Some rural areas may face 1st air (quality) standards | STL Post-Dispatch

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Some rural areas may face 1st air standards

By Todd Frankel and Eli Kintisch
Of the Post-Dispatch
04/15/2004

Keeping tabs on the troublesome air quality in rural Jerseyville is a small plastic tube fixed high in a trailer locked behind two fences. The tube constantly tastes the air flowing through the town of 8,000 people about 40 miles northeast of St. Louis. And each summer it tastes an alarming amount of ozone.

"There's no industry here per se," said Jerry Hughes, a specialist with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, as he checked on the monitors inside the trailer Wednesday. The ozone, he said, drifts over from St. Louis.

Some rural areas across the country that have never had any ozone regulations are about to face new standards set to be announced today in Washington. In the St. Louis area, Ste. Genevieve County in Missouri and Jersey County in Illinois are among those expected to face tough ozone regulations for the first time.

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