|
|
|
Letter to the editorI would like to respond to your Sept. 8 editorial titled "State should keep air plan", which criticizes our participation in a suit involving Louisiana's State Implementation Plan (SIP). This plan states how Louisiana will achieve the national air standards and is a requirement under federal and state law. These laws are quite specific about what's needed in the plans for a Serious ozone nonattainment area like Baton Rouge.Contrary to your editorial, the plantiffs are not fighting the SIP "because it doesn't go far enough", but instead are fighting the plan because it doesn't meet the requirements of state and federal law. Also, we are not asking that the plan be eliminated leaving us with "no improvement plan", but are asking that the plan be improved until it meets the standards required by these laws. In the 1990's the air quality in Baton Rouge has not gotten better. The number of ozone problems has remained the same and the severity of the problems has gotten worse. As a result, Baton Rouge will miss it's November 1999 deadline for ozone attainment and will be placed in the even worse Severe ozone category. This degree of poor air quality is not normal. In the entire south, from Louisiana to Florida, the only ozone nonattainment areas are Atlanta, which will also be moving up to Severe, and Birmingham, which is in the Marginal category. The poor air quality found in the Baton Rouge area adversely affects the health of the people living here and is especially difficult for the young, the elderly and those with respiratory problems. In addition, poor air quality negatively affects economic growth and improvement. In joining this law suit we are not trying to prevent progress, as your editorial implies, but are pushing the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in an effort to help them provide us with better air quality. Sometimes the management of DEQ needs a push to give them the will to carry out the requirements of state and federal law and to serve the public for which they work. Marylee Orr Executive Director Louisiana Environmental Action Network Back to Air Projects page.
|