LIMA — Federal ozone standards were lowered from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion, President Obama announced Thursday.
This puts 37 counties in Ohio in non-attainment. Allen County’s current ozone level is 73 ppb, but getting that level down will be anything but easy.
“We are in attainment with our current ozone level at 73 ppb. We have worked really hard to get to this point,” said Lima Mayor David Berger. “While we are committed to practical improvements, there simply are no easy solutions.”
Local officials and state officials are struggling with the implements set in the 2008 standard due to the EPA’s seven-year delay finalizing the rules for compliance.
“Major sources of ozone in Allen County are related to traffic and motor vehicles from Interstate 75, state Route 30, railroads and farm vehicles,” Berger said. “Primary ozone sources are not related to manufacturing. Yet drastic new mandates to reduce ozone would cause manufacturing job losses and loss of city, state and federal revenues.”
Another area of concern for Berger was being able to encourage new manufacturing operations and relocation to Allen County.
The Center for Regulatory Solutions highlighted some economic consequences of a 70 ppb standard.
Ohio’s manufactures and transportation will feel the impact with construction bans, limits or bans on business expansions, delay and denials for highway and road projects, measures to discourage driving including “no drive” days and new restrictions on energy production.
Allen County’s ozone challenges will be:
• Manufacturing, which composes 13 percent of the employment in the county. This includes companies like DTR, Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Co. and Joint Systems Manufacturing Center.
• Oil Refining, with Husky’s Lima refinery producing an estimated two billion gallons of refined petroleum products annually, including about 25 percent of all gasoline consumed in Ohio.
“The EPA’s own data indicates adherence to current regulations is already working to reduce ozone. Without allowing sufficient time for counties to implement the current ozone requirements, the EPA has moved the goalposts in the middle of the game, and created what could be the most costly regulation in history. This rule will essentially create a nation of non-attainment counties, and effectively stifle any future investment or economic growth in there regions,” said Bob Latta, U.S. Representative (R-OH). ” These hardworking men and women should not be faced with the choice of complying with EPA regulations or staying in business. We can protect our environment and protect our economy.”
