LAT: EPA Tightens Gauge of Air Quality

[DeepModem Mom]

THE NATION
EPA Tightens Gauge of Air Quality
Under new rule, 470 counties will be listed as having unhealthful smog or ozone levels.

By Elizabeth Shogren, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency today will officially designate about 470 of the nation's 2,700 counties as having air with unhealthful levels of ozone or smog, agency officials said Wednesday.

The designation coincides with a new, more protective standard that today becomes the country's primary gauge for judging smog levels.

The ozone levels in many of the designated counties, which include 100 metropolitan areas and at least eight popular national parks, have actually dropped in recent years, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt said in remarks to the National Press Club. However, there are still days when the levels are higher than is considered safe, he added.

"This isn't about the air getting dirtier — the air is getting cleaner," Leavitt said. "It's about our standards getting tougher and our national resolve to meet them."....

(The article adds that "state officials, congressional Democrats and environmental groups said the administration had repeatedly made decisions that slowed the progress toward cleaner air.")


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-epa15apr15,1,5561664.story?coll=la-home-nation