Last week the US EPA announced that 224 counties nationwide—32 of which are in Ohio—must clean up by 2010 or face limits on development (sounds like a great idea to me!) and the loss of federal highway dollars.
To be fair, the particles the EPA is currently concerned with are known as “microscopic soot,” a tiny (but harmful) sort for which the agency has only recently mandated a particle reduction plan.
Ohio’s most polluted counties, not surprisingly, are clustered around Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron, and Toledo.
That the EPA is so lethargic in taking action, effectively giving states five years to comply, is insane. That the agency announced –the very day it released the list of most polluted counties—that it would possibly grant some counties an extension to 2015 to comply with the new regulations is an affront.
Ohioans must take matters into their own hands.
If every household committed to walking or biking rather than driving on even one errand each week, we’d be an immensely cleaner state in record time—and WAY before the EPA even bothered to measure our soot levels again.
Why not make it your New Year’s resolution?
If having clean air isn’t incentive enough, consider this: If you walk or bike a few miles every week, by the end of the year, you’ll drop a few pounds, tone up your legs, and probably see a decrease your blood pressure and resting heart rate.
And you’ll earn some bragging rights. After all, not many people can claim that they resolved to improve the quality of the air we breathe.
Pity.
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