Ozone Public Information Campaign

In 2008, the Partnership received several presentations from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding the fact the national standards for ozone were going to be dropped from .080 ppm to .075 ppm. This meant, the Treasure Valley airshed would be in jeopardy of going into nonattainment for ozone. With a designation of “non-attainment” would come an increase in regulations and requirements for emission standards in the Treasure Valley. The result would be an increase in costs for businesses, government and the general public.

The critical time period for the Treasure Valley and its ozone levels was during the summer of 2009. There were a few initiatives underway by DEQ that would be of some help in reducing the Valley’s ozone levels. However, it was felt that these initiatives, by themselves would not be enough to keep the valley from going into non-attainment.

Their appeared to be an opportunity to shape the behavior of the citizenry to limit the amount of ozone creating gasses through everyday activities like painting or mowing the yard for example.

David Ferdinand, Canyon County Commissioner, suggested we look at trying to develop a public information campaign to make the public aware of everyday activities that contribute to ozone development and attempt to get people to voluntarily reduce their ozone causing emissions.

The Partnership identified and wrote a grant application to the Boise Advertising Federation to create and run a public information campaign around ozone during the summer of 2009. The Boise Advertising Federation approved the grant application. The grant consisted of creation of; a website, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, TV/Radio/print advertising production and free airtime throughout the Valley. Additional airtime could be purchased at a very generous rate which was matched by the Federation.

Members of the Boise Advertising Federation donated various aspects of the public information campaign. The ozone public information campaign was quite extensive, and the actual amount of the grant was hard to quantify. TV and Radio spots ran throughout the summer on virtually all media outlets in the valley. The Boise Advertising Federation estimated that the value of the public information campaign could have approached $1.5 million through an estimation of the airtime dedicated by the media in the Valley.

The following two links are copies of two television advertisements produced by the Boise Advertising Federation for this project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KWgUsgLcWg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdoQYDQu-KY

Success

The goal of the ozone public information campaign was to reduce ozone causing emissions in the Treasure Valley by 10% over the summer months of 2009. It was felt if we could achieve this reduction the Valley’s ozone causing emissions, the air shed would be able to meet the reduced national ozone standard of .075ppm.

The Valley’s airshed tested out in 2009 as meeting the .075ppm requirement for ozone.

The infrastructure developed through the project activities was passed on to the local office of the Department of Environmental Quality for use in other environmental information campaigns.