Allen County removed from ozone restriction list by federal energy agency

INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal agency has removed Allen County from a list of areas not in compliance with standards governing ground-level ozone, a precursor of lung-choking smog that's released by cars, lawnmowers and factories.\nGov. Mitch Daniels said Friday the move by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to remove Allen County, which includes Fort Wayne, from the list of ozone-nonattainment areas should spur job growth.\nCounties not in compliance with ozone standards face restrictions on economic growth from industries and certain businesses that require air permits. Redesignation as "attainment" means businesses can use a simplified environmental permitting process.\n"This may sound like a technicality I know to many citizens, but this is very, very important because it has cost business to Allen County," Daniels said.\nAllen County is Indiana's third most populous county, with nearly 350,000 residents.\nIts removal from the non-\nattainment list brings to seven the number of Indiana counties the EPA has determined to be in compliance with ozone standards.\nLast year, the agency removed Delaware, Greene, Jackson, Vanderburgh, Vigo and Warrick counties from that listing.\nEnvironmentalists have criticized the state's push to get Indiana counties declared in compliance with standards. They contend officials should instead be focusing more on combatting ozone formation by taking steps such as adding municipal bus lines and light rail commuter trains in urban areas to reduce automotive exhaust.\nUnder the hot summer sun, ozone and other pollutants form smog, posing a threat of serious respiratory illnesses in some people, particularly the elderly, children and people with asthma.\nSeveral counties across the state are still designated as non-attainment areas. State officials have petitioned to have seven of them -- Lake, LaPorte, Porter, St. Joseph and Elkhart in northern Indiana and Clark and Floyd in southern Indiana removed from the EPA's list .\n"We're working with the EPA to get official recognition that these areas have met the health-based ozone standard," said Rob Elstro, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.\nTom Easterly, IDEM's commissioner, said Marion County and eight counties surrounding it in central Indiana also remain non-attainment areas .\nCompliance with the federal ozone standard is determined by an average of ozone values from three consecutive ozone seasons.\nThe EPA's decision to redesignate Allen County was based on ozone-monitoring data during 2003 to 2005. The EPA noted that data from the 2006 season further supported Indiana's petition for redesignation.