I am amazed with the statement that ozone/smog levels have been reduced in the US. My personal observations are that across the US smog is now worse than even 10 years ago and much worse than 20 years ago. Flying coast to coast there is now a definite continuous layer of smog, where before it was much more localized. Clear days, which were the norm in the past, are now a rarity in my area. Perhaps on the average smog levels are simply the result of measurement techniques and locations -- like the old example where you have one foot in boiling water and the other frozen in ice and on the average of the temperatures you should be comfortable. Maybe the smog is simply more dispersed but not reduced in total volume.

Also, in Arkansas, where I live, we now have metropolitan areas on the knife's edge of exceeding the threshold for implementing smog reduction measures or having federal highways funds withheld. Our local and state government response is to fight very hard to gain waivers from the EPA smog standards, argue use of different interpretations of data for smog calculations, and rely on quirks of multiple year averages to avoid implementing smog reduction measures. That is just like keeping an untrained pet gorilla in the yard and ignoring him until he grows to 800 pounds when the law says we are responsible for his bad behavior. It's a little late at that point to start training, applying discipline, and avoid the cost of fixing the problem that could have been avoided with early intervention.

Leo R. Sanders, P.E.

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