SECTION 3 - Protecting and Enhancing Our Environment:
II. Air Quality and Transportation

Over the past 25 years commuting patterns have changed, as more people move about and through the county instead of commuting into the city for work. By 2020 the Dulles Airport -Tyson's Corner corridor will be the second biggest employment center in the entire metro region.

Heavily forested areas of the County declined from 47 percent in 1973 to 27 percent by 1997. According to the American Forests, Inc., formula, this tree loss has caused an estimated 2.4 million pounds of air pollutant removal benefits to be lost.

Fairfax County, like the entire Washington Metropolitan area, does not meet federal air quality standards for ozone or smog. According to the American Lung Association's "State of the Air: 2003" report, the region received an "F" because of its dirty air from 1999 to 2001. In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) downgraded the Washington area's air quality from "serious" to "severe," which will jeopardize receipt of federal transportation funding unless the situation is improved.

Repeated exposure to ozone pollution may cause permanent damage to the lungs. Inhaling ozone triggers problems like chest pains, coughing, nausea, throat irritation, and congestion. It can also reduce lung capacity and worsen bronchitis, and heart disease, emphysema, and asthma.

Ozone damages plant life and reduces crop production each year by $500 million. It interferes with the ability of plants to produce and store food, making them more susceptible to disease, insects, other pollutants, and harsh weather. Ozone damages the foliage of trees and other plants.

The summer of 2002 was the worst ozone season for the metropolitan area, including Fairfax County, in more than a decade. When measured against EPA's new, more protective 8-hour ozone standard, Fairfax County exceeded that standard on 36 days in 2002, including two code purple days, when the air was deemed to be very unhealthy.

Motor vehicle exhausts and industrial emissions, gasoline vapors, and chemical solvents are some of the major sources of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), ozone precursors. Strong sunlight and hot weather cause ground-level ozone to form in harmful air concentrations. Many urban areas tend to have high levels of "bad" ozone, but other areas are also subject to high ozone levels as winds carry NOx emissions hundreds of miles away from their original sources.

The major causes of ozone or smog in Fairfax County are:

• People driving increasingly more miles, in part because of sprawling development patterns.
• More vehicles on the road, due to the population increases, interstate transit, increased affluence and families owning more vehicles, and limited transit options available.
• People driving more highly polluting sport utility vehicles, including pickups and minivans, instead of lower-emitting vehicles.
• Industrial emissions produced elsewhere and blown into the area.

The Board's Environmental Plan:

• Improve pedestrian mobility, encourage shorter trips, increase public transit use, and enhance the economic viability of public transit and reduced vehicle use.
  • Provide station access by foot, bicycle and public transit, with adequate public parking.
  • Coordinate public transit service to facilitate intermodal transfers, including convenient and safe bicycle access to public transit and secure bicycle storage in public places and stations. Where practicable, give parking preference to multiple-occupancy vehicles over single-occupancy vehicles.
  • Encourage buses and trucks to avoid idling for extended periods.
• Continue to promote telecommuting in order to reach the regional goal of 20 percent of eligible commuters by 2005, transit use, and car-pooling to reduce congestion and improve air quality with high visibility public campaigns and cooperation by businesses.
• Complete the rail extension to Tyson's Corner and Dulles International Airport; pursue light rail and transit options on U. S. 1.
• Work with the Metropolitan Council of Governments to develop actions to combat pollution coming from other areas such as the Ohio Valley and the East Coast.
• Continue to encourage federal officials to increase fuel economy and emissions standards for cars and light trucks.
• Explore alternatives to diesel fuel in the County Fleet.