What is being done to control the transport of pollution?
For some time, EPA has recognized that pollutant transport can impair an area’s ability to meet air quality standards. As a result, in March 1995 a collaborative, Federal-state process to assess the ozone transport problem was begun. Through a two-year effort known as the Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG), EPA worked in partnership with the 37 easternmost states and the District of Columbia, industry representatives, academia, and environmental groups to develop recommended strategies to address transport of ozone-forming pollutants across state boundaries. On October 27, 1998 (63 FR 57356), EPA acted on OTAG’s recommendations and issued the NOx transport rule, also known as the NOx SIP call, which requires 22 states and the District of Columbia to submit state implementation plans addressing the regional transport of ozone. These state implementation plans, or SIPs, will decrease the transport of ozone across state boundaries in the eastern half of the United States by reducing
