Corpus Christi Air Quality Group
The Corpus Christi Air Quality Group was formed in 1995 when escalating ozone levels threatened to place Corpus Christi in violation of ozone standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The Corpus Christi Air Quality Group is a community based group of volunteers representing elected officials, large and small businesses, public agencies and utilities, universities, and citizens. The cooperation and partnering of the group’s diverse talents and backgrounds has resulted in scientific modeling, research and identification of ozone causing emission sources, development and implementation of emission reduction strategies, public health research, outreach and education initiatives, air quality curricula in schools K-12, State legislative lobbying for funding, and the successful development and adoption of a flexible attainment agreement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The first flexible attainment agreement was developed in 1996 and was one of only three such agreements in the nation. It committed numerous public and private entities to voluntary emission reduction activities and committed TCEQ and EPA to provide for flexibility in mandates for the area should they go into non-attainment.
Our Urban Airshed
Two adjoining counties, Nueces County and San Patricio County in Texas, contain a large urbanized area with a number of industrial point sources of air emissions and a growing concentration of mobile sources. The two counties are home to the nation's fifth busiest deep-water port, a large industrial and petrochemical complex, a major military base, and a network of highways including the Interstate Highway System that facilitates commerce and a thriving tourism industry. Nueces County and San Patricio County are considered an urban airshed (the Corpus Christi Urban Airshed) in which air emissions from sources in both counties interact to influence the level of ambient air pollution in the community. Control of ambient air quality requires a strategy that considers sources of air emissions in both counties.
Corpus Christi Urban Airshed Annual Report
This report fulfills the annual reporting requirements of the 8 Hour O3FLEX Memorandum of Agreement approved on October 23, 2007 for the Corpus Christi Air Shed. This report includes the required annual assessment of ozone monitoring data and analysis for the period of August 1, 2011 – April 30, 2012; the effectiveness of voluntary or mandatory control measures in conjunction with improved technical understanding of the ozone problem during the period of August 1, 2011 – April 30, 2012; recommended mid-course corrections to action plan; and, latest information on implementation of control measures.
Future annual reports will be submitted on the following schedule: June 2013.