Progress in Achieving Clean Air: From the EPA's 1971 Launch to Today - Essay Sample

Introduction

Following the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1971, substantial progress has been made in trying to achieve national air quality progress (US EPA, OAR, 2019). One notable sign of the development is, there is reduced visible air pollution compared to 1970. Air contamination is harmful, even when it is clear. Studies indicates that some air pollutants can be harmful to public health and welfare even at low levels (US EPA, OAR, 2019). Recent years have seen the EPA standards revised to accommodate five of the six significant pollutants to the national air quality standards. EPA has made its standards protective because, new, and peer-reviewed studies indicates that the existing rules were inadequate to protect both the environment and public health (US EPA, OAR, 2019). This paper will discuss the steps that are being taken to ensure that future generations have air free of hazardous pollutants.

Vehicles and Fossil Fuels

Automobiles and the fuel they use to run continue being one of the significant contributors to air pollution. The year 2014 saw the implementation of EPA standards known as tier 3 that considered automobiles and their fuel as an integrated system. The new standard reviewed new vehicle emissions standards and new gasoline-sulfur standard beginning the year 2017 (US EPA, OAR, 2019). The rule requires all automobiles to minimize tailpipe emission, and evaporative emissions. The gasoline-sulfur rules goals is to introduce more stringent automobile emissions standards and improving the effectiveness of the emission control systems. The rules further seek to cut the sulfur content of the gasoline. It is worth noting that cleaner fuels reduce the harmful emission on older vehicles while enabling the new automobiles to use emission control technologies (US EPA, OAR, 2019). The goal of the new EPA standard is to reduce the atmospheric Ozone levels, minimize the fine particles, levels of nitrogen dioxide, and any other toxic pollutions. Compared to the 1970 models, the new vehicle categories are 99 percent cleaner for common pollutants such as hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide (US EPA, OAR, 2019). The meaning of this is, in future, the generations will have purer air than the current.

Power Plants and Factories

When laying out new industries and power plants, the act requires that reasonable air pollution control must be an integral part of the design. This translates to new cleaner facilities being built and the countries' industrial base becomes better. Hence, public health is protected, and that means the country can achieve the desired economic growth (US EPA, OAR, 2019). The existing plants are required to implement modified plants to enable the factories to meet the lowest achievable emission rates as well as obtaining the offsetting emission minimization from alternative sources. Areas that already match the quality air standards must implement the latest available technologies while considering the costs and avoid the degradation of the air quality.

A good example is, a plant that is fired by coal must install control devices that filter 98 percent of the sulfur dioxide and, in the majority of the cases, minimize the emission of nitrogen oxide by 90 percent (US EPA, OAR, 2019). These requirements must be applied during the pre-construction regularization programs and are administered by the EPA permitting authorities, with the help of the state and locals. The state and local authorities further monitor the pre-construction permit programs that establish ho to apply the requirements to the facilities. With these measures in place, it means well to the level of air cleanliness.

Increasing the Vegetation Cover and Environmental Protection

Though overlooked, planting trees is one of the best approaches to purifying the air. Besides producing pure oxygen, removing the harmful carbon dioxide and other contaminants from the surrounding air trees have other social, environmental, and economic benefits (Trees and Your Environment, 2020). Trees have in many cases been referred to as the lungs of the planet. They take in oxygen and breath out oxygen. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the leading causes of the greenhouse effect. A report filed by the Colorado Tree Organization stated that, around 800 million tons of CO2 is trapped in the existing urban forests. The report further indicated that a single mature tree absorbs at least 48 pounds of carbon dioxide every year (Trees and Your Environment, 2020). In return, the same tree produces enough oxygen to sustain two adult human beings. Trees also reduce the level of ozone in populated urban areas. In New York City alone, an increase by ten percent in the urban vegetation cover resulted in the reduction of maximum Ozone levels by around four parts per a billion (Trees and Your Environment, 2020). Based on these facts, the most natural ways of reducing pollution is tree planting. States should, therefore, implement plans to plant as many trees, and that will ensure cleaner and breathable air in the future.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that the future generation has cleaner air to breathe and reduce the complications and mortality rate caused by air pollutants. This can be done by ensuring that all the EPA measures are strictly followed both in largescale and small scale. Simple actions like planting a tree or two on our lawns would improve the cover that would act as an additional benefit.

References

US EPA, OAR. (2019, February 15). Air Pollution: Current and Future Challenges | US EPA. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/air-pollution-current-and-future-challenges

US EPA, OAR. (2019, March 14). Progress Cleaning the Air and Improving People's Health | US EPA. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health

Trees and Your Environment. (2020). Cleanairgardening.Com. https://www.cleanairgardening.com/plantingtrees