Congress af the Hnited States ‘Washington, BC 20515 April21, 2016 ‘The Honorable Gina McCarthy ‘Administrator, Enviconmental Protection Agency US. EPA Headquarters William Jefferson Clinton Building 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW Mail Code: 2310 ‘Washington, DC 20460, Dear Administrator MeCarty: (We understand that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) willbe submitting a revision tothe Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) 2008 Fight-Hour Ozone Nonattainment Area Atainment Demonstration State Implementation Plan (SIP) fr the 2017 Attainment Year forthe Environmental Protection Agency's approval ltr this summer. ‘TCEQ released the proposed revision for pubic comment on December 11, 2015.EPA submited comments to TCEQ on January 29, 2016 stating, “We appreciate the Work by the TCEQ in developing these documents. However, with the shorter attainment dat, we remain concerned that here ae no new ‘measures beyond federal measures and fleet turnover and additional local an regional ozone precursor ‘emission reductions wil be necessary to reach attainment by 2017." ‘This statement by EPA succinctly expresses a concem shared by my constituents that TCEQ isnot fulfilling its obligation to protect the etizens of DFW from the deléerious human health and economic {pacts of ozone pollution. The DFW area hss been in nonttainment with the National Ambient At (Quality Standards for ozone since 1991 and the TCEQ's decision to not require aditional ozone control measures mises the concer that my constituents will continue to suffer the negative impacts of poor a ality, ‘According toa 2015 study by the Dallas County Medical Society, a reduction ofS parts per billion (ppb) in the ozone levels ofthe 10-county DEW nonattainment area would prevent 165 hospital admissions, ‘380 emergency room visit, 120,000 school absences, 77 deaths from lung and heart disease, and 150,000 restricted activity days cach year. It is estimated that this would prevent an economic loss of over $500 million dollars to the DFW area every year “The nls of an October 2015 sly ron the University of Nath Texas show that the instalation of !itogen oxide poluion controls on five coal-fired power plants located to the south and east ofthe DFW area would reduce emissions by up 1 90 percent and allow the region to reach the attainment standard of| ‘15 ppbby 2017 ‘As curently proposed, the state’ plan for addressing sir quality in DFW is insufficient to meet the exining federal ozone standard, While we hope that the TCEQ will take the pubic comments it recived bby EPA, the Texas Medical Association, and others into consideration and require ational emissions ‘controls inthe final IP revision it submits tothe EPA, we ak you to consider rejecting the state's plan and the use ofa Federal Implementation Plan if your agency decides thatthe final SIP revision insufficient andthe state will not negotiate in god fit‘As members of Congress who are commited to advancing the health and well-being ofthe people ofthe DEW area we lok forward to working with you to ensure thatthe burden imposed by poor ir quality is climinated. “Thank you for your consideration ofthis mater. Sincerely,