By VICKI URBANIK

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Tom Easterly plan to petition the federal government to change the air quality designation for ground-level ozone in Porter and Lake counties from non-attainment to “attainment” status.

Motorists in the two counties would still have to get their vehicle emissions tested. But if the redesignation occurs, new or expanding industries in Porter and Lake counties would not have to offset their ozone-contributing pollution as they are now required to do.

Daniels and Easterly announced their plan on Friday, saying that testing shows that Northwest Indiana has met the federal standard for ozone for more than a decade. Under the national Clean Air Act, the two counties are part of the greater Chicago metropolitan area, which has been designated as a severe non-attainment region, the second worst category for ozone.

“Hoosiers have invested heavily in clean air and proved it through more than a decade of testing. It’s time to liberate the economy of Northwest Indiana from the unwarranted restraints that are costing us jobs,” Daniels said in a statement. “We cannot allow Hoosiers in Northwest Indiana to remain captive to poor ozone air quality across the border.”

“Separating Northwest Indiana’s ozone designation from the Chicago metropolitan area would help the region recognize benefits from the long-term air quality improvements experienced here,” Easterly said in the statement. “Allowing Indiana to focus air planning efforts in Lake and Porter counties will continue to be of benefit to Hoosiers and our neighbors in nearby Illinois and Michigan.”

The two announced that Indiana’s petition for the redesignation will include a long-term maintenance plan that the state would follow to ensure that the area continues to meet national standards for ground-level ozone.

The public will be able to view and comment on that plan before it is submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Northwest Indiana citizens can be assured that monitors in Lake and Porter counties show the area is achieving national air standards for ozone,” Daniels said in the statement. “Northwest Indiana’s local communities have proven they can meet increasingly protective national air quality standards, and they deserve the recognition of the federal government through factual designation.”

In addition to meeting the standards for fine particles and ozone, Northwest Indiana air quality also meets national standards for carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide, the Daniels-Easterly statement says.

Tom Anderson, executive director of the Save the Dunes Council, said at this time, the council would oppose the redesignation.

He said it’s true that monitors have shown no exceedances of the EPA’s one-hour standard for ozone in the two counties. But he also noted that the Clean Air Act designates Northwest Indiana as part of the greater Chicago area and that the act is intended to provide uniform benchmarks nationwide. He called it a “potential slippery slope” for states to be awarded special exemptions under the federal law. If states are able to deviate from the act, the country could effectively end up without a Clean Air Act, he said. “We could have 50 clean air acts.”

Anderson, who is also a member of the Indiana Air Pollution Control Board, also noted that in the 1990s, LaPorte County had severe ozone problems, even though it remained designated as an “attainment” area. The state at that time did not petition the federal government to change LaPorte County’s status under the Clean Air Act, he said.

“Air is a complicated issue. It doesn’t know political boundaries,” Anderson said, adding that weather conditions and wind patterns are all factors in determining and predicting ozone levels.

Anderson also said that the Clean Air Act has required additional reductions in the pollution levels in Lake and Porter counties. Toward that end, a subcommittee has been working for several years on additional measures, with the group submitting its recommendations just in September. He said the state’s most recent announcement seems to run counter to the work done by that subcommittee, formally known as the Air Quality Subcommittee of the Environmental Management Policy Committee of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

“Obviously, we were participating in good faith, “Anderson said of the subcommittee’s work, which he said involved hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of efforts by participants, including the business community.

IDEM spokesperson Amy Haverstock confirmed today that if the area moves to an “attainment” status, the current measures in place would not change -- and those include the requirement that motorists in Porter and Lake counties get their vehicles emission tested.

But what would change, she said, would be the restrictions on incoming new industries and current industries that propose modifications.

Currently, under the non-attainment status, new or expanding industries in Porter and Lake counties must find a way to “offset” any new ozone-forming pollution they create, Anderson said.

By lifting that requirement, he said, “my reading is this could lead to more pollution in Northwest Indiana.”

Posted 11/7/2005