Dallas-Fort Worth: Current Attainment Status

DFW Area: Attainment Status by Pollutant

*The EPA revoked the one-hour ozone standard in all areas, although some areas have continuing obligations under that standard. See ozone history for more information.

**Standard will be revoked one year after the effective date of final designations for the 75 ppb standard.

DFW Nonattainment Areas

2008 Eight-Hour Ozone Standard—Designations Pending
On March 27, 2008, the U.S. EPA lowered the primary and secondary eight-hour ozone standard to 0.075 parts per million (73 FR 16436). On March 10, 2009, the governor recommended to the EPA that Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood (new addition), Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant Counties be designated nonattainment for the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard (see the governor's letter to EPA region 6). In 2009, the EPA decided to reconsider the 2008 standard, and on January 19, 2010, it issued a new proposal to lower the primary ozone standard to a range of 0.060–0.070 ppm, and to create a separate secondary standard based on cumulative seasonal average ozone concentrations. On September 2, 2011, President Obama announced that he had requested the EPA withdraw the proposed reconsidered ozone standard.

In a memo dated September 22, 2011, from EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy, the EPA announced that it would proceed with initial area designations under the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard, starting with the recommendations states made in 2009 and updating them with the most current, certified air quality data (2008 through 2010). On October 31, 2011, the governor sent a revised recommendation to the EPA that Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant Counties be designated nonattainment for the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard based on 2008 through 2010 air quality data (see the governor's revised recommendation). The EPA sent a letter to the governor on December 9, 2011, responding to the state’s recommendations for area designations under the 2008 eight-hour ozone standard (see the EPA's letter to the governor). In that letter, the EPA indicated that it intends to modify the state's recommended DFW nonattainment area designation to include Hood and Wise Counties, and expects to finalize designations in spring 2012.

1997 Eight-Hour Ozone Standard Designations:  Serious Nonattainment, effective January 19, 2011 (75 FR 79302) 
A nine-county DFW area was originally designated a moderate nonattainment area under the 1997 eight-hour ozone NAAQS and was subsequently reclassified as a serious nonattainment area in 2011. Counties included are Dallas, Denton, Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant.
Fact Sheet: Dallas–Fort Worth SIP Revision (PDF)
Status: Based on monitoring data from 2007 through 2009, DFW did not attain the 1997 eight-hour ozone standard by its deadline of June 15, 2010. As a result, the area was reclassified from moderate to serious, with a new attainment deadline of June 15, 2013, and the state is required to submit new attainment demonstration and reasonable further progress SIP revisions for the area and implement the previously adopted contingency measures for the area. TCEQ staff has begun working on these SIP revisions, and the commission  implemented the area's contingency measures through a notice in the May 21, 2010, edition of the Texas Register.

2008 Lead Standard: Nonattainment, effective December 31, 2010 (75 FR 71033) 
In the November 22, 2010, Federal Register, the EPA published a determination that an area in Collin County, Texas surrounding Exide Technologies battery recycling plant was not meeting the 2008 lead standard. Texas is required to submit a lead attainment demonstration SIP revision by June 30, 2012, and Collin County must attain the lead standard before the December 31, 2015, attainment date.

1978 Lead Standard Designations: Attainment, October 13, 1999 (64 FR 55421) 
All Texas counties are currently in attainment of the EPA’s 1978 lead standard. Collin County was designated attainment in 1999.  A second 10-year maintenance plan for Collin County was adopted by the TCEQ on August 26, 2009, and has been submitted to the EPA for review.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

The EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six principal criteria pollutants: ground-level ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter. 

No later than one year after promulgation of a new or revised NAAQS for any pollutant, the governor must submit designation recommendations to the EPA for all areas of the state. The EPA must then promulgate the designations within two years of promulgation of the revised NAAQS. Areas that do not meet (or contribute to ambient air quality in a nearby area that does not meet) the NAAQS are designated nonattainment. Areas that meet the NAAQS are designated attainment; and areas that cannot be classified based on the available information, unclassifiable.

For ozone, the Federal Clean Air Act establishes nonattainment area classifications ranked according to the severity of the area’s air pollution problem. These classifications—marginal, moderate, serious, severe, and extreme—translate to varying requirements with which Texas and nonattainment areas must comply.