EPA warns county on air quality

Arizona cannot blame dust storms for high pollution readings at a south Phoenix air-quality monitor, federal regulators said Tuesday, a decision that exposes Maricopa County to costly federal sanctions. found that readings at the monitoring station, near 43rd Avenue and Broadway Road, violated federal pollution limits at least four times during 2008. Under a dust-pollution cleanup plan mandated by the EPA in 2007, the county is allowed just three violations within a three-year period. The findings mean federal regulators may reject the entire plan because it is failing to meet the objectives of reducing the county's long-standing problem of unsafe dust levels. Without a plan that satisfies the EPA, the county could lose millions of dollars in future highway-construction funds as early as next year and more than $1 billion in funds in subsequent years. Local governments and businesses could also be forced to spend more money on stricter pollution controls...more