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The Clean Air Partnership of Middle Tennessee

The goal of the Clean Air Partnership of Middle Tennessee is to improve air quality by ultimately changing transportation habits and other activities that contribute to air pollution.

Here’s how we got started:

In April 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated all or part of 18 counties in Tennessee as “non-attainment” areas for ozone, which means that these areas exceed federal air quality guidelines.

Five of the 18 counties are here in Middle Tennessee: Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson. Because officials of these five counties – plus Cheatham, Dickson, and Robertson counties – agreed to work together on an ozone Early Action Compact (EAC), the EPA was willing to postpone the effective date of the non-attainment designation.

This postponement will remain in effect as long as the eight counties continue to meet the milestones in the EAC and achieve compliance with the ozone standard by spring 2008. Seven out of the twelve milestones involve the choices individuals can make:

• carpool or vanpool
• ride the bus or train
• reduce the number of trips in the car
• ride bikes
• take action on Air Quality Alert days.

Failing to meet these milestones will result in EPA withdrawing the postponement and designating Middle Tennessee as non-attainment.

Why should you care?

If Middle Tennessee fails to meet the EAC milestones and reduce ozone levels, we will face serious restrictions on how highway funds are spent. These restrictions would negatively affect economic growth in the area, which would have an impact on all Middle Tennesseans.

Plus, if we fail to reduce ozone levels, that means we’re inviting smog into our lives, which can cause serious respiratory problems, damage plant and animal life, and greatly reduce how far we can see through the air.

This is where the Clean Air Partnership comes in.

The Clean Air Partnership of Middle Tennessee is the implementing organization for the Air Quality Alert program. We also provide a central contact point for all of the alternative transportation resources in Middle Tennessee. The Clean Air Partnership is directed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from:

• Metropolitan Public Health Department
• Regional Transit Authority
• Metropolitan Planning Organization
• Metropolitan Transit Authority
• Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• Tennessee Department of Transportation
• Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
• Tennessee Department of Health
• American Lung Association of Tennessee
• The Transportation Management Association Group

We’re making great progress.

In November 2006, the EPA reported that the Nashville area was ahead of schedule to reduce ground-level ozone or smog. We’ve succeeded in fulfilling the commitments made to the EPA, and so the “non-attainment” status for our area has been deferred until at least April of 2008. The air quality monitoring for the Nashville area has demonstrated that we have met the ozone standards since 2005, and if we continue to meet the standards through December 2007, the region will be designated “attainment” in 2008.

But we still have a lot of work to do.

If you would like to count yourself or your organization as one of the many leading the way for Tennessee’s air quality, sign up as a Clean Air Partner or contact us.