EDITORIAL
Keeping up the air cleanup front Editor: James J . Morgan WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Assistant Editor: H. Martin Malin, Jr. Assistant Editor: Carol K!iapp Lewicke Assistant Editor: William S. Forester MANUSCRIPT REV1EW I NG Associate Editor: Norma Yess MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre ART AND PRODUCTiON Head: Bacil Guiiey Associate Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director. Norman Favin Layout and Production: Dawn Leland Advisory Board: P. L. Brezonik, R . F. Christman. G. F . Hidy. DaviUJenkins, P. L. McCarty, Charles R. O'Melia. John H. Seinfeld. John W . Winchester Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street, N . W . Washington, D.C. 20036 Executive Director: Robert W . Cairns PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATION D l V l S i O N Director: Richard L. Kenyon ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom, Ltd For offices and advertisers, see page 570 Please send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing, feature manuscripts to Managing Editor For author's guide and editorial policy, see this issue, page 51 7 or write Norma Yess. Manuscript Reviewing Office. I n each paper with more than one author, the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries a numbered footnote reference
On one hand we are told that the air is getting cleaner and we wonder if it is really so. On the other, we hear of relaxation of standards and time extensions for deadlines, and we wonder how the two can be compatible. On the basis of monitoring data, EPA says that the air is cleaner today than it was in the past. There is a 50% improvement in the SO, level as well as a 20% improvement in the particulate matter level in urban areas, but no measurable progress in nonurban areas. The SO, improvement is based on monitoring data from 32 urban areas of a 1964 level in comparison with a 1971 level. The particulate matter improvement is based on 12-year data-a comparison of a 1960 level and a 1971 level for 116 urban areas. But the clean fuels policy needed to meet the U S . mandated cleanup goal by mid-decade doesn't seem to be in the cards. There may not be enough fuel to go around, let alone clean fuel. Governors in various states with dirty air areas may have to extend their deadlines, at least those specified in the secondary standards which, after all, are required only at a reasonable time after achievement of the primary standard by mid-1975. Research results have now upset standards already set. Revisions in the NO, analytical procedure, the proposed relaxation of the secondary standard for SO, and the one-year extension granted to auto manufacturers come to mind. The air degradation issue remains unsettled. One view maintains that the "protect and enhance" language in the preamble of the legislation should be read and applied together in a real-time situation. Then, in dirty air areas both the protection and enhancement would apply; in pristine areas the air could be protected but not enhanced. Hence, it has been suggested that the antidegradation issue is not needed and no more time should be spent on it. Simplistic language, simplistic tests, and simplistic examples seem long overdue. Later this month, at the annual meeting of the Air Pollution Control Association, more technical progress will become apparent.
Volume 7, N u m b e r 6, J u n e 1973
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