EPA may delay ozone standards by a year

Feb 27 - Belleville News-Democrat (IL)

The historic drought and extreme dry conditions recorded during the summer of 2012 may give federal regulators another year to meet ozone standards.

David Bloomberg , Quality Planning Manager of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency , said the extreme dry and warm conditions may be enough to grant officials an additional year to meet the 75 parts per million standard. Bloomberg shared this with local business leaders and members of the Chamber of Commerce of Southwestern Madison County Thursday morning in Granite City .

Bloomberg said greenhouse gas regulations are being written at this point while the state plans to apply for a one-year extension to meet ozone level standards that were established in 2008.

"We have a one-year extension that we will probably apply for to meet that attainment for the 2008 standard," Bloomberg said. "We do have the next standard coming along, but that won't be finalized until October; so we don't know yet what that will be or the status will be, because it will take years to get the data to determine the level of attainment."

He said the new ozone standards are being discussed that would drop the accepted ozone level to as low as 65 parts per million.

The state continues to record gradually declining ozone levels.

"Absolutely," Bloomberg said. "Our ozone levels have been going down and our other pollutant levels have been going down as well."

Aaron Priddy , Occupational Safety and Health Administration area director in Fairview Heights , also addressed the Chamber Thursday.

He said recent records indicate that workplaces across the region and state have made progress in providing safe working environments for their employees.

According to the latest statistics, fatalities reported on the job across Illinois , Indiana , Ohio , Michigan , Wisconsin and Minnesota are gradually declining since fiscal year 2012, when 123 occupational death were reported. That number fell to 106 among the six states last year. However, a total of 39 fatalities have been reported on the job during the first month of this year within the region.

Priddy said an average of 12 people are killed on the job, mostly in industrial and construction jobs, each day in the nation. That figure has dropped in the past four decades when more than twice as many fatalities were reported daily.

"We are making strides. We actually had a few more fatalities in 2012, but that has since come down. What you're seeing is the trend coming down in fatalities that we have in the region," Priddy said.

"We're seeing the positive effects of knowledge implementation of the regulations and employers' knowledge and recognition of the benefits of having a safe work place. Our goal is to partner with employers as often as possible so that we have a cooperative relationship to achieve the goal of ensuring every man and woman has a safe and healthy work place."

Contact reporter Will Buss at wbuss@bnd.com or 618-239-2526.

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