Air standards affect more counties

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Mar. 29, 2002

Air standards affect more counties

By Tumulty

Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - The number of Wisconsin counties considered in violation of the

federal Clean Air Act would expand from 10 to 12 under a federal court

decision announced earlier this week.

But officials of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said the

required use of reformulated gasoline is not expected to expand beyond six

metropolitan Milwaukee counties where it already is sold during the summer

driving season.

And an expansion of vehicle emission testing would be limited to Rock County

in southeastern Wisconsin.

Heavy industry - particularly coal-fired power plants - will bear the brunt

of the new federal efforts to reduce ground-level ozone and soot that are

blamed for acid rain and the increase in respiratory illnesses such as

asthma, federal and state officials said.

A three-judge District of Columbia Circuit Court ruled unanimously Tuesday

that the federal Environmental Protection Agency's 1997 standards for soot

(or fine particles) and smog (ground-level ozone) were not arbitrarily set,

as a coalition of business groups had charged.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said the ruling establishes " a clear path

to ensure all Americans can breathe cleaner air " and allows her agency to

move forward with President Bush's Clear Skies proposal to reduce three

types of pollutants by 70 percent.

But even the industries facing new air-quality compliance standards are

years away from having to install new pollution control equipment.

That's because the EPA must comply with two earlier adverse court rulings

before it can put into place the more stringent air quality standards that

have been under legal attack since 1997.

Ten of the 12 affected counties cover the western shore of Lake Michigan

from Door south through Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Sheboygan, Ozaukee, Washington,

Milwaukee, Waukesha and Racine - to Kenosha on the Illinois border. The two

others are Rock and Jefferson counties just west of Milwaukee.

These 12 counties are in non-compliance based on air quality testing over

the last three years. When the new regulations take effect, data covering

the most recent three years of testing will determine which counties will be

on the revised list.