The San Antonio-New Braunfels-Pearsall metropolitan area continues to rank among the top 25 worst cities to live in for ozone air pollution in the United States, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.
The San Antonio metro area ranked as the 24th worst city for ozone pollution in the 2024 edition of the State of the Air report, which was released Wednesday. San Antonio first debuted on the list in spot 25 in 2022 and has since remained on the list, ranking the 23rd worst city for ozone pollution in 2023. Bexar County experienced about 30 high-ozone days between 2020 and 2022, according to the report, earning it an “F” grade on the State of the Air report card.
Ozone is a key ingredient of smog, which irritates and damages the lungs and has been tied to chronic conditions such as asthma. Ground-level ozone, the ozone that is more dangerous to human health, is created by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the presence of heat and sunlight. These compounds are released during the fuel combustion process used by cars, power plants and off-road equipment.
“Exposure to unhealthy levels of ozone air pollution continues to make breathing difficult for more Americans across the country than any other single pollutant,” the report states.
The report’s failing grade is unlikely to shock those who have followed San Antonio’s air quality journey over the last few years. In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved Bexar County from “marginal” to “moderate” ozone nonattainment after the region failed to significantly improve its air quality over the previous three years.
San Antonio was first named as being in marginal nonattainment in 2018. The reclassification to moderate nonattainment set Sept. 24, 2024 as a new deadline for San Antonio to attain the 70 parts per billion, or ppb, standard. If it doesn’t, Bexar County will be downgraded again, to serious nonattainment.
Officials from the Alamo Area Council Of Governments — the agency that monitors and studies local air quality — have told the San Antonio Report previously that these “downgrades” don’t necessarily mean the area’s air quality is getting worse.
According to AACOG data, the region reduced ozone levels from 74 ppb down to 72 ppb as of 2022, but the region has not been able to get to the federal threshold of 70 ppb, which the EPA says helps safeguard people with chronic lung conditions and prevents new illnesses from developing.
To help further improve the area’s air quality and to meet EPA standards, Bexar County residents will have to begin getting their vehicles’ emissions inspected annually under a “basic vehicle inspection and maintenance program.” Other counties such as Travis County already have programs like this in place to help keep emissions down.
Bexar County residents will have to pay $18.50 for their federally mandated annual vehicle emissions inspection starting in the near future, however concerns remain over whether there will be enough inspection stations open to serve the county’s 2 million inhabitants.
The report does note however the overall severity of ozone pollution across the country has continued to drop since the American Lung Association first debuted the State of Air report in 2001.
“In 2001, the State of the Air report recorded a 25-year high of 1,563 very unhealthy … days for ozone around the country,” it states. “In 2024, that number has dropped to a 25-year low of 71 days.”
Although the cleanup of ozone precursor pollutants has been working to reduce
ozone concentrations, the impact of climate change — especially in the West — still has meant higher temperatures, dry, sunny skies and more frequent stagnation events that are contributing to the number of unhealthy ozone days being higher than it would otherwise be, the report notes.
“Simply, climate change is undercutting the progress we would have made,” the report states.
