Friday, May 04, 2007

From this week's City Strobe:

Smog 'em if ya got 'em
Take a deep breath, Louisville. That delicious aroma is the smell of the US Environmental Protection Agency's proclamation that Louisville now meets federal standards for ground-level ozone, nemesis of allergy sufferers and other people fond of breathing. (Well, that plus the elephant ears at Fest a Ville.) Ground-level ozone ("smog" to the casual breather), occurs when sunlight (which industry is currently trying to blot out) interacts with car emissions, coal-burning power plants and other pollutants. Thanks to cleaner cars and tighter restrictions on power plants, the city is in compliance with EPA smog limits, pending a 30-day public-comment period, which ends well in advance of the Ohio-valley cough-up-a-lung summer breathing season. (E-mail your adventures in breathing to lesane.heidi@epa.gov.) Besides the advantage to breathers, the proclamation is helpful to the city in its efforts to attract new businesses, ideally ones that don't smog up the joint. So, breathe deep, Louisville. Just not too deep. We've got a handle on smog, but you wouldn't want to suck in too much soot, butadiene, trichloroethylene, chromium, acrylonitrile, carbon tetrachloride…

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