EPA Regional Administrator Explains Decision to Reduce Parking in Square

Ken Johnson, deputy regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said last night that the agency may require that traffic in Harvard Square be reduced if it finds that current anti-pollution measures are insufficient.

Johnson, speaking to the Society of Harvard Engineers and Scientists, said he expects that parking bans and anti-pollution devices on automobiles could lower pollution levels to EPA requirements by 1977.

But Johnson added, "If the levels are as high in the Square as the impact statement for the Kennedy Library indicates, more stringent controls may be needed."

Johnson said the current EPA regulation requiring employers to reduce employees' vehicle use was an effort to lower "photochemical oxidant levels by reducing the number of miles vehicles travel.

Photochemical oxidants, Johnson said, are formed by unburned gasoline reacting with oxygen and nitrogen in the air, often far from automobile exhausts.

Johnson said that EPA estimates show that 7 per cent of the gasoline to go into an automobile is not burned, and is released into the atmosphere.

The oxidants can cause eye irritation and shortness of breath, Johnson said.

Johnson said photochemical oxidant pollution occurs under entirely different conditions from carbon monoxide pollution because it is formed in the atmosphere.

Photochemical oxidant pollution is most frequent with brisk southern winds and sunny days in the late spring and summer, while carbon monoxide pollution occurs most frequently in stagnant weather during peak traffic hours, he added.

Johnson said his agency believes its current controls to be "reasonable and essential," but added that he is not sure that current standards can be reached because the chief source of oxidant pollutions is not automobiles but solvents and points with hydrocarbon bases.

Johnson said the agency is pressing for legislative controls on industrial uses of hydrogen based products.