Regional Differences on Sources for Ozone and Particle Pollution
Region 4: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee
Local sources of VOCs
Region 4 produces more VOC emissions (4.15 million tons in 1999) than any other section of the country. The largest sources generated by human activity are transportation, which accounts for 46 percent, almost the same as the nation as a whole, which is 47 percent. Of these sectors, the percentage from highway vehicles is greater in the Southeast than it is in the nation (32% v 29% nationwide). Off-highway vehicle sources are lower in the Southeast than nationally (14% v 18%). Solvent use contributed 24 percent of VOCs in the Southeast, compared with 27 percent nationally.
Local Sources of NOx
Region 4 produces more NOx emissions (5.4 million tons in 1999) than any other section of the country. The transportation sectors make up a larger portion of the NOx sources in the Southeast (59%) than they do in the nation as a whole (55%). This is largely due to highway vehicles, which produce a much larger portion of the total in the Southeast (44% v 33%). The next largest sources are emissions from electric utilities, at 24 percent, which is about same as nationally. Industrial fuel combustion makes up a lower percentage in the Southeast than nationwide (9% v 12%).
Local sources of Particle Pollution (PM 2.5)
The Southeast produced 830,992 short tons of particle pollution emissions in the 1999 inventory; it produced the most particle pollution nationwide. Sources of particle pollution resembled the national composition, with miscellaneous sources of particle pollution stemming from other combustion, and agriculture and forestry at 37 percent; waste disposal and recycling (16%), other fuel combustion (8%), other industrial processes (8%), fuel combustion from electric utilities (7%), industrial fuel combustion (7%), off-highway vehicles (6%), highway vehicles (5%), metals processing (3%). Together, storage and transport, chemical and allied product manufacturing, petroleum and related industries, and solvent use comprised 3 percent of particle pollution emissions in the Southeast. Waste disposal and recycling in this region produced 131,314 short tons of particle pollution emissions in 1999; this figure represents over 29 percent of all particle pollution emissions stemming from waste disposal and recycling in the nation.
Trends
Monitored data show ozone levels in the Southeast have declined, but not as swiftly as the nation as a whole. The ozone levels dropped in the region by 10 percent from 1983 to 2002, but by slightly less than the nation as a whole which dropped by 14 percent. However, during the period 1991-2000, ozone levels in the Southeast dropped by 12 percent, fourth best performance by any national region. Comparable trend data are not available for PM2.5 levels.
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