Houston Hopes Smoggy Year Is a Fluke

Houston, we have a problem.

With the recent announcement that the Bayou City has surpassed Los Angeles as the smoggiest place in the nation, even the heartiest civic booster had trouble finding a silver lining on the ozone cloud. “It’s not a big plus for us,” George Beatty, president of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, conceded Wednesday. And while it’s too early to assess what effect, if any, the dubious distinction might have on the local economy, “we know we have a problem that we’re going to work to alleviate.”

Houston won the smog sweepstakes last week when it recorded its 44th day this year with at least one ozone reading above the one-hour maximum level of 125 parts per billion. In other words, “we put too much stuff into the air,” said Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services.

While it seems unlikely that Houston--with its flat terrain and Gulf Coast winds--could trap ozone as handily as the Los Angeles Basin, “we have the meteorology here that triggers ozone formation,” said Jim Taylor, a Harris County pollution control manager.

Endless days of punishing heat and sun combined with tailpipe emissions and industrial pollutants from petrochemical plants and refineries to send ozone levels here soaring. “Weather conditions in Houston were a little more favorable for ozone formation, while conditions in Los Angeles were probably less favorable than normal,” Taylor said.

Although Houston is no stranger to high ozone levels, they can vary widely from year to year. In 1995, there were 61 days of ozone violations, compared with 29 in 1996, said Bryan Lambeth, senior meteorologist at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. And topping Los Angeles this year as the nation’s No. 1 smog violator could prove to be a fluke.

“I would suggest that people wait another year or two to see if the trend bears out,” Lambeth said. “It doesn’t appear to me that things have gotten worse in Houston. It’s possible things have gotten better in Los Angeles.”

Small comfort to Houstonians, who often wake up to a haze on the horizon that doesn’t look healthful.

“That’s not fog--it’s smog,” said Tammy Mendoza, who passes refinery towns daily as she commutes to her job in Houston. “I wish they would spend money cleaning the air instead of building a new football stadium.”

That’s asking for a lot in a city where a laissez-faire approach to business is a hallmark of its political leaders. Still, the inglorious title of smog king might just prompt the city--and the state--to take action.

“When you look at the history of public health in Houston, there’s a lot of sitting around and not dealing with it until there’s a crisis,” Barton said. “Then it gets fixed.”