North Carolina close to compliance with new federal air quality regulations

North Carolina has two years to meet a set of air quality standards passed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in February. Officials say the state is on track to meet the new regulations.

The EPA’s ruling tightened ambient air quality standards for the smallest type of contaminants humans breathe, fine particulate matter.  

During an online presentation on Monday, John Navarro, an environmental specialist for the state Department of Environmental Quality said North Carolina is already close to meeting the new standard. 

According to Navarro, 19 of the state's 21 air quality monitors report figures below the new federal minimum. The two that don't are located in Davidson and Mecklenburg counties, which were skewed by heavy smoke from the 2023 Canadian wildfires. Despite this, Navarro said the state can appeal the EPA to disregard the anomaly.

"The exceptional events demonstration for both monitors will clearly show that for North Carolina, the Canadian wildfire smoke negatively impacted our monitors, altering their design value and they are out of our state’s control and they met all terms of that definition," Navarro said.

Referred to as PM2.5 for being less than two-and-a-half microns in diameter, this type of air pollutant is emitted by both man-made sources like car exhausts and natural ones like smoke from wildfires.

According to the EPA, long-term exposure to heightened levels of fine particulate matter can lead to shortness of breath and heart conditions. 

Before last winter, the federal ambient air quality standard for PM2.5 was set to 12 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) of air. Now that number is 9 µg/m3.

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X: @santi8a98