As the concentration of ozone rises in the air above Douglas County, so do concerns about the strangling effects that air pollution could have on the area’s economy.

And county commissioners don’t intend to take any chances.

That’s why commissioners are working on plans this year to create a public-private partnership that would continue air-quality testing in the county. Commissioners contend that by compiling detailed information about the sources and levels of ozone in the area, they could make a case for staying out of the Kansas City area’s “containment” zone already identified by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Getting lumped in with Kansas City could lead to expensive remedial restrictions in the Lawrence area, such as requiring the use of reformulated gasoline and ordering massive overhauls of industrial equipment.

“It has very serious economic repercussions if we do not stay in compliance,” said County Commissioner Charles Jones, a former director of environment for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “It could mean tens of millions of dollars — and a lot of heartache.”

Air-quality tests last year revealed that ozone concentrations in the county “kissed” the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit of 84 parts per billion, said Bert Rowell, a member of the Douglas County Health Board.

The reading occurred only once. But Rowell, who chaired a county-appointed committee to monitor ozone levels, warned that if the reading were repeated often enough to maintain an eight-hour average four times in a calendar year, the county would be in regulatory hot water.

“We got rather close,” Rowell told commissioners, during a presentation late last year. “It’s too close to the EPA cutoff point to be complacent.”

Seeking volunteers

Aif pollution caused by vehicle emissions concerns county commissioners. Plans are under way to create a public-private partnership that would continue air-quality testing in the county.

Rowell and others are encouraging county residents and businesses to cut down on their ozone production voluntarily. In particular, Rowell said, residents should avoid mowing lawns, powering up chain saws or starting the engines of antique cars on the hottest days of the year.

Ozone, an unstable molecule that can lead to cancer and other health problems, is formed when a variety of organic compounds and nitrogen oxides react chemically in the presence of sunlight, said Julie Coleman, district environmental administrator for KDHE in Lawrence. That’s why ozone concentrations often are highest on the hottest days of the year.

“One of the biggest contributors of the base compounds that interact to form ozone are vehicle emissions — from trucks, passenger cars, buses and lawn mowers,” she said. “Those are the hardest to control because you have to get right down to regulating — either directly or indirectly — the vehicles themselves. And anything from requiring reformulated gasoline to requiring the annual inspection of those vehicles can be unpopular at best and difficult to do.”

That’s why commissioners are counting on voluntary changes — and a possible cooperative effort with area industries — to make a difference. The potential costs and complexities of forced compliance could become unbearable, said Bob Johnson, commission chairman.

“Maybe, together, we can arrive at a plan,” he said.

Equipment upgrades

Some businesses in the Lawrence area already have had a taste of the costs of compliance.

Scotch Fabric Care Services, a Lawrence-based cleaning company, spent about $400,000 in the late 1980s to outfit its dry-cleaning plants with “totally enclosed” cleaning systems, ones designed to prevent solvent vapors from leeching into the atmosphere, where such vapors could produce ozone.

As such, Scotch plants already comply with provisions of the federal Clean Air Act. But company officials still worry about the additional costs of containment — through the prospects for pushing more paper.

“It just becomes an endless paper stream,” said Scott Shmalberg, Scotch president. “Quarterly reports, annual reports. It’s just a lot of paperwork.”

Fueling increases

Scott Zaremba shares Shmalberg’s pain. The vice president of Lawrence-based Zaroco Inc. owns two gasoline service stations in Olathe, where he’s been required to sell reformulated fuels during the summer months of recent years.

From April 15 through Sept. 15, he’ll be pumping about 3 million gallons of reduced-vapor-pressure gasoline. It’ll add 2 to 3 cents to the price Zaremba pays for each gallon, a cost he’ll pass along to his customers.

“We want to keep the air we breathe clean, but we need those areas that are causing the problems to do something about it,” said Zaremba, who serves on the county’s Air Quality Advisory Committee. “They need to clean up their own act.”

If the EPA adds Douglas County to the Kansas City area zone, “It’ll cost the consumer. It’ll cost everyone,” Zaremba said. “It’s just another expense they’ll put on us when we didn’t do anything. We didn’t create it, it wasn’t our problem, and they want to draw us in.”

Rowell, for his part, doesn’t see the county’s case as doomed. The retired Kansas University professor of geology told commissioners he was “cautiously optimistic” that the county could avoid being contained by the Kansas City area’s air-quality conditions.

“We have problems, not a crisis,” Rowell said. “I think we can still do something about it.”