The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 5, plans to approve a request from the State of Indiana to redesignate Porter and Lake counties to attainment of the national health-based eight-hour outdoor standard for ozone.

Ground-based ozone is commonly referred to as smog.

According to a statement released today, EPA said that four years of complete, quality-assured, outdoor air-monitoring data for 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 show that the area meets the standard.

EPA also proposes to approve Indiana’s plan to continue to meet the eight-hour health-based ozone standard through 2020 and to approve motor vehicle emission budgets for Lake and Porter counties.

EPA spokesperson Phillippa Cannon told the Chesterton Tribune this morning that the redesignation will leave unchanged the state’s vehicle emission-testing requirements in Porter County. “For the average person it only means that they’re breathing cleaner air,” she said.

Cannon added that the state itself would have to undertake a “formal process to change monitoring requirements.”

EPA’s actions were published on Friday in the Federal Register. The public has 30 days to comment at www.regulations.gov

Refer to docket ID No. EPA-R05-OAR-2009-0512 and follow online instructions for submitting comments. Comments may also be e-mailed to bortzer.jay@epa.gov or faxed to (312) 692-2054.

In a related final rulemaking, also published on Friday, EPA determined that the Chicago-Gary-Lake County, Illinois-Indiana area now meets the eight-hour ozone standard and is approving a request from the State of Indiana for a waiver from Clean Air Act requirements for nitrogen oxides Reasonably Available Control Technology regulations in Lake and Porter counties.

Smog is formed when a mixture of pollutants react on warm, sunny days. The pollutants are released from cars, factories and a wide variety of other sources. Smog can cause respiratory problems, including coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest pain.