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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officials intend to declare 19 Indiana counties — including Porter and Lake — in violation of a new standard for tiny soot particles that can cause respiratory distress in children and the elderly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that 19 Indiana counties are among 215 counties in 25 states it plans to list as violating the new standard for pollution particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers — one-30th the diameter of a human hair. Those tiny particles lodge in people’s lungs and blood vessels and are a major contributor to respiratory problems, especially in children, the elderly and people with existing illnesses. Counties that don’t meet national outdoor air quality standards are called nonattainment areas. The EPA said it intends to settle on its final soot nonattainment list by Dec. 18. Counties included on that list would face pressure to cut levels of microscopic soot produced by power plants, diesel-burning trucks, cars and factories. In an earlier request to EPA officials, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had recommended that just five Indiana counties — Knox, Lake, Marion, Tippecanoe and Vanderburgh — be listed as nonattainment of the new, more protective 24-hour soot standard. IDEM spokesman Rob Elstro said Tuesday that the agency hopes the EPA removes some of the Indiana counties from its final list. “IDEM is cautiously optimistic that the effective final ... designations in the spring of 2009 will not include as many counties as today’s preliminary designations. Moni-toring data shows that Indiana’s air quality continues to improve,” Elstro said in a statement. The EPA said in 1997 that cutting fine-particle pollution would save 15,000 people a year from premature deaths due to heart and lung diseases aggravated by soot-filled air. Tim Maloney, senior policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said the 19 counties are mainly the same counties that were on the EPA’s fine particle nonattainment list under its previous standard. But he said Knox and Tippecanoe counties — in largely rural areas of southwestern and north-central Indiana — are new to the updated list and that raises questions about what factors are behind those counties’ inclusion on the EPA’s proposed list. “We’ll want to look and see what the difference is and whether we should be more conservative and include even more counties,” Maloney said. “There are very real and serious health effects from these particles.” The new standard is important because it takes into account growing concerns about short-term exposure to fine particles that can lodge deep in the lungs, said Janet McCabe, executive director of Improving Kids’ Environment, an Indianapolis nonprofit working to reduce environmental threats to children’s health. “There’s more and more health evidence suggesting that short-term exposure to fine particles can really have a health impact,” she said. “Just standing on the sidewalk, breathing in exhaust for a few minutes can impact your health.” The 19 Indiana counties listed by the EPA are: Clark, Dearborn, Dubois, Floyd, Gibson, Hamilton, Hendricks, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Lake, Marion, Morgan, Pike, Porter, Spencer, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh and Warrick.
Posted 8/20/2008
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