The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has made its official recommendation on which cities in Georgia need to clean up their air. This year, in addition to metro Atlanta, four mid-sized cities were recommended to be non-attainment areas. That means they'll have to work harder to curb ground level ozone pollution.
The cities: Augusta, Athens, Macon and Columbus.
The EPD's recommendations are not final. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will ultimately have the final say.
In the meantime, the cities will study how to clean up their air. One big contributor to ozone pollution is automobile traffic. Cities will look at how to reduce those emissions.
Non-attainment would also put tighter controls on industry.
The cities are likely failing now because they're having to meet tougher federal air quality standards. The EPA will make its final decision on the cities' non-attainment status by March 2010. The state would then have three years to come up with a plan to deal with the ozone.
Ozone is a component of smog, which causes respiratory illnesses.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
State EPD Says Four Mid-sized Cities May Face Ozone Pollution Status
