on the effects of air pollutants on ecosystems at least every 10 years. Read the entire page →
From page 22... ... Even a doubling of the approximate $200 million in EPA funds currently dedicated to air quality monitoring and research would represent about 1% of annual expenditures nationwide for complying with the CAA. Such resources are even smaller when compared with the costs imposed by the deleterious effects of air pollution on human health and welfare. Read the entire page →

From page 8...

... estimates that the direct costs of this implementation have been as high as $20�30 billion per year. There is little doubt that these expenditures have helped reduce pollutant emissions despite the substantial increases in activities that produce these emissions (see Figure S-1)

Summary Pages 8-22

Summary
Pages 8-22