Baton Rouge Clean Air Coalition

EPA has announced that it is extending the deadline for promulgating initial area designations by one year for the 2015 ozone NAAQS. This provides some additional time for the area to meet the new 2015 ozone standard. The Baton Rouge area was recently redesignated to attainment with the 2008 ozone standard (75 ppb). However, based on 2014-16 ozone readings, the Baton Rouge area was expected to be redesignated to nonattainment for the new 2015 ozone standard (70 ppb) in October of this year. The EPA extension of the deadline for making area designations to October 2018 means that the Baton Rouge area will remain in attainment for ozone for another year and provided additional time to achieve attainment for the new standard.