Guest Op/Ed: Venice Air Quality

The City of Venice currently has only one air pollution monitoring station. As a result, there is a serious and permanent gap in the City of Venice's air monitoring records. A major concern, not only for being able to tell asthmatics and heart patients they shouldn't venture outside on a given high ozone level day, but to know whether action should be taken to improve air quality, such as by reducing emissions of ozone-causing chemicals like nitrogen dioxide.

Air quality is an important part of the quality of life, and monitoring its condition is just as important as monitoring the health of the city's water bodies. A large number of residents in Venice are in a high-risk category for sensitivity to air pollution.

The cost of not having an air quality pollution station needs to be considered, not knowing the air quality has a negative economic impact on the local community.

The City of Venice is part of the Sarasota-Manatee-Venice air shed, which has experienced episodes of elevated ozone levels higher than the U.S. EPA's ambient air quality standard for ozone, and based on the lack of available information, it is not clear whether the Sarasota-Manatee-Venice air shed is in compliance with the EPA 8-hour ozone standard.

This ozone standard was established primarily to protect public health, and secondarily to protect property and the environment. The City of Venice could be designated as a "non-attainment area“ for ground-level ozone, which could affect future federal funding for road projects. Without more current local air quality data, Venice will not be able to prove otherwise. The City of Venice will have to rely upon data from monitoring stations in other locations in Sarasota.

Sarasota County currently has four Air Quality Monitoring Stations located at Bee Ridge Park, Lido Park, Paw Park and Jackson Road east of Interstate 75.

The Venice Comprehensive Plan contains a policy that supports air quality monitoring:

ManaSota-88 recommends that the city council take action to correct the current gap in data the City of Venice has in air quality monitoring.

Clean air is an important part of our economy. Increases in pollution will erode the prosperity of our coastal communities, which depend greatly on tourism, retirement and other health-related and recreational-oriented activities.